{"id":21034,"date":"2014-07-01T00:00:42","date_gmt":"2014-07-01T00:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=21034"},"modified":"2015-02-12T16:58:53","modified_gmt":"2015-02-12T16:58:53","slug":"feature-corrosion-of-conformity-07-14-pt1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-corrosion-of-conformity-07-14-pt1\/","title":{"rendered":"CORROSION OF CONFORMITY – The Nectar Reprised, Part One (July 2014) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY – The Nectar<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nJuly 2014<\/span><\/p>\n

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Corrosion Of Conformity (l-r): Mike Dean, Reed Mullin and Woody Weatherman<\/em><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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\nWriting sessions for IX<\/em><\/a> \u2013 the 9th studio full-length album by Raleigh, North Carolina-based heavy metal trio Corrosion Of Conformity \u2013 started in the early months of 2013, with the demo and recording process beginning by the end of the summer. Completed in January 2014, IX<\/em> clocks in at almost 45 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this time, we didn\u2019t think too much about it,\u201d observes Mike Dean, vocalist and bassist for Corrosion Of Conformity. \u201cWe just had some good musical ideas together, and so we were happy. At the end, it was kind of time to come up with some vocal parts and some lyrics. It was really like a stream of consciousness type of approach, where you just start singing some gibberish. That establishes your vocal melody, and then you take that home and sit with it for a while. You start to hear some words that make sense out of the gibberish, and pretty soon you start to craft it into something that\u2019s a little more poetic, and pretty soon you find a narrative. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just kind of how we did it. I think that Reed (Mullin, drums) had a couple of songs already written, almost fully formed, like \u2018Tarquinius Superbus\u2019 and \u2018Denmark Vesey\u2019. He just brought those to us, and then we changed the arrangement a little bit. Other than a part or two though, he had the concept down. I think some of those riffs are actually quite old, which is a real exception on this record, because most of it was born in the moment. I\u2019m trying to think of something I had… Yeah, I may have had the arrangements pretty much already in my head, although they had a few loose ends that we could collaborate on. I had none of the lyrics or vocals until the absolute last minute, mind. Other than that, it was pretty collaborative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some musical parts are penned collaboratively, while other musical parts are authored prior to members convening. \u201cI think it\u2019s about half and half,\u201d the frontman estimates. \u201cA lot of times we just have a couple of basic riff type of ideas that we bring together, arrange together, and all of that. Woody\u2019s (Woody Weatherman, guitars) kind of famous for coming up with two parts that he thinks goes together, and just kind of leaving the rest to the group. I do that as well, although I bring some fully formed songs. It\u2019s important \u2013 to me, anyway \u2013 to have at least some of the process be more collaborative like that. I actually really like to leave a lot of it to the last minute, so that when you\u2019re recording, there\u2019s actually… It\u2019s good to have some of it in the bag and ready to go, but at the same time, I like to have a couple of songs where you\u2019re recording and the piece is actually being born \u2013 like \u2018Brand New Sleep\u2019, which turned out to be the first song on the record. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think those guys thought it was gonna be on the record \u2013 it was just kind of an afterthought to them. We just kind of ran through it a few times; I had Reed and Woody playing it without any headphones, just live in the room. There were lots of bleed, lots of guitar on the drum mikes, and things like that. That\u2019s not usually the way we would do it, but it sounded good. I don\u2019t think they were thinking about getting some kind of take for the album. I think they thought it was just a throwaway track, but then I put a vocal on it, and pretty soon it was the first song on the record. The reason I liked it so much was because it was just real natural sounding \u2013 it wasn\u2019t like there was a lot of pressure to make it perfect, or anything like that. It just breathed better. Yeah, I like a more collaborative approach. It\u2019s good to have a lot of the material be maybe not quite finished, so that it comes together at the moment you\u2019re recording it. That\u2019s more special, more live.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crafting material in said fashion means that should a member generate an idea, fellow members can subsequently add their own individual flavours. Therefore, a greater band feel is nurtured. \u201cThat helps, because a lot of these musical projects are just some kind of megalomania, and technology allows you to do that now,\u201d Mike comments. \u201cYou get some good stuff that\u2019s really crystallised, but I think it\u2019s kind of boring. I like old time concepts, like a group and an album (laughs). I like where a group of people make a group of songs that kind of have to hang together, and eventually you see how that goes. That\u2019s kind of where I\u2019m coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many groups seemingly exchange mp3 files over the internet nowadays, as opposed to convening at a rehearsal room and jamming together. \u201cYeah, that\u2019s true,\u201d the four-stringer concurs. \u201cThere are periods of time when we don\u2019t get in a room together. Woody lives two hours away \u2013 out in the country \u2013 so when he comes to town, we better be ready to play music (laughs). But yeah, when we do get together, that\u2019s what it\u2019s about for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

