crowbar is one of my favourite recently discovered bands. i have three records of theirs in my possession and am always on the look-out for more of their vinyl releases. one of them was "lifesblood for the downtrodden". in my first crowbar post about "odd fellows rest" i told the story of actually holding a copy of "lifesblood..." in my hands once at burnout store, hamburg. since then, i came across other copies several times but never pulled the trigger immediately and when i came back to finally get it, it was already gone.
when i pre-ordered the re-issue of gojira's "terra incognita" album and saw a nice priced copy of "lifesblood for the downtrodden" in stock at high roller records, i knew the time had come to cross this one off of the list eventually. so far i know of no weak crowbar record and this one will not change my mind about it. "lifesblood..." is an angry, sludgy bastard of metal, doom and hardcore and simply that good - alone that last song is musical perfection.
back in 2005 this album was released via candlelight records. that british metal label, founded by extreme noise terror bass player lee barrett, joined forces with back on black records and liscenced the vinyl rights to the latter. back then it was released on black double vinyl only. it took back on black nine years to repress it on coloured vinyl. just in time to the release of the, at the time, new album "symmetry in black". very industrious.
the presentation by back on black is very nice. a gatefold sleeve to house the two 180gr transparent red vinyl records with all lyrics and great artwork, plus the black dust sleeves round out this overall good looking combination of cardboard and plastic. crowbar has eleven full lengths and i hope more will get re-pressed. about the new one, "the serpent only lies", i will write soon. 500 copies made of this great album on red vinyl. back on black. 2005/2014.
