Review Summary: Looking backwards to move forwards
This is a big moment for Corrosion of Conformity.
Good God/Baad Man is their first album since 2018’s
No Cross No Crown — one of the longest gaps in their entire discography, and with that gap came major changes. Longtime bassist and founding member Mike Dean retired between album cycles, and even more unfortunate, founding member and long-time drummer Reed Mullin sadly passed away, leaving Pepper Keenan and Woody Weatherman as the core and central creative engine of the band. This album responds to all of that, not by reinventing the wheel, but by looking back at their 4 decade long career, and revisiting and reclaiming their history.
This is also a double album, and I’ll be honest - I did raise an eyebrow when I saw this. As much as I love CoC, words like ‘ambitious’ or ‘conceptual’ would not be how I'd describe them. But this is not some lengthy high concept attempt, instead this is an exploration of all the different sounds and styles the band have developed over the course of their career. Corrosion of Conformity essentially take a long walk through their entire history as this record confidently jumps between swaggering southern rock, psyched out jamfests, space-y stoner metal, blues rock , Sabbath-inspired Doom, gritty punk, and outlaw-rock. In a lot of ways, it feels as if CoC have compiled a Greatest Hits record, only with 14 tracks of new material.
The lineup changes matter too. Stanton Moore returns behind the kit, marking his return from 2005’s
In The Arms Of God. Whilst he couldn’t replace the late great Reed Mullin, he absolutely cooks here. Tonnes of life, energy, detail and flourishes in the drumming, and I love how high the drums are in the mix here. They are super clear and make sure that the spine of the songs are never lost even when the band are in full jam mode. As much of a riff heavy, guitar lead album as this is, the drums deserve special mention and might be the highlight of the record.
Good God/Baad Man is a riff heavy, guitar-led record first and foremost. Pepper and Woody’s chemistry has always been the band’s most important asset for me, but here they’re truly the driving force the album — offering a smörgåsbord of awesome riffs and interplay between the two.
The opening track
“Good God?/ Final Dawn” sets the tone instantly: huge riffs injected straight into your veins and a ton of energy, it’s a strong open that quickly establishes the life of this album.
While both sides of this album explore a range of styles, I would say on the first disc the band lean into the spacier and more doom-laden side of their sound. You get desert rock detours like
“You or Me”, which kicks off as a gritty rocker before dissolving into a low and slow, doom metal piece of feedback... before launching back into swaggering southern rock. Then there’s
“Bedouin’s Hand”, an instrumental that taps into Middle Eastern or North African motifs with these Arabic influenced drums and what I think is a lute or an uod? It sounds like music to traverse the desert to. But they haven’t forgotten their punk origins either: the lead single
“Gimme Some Moore” which hits a harder and more aggressive tone that hearkens back to the bands early punkier roots. Disc 1 closes with
“Run For Your Life”, a nine-minute, slow-moving, whiskey-soaked stomper that feels like a fitting bookend for the first leg.
Disc 2 is where the album shifts gears slightly, with more tracks that feel like they’re tapping into a lot 90s nostalgia for the bands
Deliverence and
Wiseblood eras. More groove, more hooks, more bravado. The title track
“Baad Man” opens it very strongly, full of catchy riffs and Pepper leaning into a fun southern drawl.
“Lose Yourself” keeps that momentum going with one of the album’s more immediate choruses. Then the band dive deeper into groove with
“Asleep on the Killing Floor”, one of the album’s hardest-hitting tracks. It’s a chunky, riff-driven groovefest where the bass and drums get to shine as much as the guitars, that builds to a massive badass climax.
“Handcuff County” follows with a bourbon-soaked bar rocker that oozes cool.
There are softer moments too, like the soulful acoustic number
“Brickman”, which give the album some dynamic breathing room. Meanwhile
“Swallowing the Anchor” explodes into a psyched-out jam to keep the second disc from feeling too straightforward. And finally, the album ends with
“Forever Amplified”, a heavier, doom metal-ish closer that calls back to
In the Arms of God. It ends with a huge badass crescendo — accentuated by the addition of killer guest vocals from New Orleans singer Anjelika 'Jelly' Joseph, whose voice adds a bunch of power and fire to this big finale.
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So
lots of different styles explored across these songs. Combine that with the riffs, guitar interplay, the vibrant drumming, and the stylistic breadth, and you get an album that feels varied enough to sustain it's length, while staying unmistakably CoC.
Now — is everything here top-tier? Hmmmm not quite. I don’t think any one track surpasses the best of any of the previous eras or sounds the the band throw back to here. With such a stylistically broad double album, there are going to be some winners and losers in this tracklist. But what the band have done here is essentially looked backwards in order to move forwards, and they certainly sound alive, re-energized and ready to create their next chapter with this line-up.
Good God/Baad Man is a big, vibrant, engaging double album that taps into every corner of the Corrosion of Conformity sound. Loads of killer riffs, sick grooves, good vibes, and the performances across the board feel full of life. It doesn’t reinvent the band — instead it celebrates everything they’ve ever been, while pointing toward what they still can be going forward.
Full video review - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohNrMy9J1TU