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IX<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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Several tracks can be identified as Mike\u2019s primary songwriting contributions towards IX<\/em>. \u201c\u2018On Your Way\u2019, \u2018The Hanged Man\u2019, \u2018The Nectar\u2019,\u201d he cites. \u201cI can\u2019t remember what else… \u2018Brand New Sleep\u2019 has a couple of ideas that were Woody\u2019s that I don\u2019t know he really wanted to pursue that much, but we hijacked them and made it the first song (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

Albums four through six were cut as a quartet, while albums two, eight and nine were laid down as a trio. Differences exist between trio and quartet line-ups, beyond the obvious factors. \u201cFor starters, 33% is a little better than 25%,\u201d the singer quips. \u201cThere\u2019s less possibility for… It\u2019s one less opinion. In a group situation, as far as actually playing music like that, you can hear everything a little better. It\u2019s one less major element, so you can hear everything a little better. You can get away with playing more notes, things like that, but at the same time, if you make a mistake then it\u2019s really clear \u2013 there\u2019s nowhere to hide. It\u2019s kind of a double-edged sword as far as that goes, but we just roll with it. It\u2019s not really that much different. The drawback would be you can\u2019t have your Thin Lizzy-esque dual guitar harmonies, and what not (laughs). You pretty much have to get your harmonic complexity off of the bass and the guitar, which can be interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fate of Corrosion Of Conformity possibly becoming a quartet once more lies in the hands of one individual. \u201cSo far, up to this point and right now, I couldn\u2019t really imagine getting another guitar player unless it was Keenan (Pepper Keenan, erstwhile Corrosion Of Conformity guitarist),\u201d Mike admits. \u201cThere\u2019s been talk about doing just that, but it\u2019s a little logistically challenging with the schedule. It\u2019s something that we\u2019re all interested in pursuing at some point though, but with Keenan and not somebody else (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

