Clutch
Heavy Metal
CLUTCH shares more in common with The Grateful Dead, Rush, and the Allman Brothers than their heavy riffs and heady twists-of-phrase might suggest. Because like those bands, the supporters who adore CLUTCH are there for the experience, community, and authentic connection.
To love CLUTCH is to feel a sense of ownership, membership, and belonging.
Seneca Valley High School classmates Neil Fallon (vocals), Tim Sult (guitar), Dan Maines (bass), and Jean-Paul Gaster (drums) share an unshakeable musical and personal bond now three decades strong. Shaped by the same region which birthed Bad Brains, Minor Threat, and Rites Of Spring, CLUTCH crafts hyper-literate and libertine jams informed by hardcore fury and fuzzy, athletic, stoner rock.
A worldwide cabal of fans and critics cherish the band’s dense and diverse catalog of underground classics, released through major labels, indies, and since 2009, Clutch’s own Weathermaker imprint. Sunrise On Slaughter Beach, the band’s thirteenth studio album, is a slamming summary of everything that makes the band great and another giant leap forward into career longevity.
“There’s no question that Clutch etched themselves a name in the pantheon of great rock bands,” Lambgoat wrote in 2004. Classic Rock Magazine counted 2013’s Earth Rocker and 2015’s Psychic Warfare among the 50 Best Rock Albums of the 2010s. Rolling Stone described 2018’s Book of Bad Decisions as “bathed in the grit and liberal fuzz tone that have made their live shows legendary.”
Those live shows over the years include tours with Slayer, System Of A Down, and Marilyn Manson, and more recent co-headlining treks with Dropkick Murphys, Killswitch Engage, and Mastodon. Like Slayer or Iron Maiden, CLUTCH outlasted rock bands anchored to “hit songs” and the pressure of replicating them. The foursome from Germantown, Maryland, isn’t bound by trends. Across 13 studio albums and assorted releases since 1991, they’ve earned a reputation as one of the best around.
Corrosion of Conformity
Heavy Metal
Corrosion of Conformity (also known as C.O.C.), was founded in North Carolina by guitarist Woody Weatherman in the early 1980s as one of the first punk metal fusion bands. C.O.C. were known in their early years for their aggressive sound, their clever political lyrics and their willingness to turn away from hardcore and metal conventions. Their shift to a more essential and reduced sound (kind of a deep-South Black Sabbath) in the 1990s brought them closer to the alternative metal zeitgeist and gave them some favors within the mainstream scene.
C.O.C.'s debut was the 1983 thrashy and BLACK FLAG influenced "Eye For An Eye", which brought the lineup Weatherman, drummer Reed Mullin, vocalist Eric Eycke, and bassist Mike Dean to the screen for the first time. They laid the first stone of their cult after the 1985 release "Animosity". However, their former label didn’t cope with the band’s internal instability - Eycke had to be replaced by Simon Bob - and gave them up after "Technocracy" (1987). It took several years until a new lineup could come together - with Weatherman, guitarist Pepper Keenan, Mullin, vocalist Karl Agell, and bassist Phil Swisher - but it finally resulted in the release of "Blind" (1991), a powerful, focused, metallic record which significantly increased their audience. Agell would be fired after this success, with Keenan becoming the full-time vocalist on the even more Sabbath inspired "Deliverance" (1994) which also saw the return of original bassist Mike Dean. “Deliverance” would eventually go Gold in America (500,000 units sold) and be the band’s most successful album. In 1995, Keenan made a short detour to the southern metal supergroup DOWN (also featuring PANTERA's Phil Anselmo and members of CROWBAR).
Thanks to a change in popular taste in favor of the ultra-heavy side of alternative metal which helped the band getting established, C.O.C. found a bigger fan base than ever before with the release of "Wiseblood" (1996), expanding their rock radio success even further. After a long break from recording and a tour with METALLICA, C.O.C. came back in autumn 2000 with a new album entitled "America's Volume Dealer". Another break followed, and the band came back in April 2005 for the harsh and complex "In the Arms of God". C.O.C. had another break (members were involved in several side projects) until 2010, when drummer Reed Mullin rejoined the band, reviving the lineup of "Animosity" while Pepper Keenan stayed with his other band DOWN. The remaining trio started to work on new material and released the eponymous eighth record "Corrosion of Conformity" in 2012. Their ninth album, wisely named IX, came out in 2014.
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