Pepper could theoretically become an intermittent member who records and tours with Corrosion Of Conformity sporadically. \u201cThat certainly sounds possible,\u201d the rhythmist ponders. \u201cWe\u2019re open to whatever, but yeah. Given the realities of living 14 hours away in New Orleans, and being in a successful band (Down) that\u2019s kind of got new life in the form of Patrick Bruders who plays bass, and then now getting Bobby (Landgraf) to play guitar… They kind of got a lot of new blood the last couple of years, and like a new spirit. They\u2019re not just successful in terms of people; I\u2019ve seen them play, and they\u2019re successful musically, and so it\u2019s a hip thing. It\u2019s about not inhibiting that, but yeah. We\u2019re open to whatever, but I think what you described is probably likely yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike toured as a live bassist for Californian stoner group Vista Chino, the ensemble performing in support of September 2013 effort Peace<\/em><\/a>. All the while, demo and recording sessions were underway for IX<\/em>. \u201cWell, it could\u2019ve been distracting, but I think it was good to get away from…,\u201d he begins. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of problems \u2013 a lot of small details and small problems \u2013 with putting a new group of songs together, and making them right and making them sound right. Sometimes you can get focused on the microcosm and the small details, and things like that. Sometimes you just need to get away, and get back in a situation where you can have a correct perspective, and see the bigger picture and all of that, and just get out and get some new inspiration. It was good like that, for sure, but it did kind of compress the schedule into where we were almost feeling a deadline when we did get back to work. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe might\u2019ve worked on this over the course of the year, but certainly not more than two weeks at a time. Not a total of more than, I don\u2019t know, six or eight weeks out of the whole year (laughs). I think the pressure can be good or bad, but in this case it was good. It didn\u2019t linger on too long in terms of any one perceived problem. It was just keeping it moving, keeping it flowing. I think that makes it alive, as opposed to being something you had time to attempt to make too perfect, which is kind of my pet peeve these days with recordings \u2013 especially in metal, hard rock, and things like that. There\u2019s a lot of emphasis on making everything perfect, which tends to destroy the spirit of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such comments reminds yours truly penning this feature of Chinese Democracy<\/em><\/a>, the sixth studio full-length from Guns N\u2019 Roses. From its 1994 inception until its November 2008 release, it took all of 14 years to arrive. \u201cOh, right,\u201d the vocalist chuckles. \u201cI\u2019ve actually never heard that. I think Use Your Illusion<\/em> (September 1991) might be the last Guns \u2019N Roses album I heard \u2013 actually, that might be the last Guns \u2019N Roses album. I haven\u2019t heard Chinese Democracy<\/em>, but I don\u2019t consider it a Guns \u2019N Roses album. It\u2019s kind of like an Axl Rose and whoever he could get to stick around kind of album. If you believe that Guns \u2019N Roses is Axl Rose, then I guess it is one. I\u2019ll have to hear it someday, but as long as I can avoid it, I\u2019ll try to (laughs). I\u2019m kind of a Slash fan (erstwhile Guns \u2019N Roses guitarist). Slash is Slash, and then there\u2019s those other guys \u2013 whatever their names are. Those are the real guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although members were busy with various preoccupations, IX<\/em> has arrived a mere two years following Corrosion Of Conformity\u2019s February 2012 self-titled opus<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019d like to step it up a bit there,\u201d Mike divulges. \u201cWe did have an EP in-between, so it was pretty good output for two years. Yeah, if we could get it up to every 12 months or so, that would be about right. I look at the output of my favourite bands from way back in the day. If you look at records like Black Sabbath<\/em><\/a> (February 1970), Paranoid<\/em><\/a> (September 1970), Master Of Reality<\/em><\/a> (July 1971), and Vol. 4<\/em><\/a> (September 1972), those came out at a rate of certainly less than one per year, and the same with the Jimi Hendrix records, and things like that. I think it\u2019s possible to step it up a little bit from there, and produce great music. As long as you get your process down and keep it stripped down and honest, I think it\u2019s possible to step up the production and the quality. Ideally, that\u2019s what I\u2019d like to be doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Corrosion Of Conformity (l-r): Woody Weatherman, Reed Mullin and Mike Dean<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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IX<\/em>\u2019s musical direction is \u201ca re-exploration through totally different facets of some of the very same influences that we\u2019ve been stewing on all along,\u201d the bassist contends. \u201cJust taking on elements of the early heavy rock we like, in terms of Black Sabbath<\/a>, Deep Purple. Some of the metal stuff like Iron Maiden and Mot\u00f6rhead, and then all of the hardcore influences like Bad Brains and a little Black Flag. Just throwing that all together, and seeing what comes out but in a different way \u2013 just trying to be more fluid with it. I think there\u2019s elements here of some of the stuff from Deliverance<\/em> (November 1994) and there\u2019s elements from Animosity<\/em> (October 1985), but it\u2019s 2014 and we\u2019re kind of in a different situation, a different place in life. We\u2019re not looking to go back and reinvent the wheel, necessarily. It\u2019s like what Mark Twain said: \u2018History doesn\u2019t repeat itself, but it rhymes\u2019 (laughs). <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can do something that\u2019s in tune with what our identity has been in the past and it\u2019s more or less in line with the expectations of fans, that\u2019s great, but the primary thing is to kind of be who we are now. In this case, I think all of those things are in accord. It\u2019s a pretty spontaneous record without a lot of pretence or a lot of calculation, because we didn\u2019t really have a lot of time to do a lot of calculation. Every time we\u2019ve tried to be calculating, that particular calculation didn\u2019t work out, and we just ended up going with what came natural anyway. This time, we\u2019re just kind of getting to the point, and just playing music that interests us. If it\u2019s interesting to us, then there\u2019ll be a sincerity about it, and hopefully it\u2019ll interest other people too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Debut in earnest Eye For An Eye<\/em> surfaced 30 years previous in May 1984, though Mike isn\u2019t fond of that particular platter. \u201cI\u2019m not a big fan of that record,\u201d he shares. \u201cThere are some good riffs on it, but I think it was kind of a premature introduction to the band. It was a learning process, but I\u2019m not really happy with it being paraded around now. I think there are similarities. Some of the best parts of that is it\u2019s kind of loud and bombastic, but the slower parts are super… and even the faster parts \u2013 there\u2019s actually a super-blues based element to the song structures. In a strange kind of way I see some of the same patterns, some of the same harmonic structures and stuff in the music. I\u2019m not a big fan of the songwriting or the vocals on that, but there are some good riffs. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a time when \u2013 in the United States particularly \u2013 if you were a hardcore band and you played that style of music, people would support that because there was a whole new scene. You could go anywhere; if they heard you were a hardcore band, they would come out and see you play. We were eager to get a record out, and do that. We saw that Bad Brains were playing 200-300 shows a year, and that Black Flag were driving around in a van playing all of these small clubs, and just doing it every night. We thought \u2018We could do that.\u2019 That was just us, at that time, trying to realise our dream, but as a musical document I\u2019m not recommending Eye For An Eye<\/em> to anyone. I was personally outvoted in terms of re-releasing that, by people that wanted to do that. I didn\u2019t wanna crush their dream of making hundreds of dollars, so… But yeah, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a very flattering start. The drumming\u2019s good (laughs). The drumming\u2019s good for somebody who plays drums. It\u2019s good by any measure, because it was done by somebody who had been playing drums for two years, or 18 months. To put it into perspective (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

In the composer\u2019s opinion, October 1985\u2019s Animosity<\/em> \u2013 the band\u2019s second full-length affair \u2013 was the first proper introduction to Corrosion Of Conformity. \u201cNot because of who was necessarily in the band, but it reached a level of just enough accomplishment to get the job done, and a good amount of energy relative to that level of expertise,\u201d he judges. \u201cIt became a good amalgamation of the influences, which were sort of deconstructed and reassembled in a way that was fairly original. It was original, and it was energetic. I like that record, yeah. To me, that\u2019s the first one.\u201d<\/p>\n

IX<\/em>\u2019s lyrical matter isn\u2019t open to definitive analysis. \u201cWith the lyrics on this new record, most of it is meant to be pretty evocative and kind of wide open to interpretation,\u201d Mike reasons. \u201cI\u2019m not really interested in… I may have something in mind, but for me personally, when I\u2019m writing lyrics I may just be letting the collective unconscious throw me a few lines. Then I\u2019ll stop, and I\u2019ll look them over, and I\u2019ll try to find a coherent line of thought in them and develop that a little bit. It\u2019s pretty much evocative and open to interpretation, but there are various themes that subconsciously have especially drifted towards just how we as higher primates respond to different dogmas, political and religious. How eager we are to just adopt one of these points of view, just basically off of the shelf \u2013 off of the internet, or whatever \u2013 and just kind of follow the scripts, obviously. How there\u2019s manipulation in doing that, and how that works, and how that\u2019s basically at work in terms of political and religious thought. That theme appears, but it\u2019s certainly not in every song. <\/p>\n

\u201cLike I said, a lot of it is a pretty stream of consciousness type of approach. It\u2019s something I developed watching Keenan write vocal melodies. Not so much his lyrics, but his lyrics where you\u2019re searching for a melody so you just spit out some gibberish. Phonetically, some of the gibberish starts to sound like words that might be good words to the song. Once you\u2019re right there, then you see if you have a topic or something that goes with it, or you just hope that the phonetics guide you towards a subject matter, which is kind of a cool manner of creating and discovering things. Like I said, we\u2019re not very calculated. And personally, I\u2019m not really interested in topical, on the nose songwriting that I think tends to make songs sound dated, and tied to a particular time. I like to try to get beyond that, and make it a bit more of a versatile composition.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A recording studio in Corrosion Of Conformity\u2019s hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina closed its doors temporarily, a studio the group has subsequently recorded at since cutting November 2012 EP Megalodon<\/em>, the EP having been laid down prior to the band\u2019s self-titled jaunt (issued eight months prior). \u201cAt one time this place had a nice Trident Trimix console desk from the late 70s, early 80s, and a bunch of outboard gear,\u201d the lyricist reveals. \u201cThe business of music is apparently not that profitable, so the studio went out of business. The guy that ran the studio \u2013 the head engineer \u2013 moved to Florida, and went away. Some friends of ours, a thrash metal band, kind of took it over as their rehearsal spot, and just started reassembling the infrastructure \u2013 this time computer-based. When it came time for us to do the Megalodon<\/em> EP that we did, we kind of looked it over. I asked the guy if I could\u2026 This guy has the digital and the computer-based stuff, and I\u2019ve been sort of assembling the analogue stuff \u2013 a console, compressors, microphones, and things. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just asked him if he\u2019d maybe give us a nice deal, providing I allowed him to use my equipment \u2013 that perhaps we could pair up. We got a nice deal to do that, and so then we decided to completely pool our resources moving forward. We did a Sourvein record there in addition to the C.O.C.<\/em>, and a couple of other things. We\u2019re about to do another full-length Sourvein LP in September, so yeah. We don\u2019t really have a name for it yet \u2013 for the operation \u2013 but when the right one comes to us, we\u2019re gonna be thinking about trying to really expand on this music production brand. I think the main thing was the live room is designed really well; if you like a drum sound where you use a lot of distant miking and you use the sound of the room a lot, then it\u2019s a good place to operate \u2013 it\u2019s flattering. I don\u2019t think it was purposely well designed; I think it was a happy accident. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a place to get some work done, whether you wanna do it in isolation or do it all together. A lot of times, that\u2019s one of the main things that I think people might miss about working in a real studio; really just the space and the design for what works well, as opposed to being cramped in some tiny space \u2013 in just a warehouse type of situation, or something like that. We like the physical space, and we wanna try to do as much good work there as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

1 | 2<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY – The Nectar Anthony Morgan July 2014 Corrosion Of Conformity (l-r): Mike Dean, Reed Mullin and Woody Weatherman Writing sessions for IX \u2013 the 9th studio full-length album by Raleigh, North Carolina-based heavy metal trio Corrosion Of Conformity \u2013 started in the early months of 2013, with the demo and recording process […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[391],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corrosion-of-conformity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21034"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21055,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21034\/revisions\/21055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}