{"id":526950,"date":"2026-07-05T22:22:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T22:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/526950\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T22:22:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T22:22:21","slug":"the-rise-fall-and-triumphant-return-of-corrosion-of-conformity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/526950\/","title":{"rendered":"The rise, fall and triumphant return of Corrosion Of Conformity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in the summer of 2005, Corrosion Of Conformity had just released their seventh album, In The Arms Of God, and were about to embark on an extensive jaunt across Europe as special guests to Mot\u00f6rhead<\/a>. But just before the tour was due to begin, Hurricane Katrina swept through the American South, causing devastation in singer and guitarist Pepper Keenan\u2019s hometown of New Orleans, Louisiana. Suddenly, being the frontman in a rock\u2019n\u2019roll band didn\u2019t seem so important anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt knocked me on my ass for a couple of years,\u201d says Pepper now. \u201cThere was so much property damage, family members were missing, communication was really difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In that situation, going on the road was the last thing on his mind. But Pepper did the courteous thing and called Lemmy to let him know what was happening.<\/p>\n

Latest Videos From Louder<\/p>\n

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\u201cI told him, \u2018We\u2019ve never cancelled a tour in our lives, buddy, but we can\u2019t make it,\u2019\u201d he recalls. \u201cBut Lemmy understood. The first question he asked me was, \u2018Pepper, I have some friends in Texas, do you need any weapons?\u2019 Ha ha ha! He just wanted to make sure I was safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, even a hurricane couldn\u2019t flatten Corrosion Of Conformity. They\u2019ve endured everything rock\u2019n\u2019roll has thrown at them over the past 40 years: multiple line-up changes, record label politics, shifting trends and, most tragically, the death of a key member. But COC are still here, unbowed and unbroken.<\/p>\n

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CORROSION OF CONFORMITY – Asleep On The Killing Floor (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO) – YouTube
\n\"CORROSION<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

The Corrosion Of Conformity of 2026 is radically different to the young, snotty band that formed in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1982. They began life as a ferocious hardcore punk outfit with a metallic edge. The line-up back then featured guitarist Woody Weatherman, drummer Reed Mullin, bassist (and sometime vocalist) Mike Dean and a succession of singers, none of whom hung around for long.<\/p>\n

\u201cReed and myself, we were school mates at high school when the band got going,\u201d says Woody, the sole constant member throughout the band\u2019s history and the only one to play on all of their 11 studio albums.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe were all into heavy music, everything from Alice Cooper to Public Image to Bad Brains and Black Flag. We were Deep Purple freaks, and we loved Iron Maiden. At the time there were no aspirations. We wanted to make heavy music and have a blast. We were kids, you know? We travelled the country, right off the bat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The band were committed to doing things the old-school, DIY way. They spent their formative years travelling the US in a van and setting up to play wherever they could.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would go play at VFW [Veterans of Foreign War] halls,\u201d he recalls. \u201cSomeone would rent it out for 20 bucks and there was no stage. You\u2019d just load the gear in and play on the floor. You made maybe gas money to get to the next gig, but it wasn\u2019t about making money, it was about having a good time and getting your band\u2019s name out there.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

It was easy to travel, because a group of people in Austin would help us set up a show, and if a bunch of them came to our town, we would help them out. There was give and take, helping each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

It became accepted that punk rockers could like Mot\u00f6rhead and Sabbath, and metal dudes could like Discharge<\/p>\n

Woody Weatherman<\/p>\n

While the core trio of Woody, Reed and Mike remained intact throughout the 80s, their early records each featured a different singer. The now-deceased Eric Eycke sang on 1984\u2019s raucous, primitive debut Eye For An Eye, Mike Dean stepped up to snarl his way through the following year\u2019s hugely influential punk\/metal crossover Animosity, and the memorably named Simon Bob Sinister did the honours on 1987\u2019s Technocracy EP.<\/p>\n

Those records imprinted themselves on a generation of musicians, in particular Animosity \u2013 the tracks Holier and Loss For Words have been covered live by Metallica<\/a> and Mr. Bungle respectively, while Lamb Of God<\/a>\u2019s Randy Blythe has called Hungry Child one of his favourite songs.<\/p>\n

By the end of the 80s, they had undergone yet another change, with Mike Dean leaving (replaced by Phil Swisher) and singer Karl Agell coming in alongside Pepper Keenan, initially recruited as rhythm guitarist. The first (and only) album this five-piece line-up recorded was 1991\u2019s Blind, which marked a further shift towards metal for Corrosion Of Conformity. Karl performed most of the vocals, but it was Pepper who sang on the album\u2019s most notable track, the pummelling, seditious call-to-arms Vote With A Bullet<\/a>, which became a surprise MTV hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a transitional album for us, still in that punk\/ hardcore frame of mind, but we were able to play in all worlds,\u201d says Woody.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s weird to think about now, but that was a thing back then: punk rockers and metalheads were two different groups, and they didn\u2019t mingle much. But we liked it all. Eventually it became accepted that punk rockers could like Mot\u00f6rhead and Sabbath, and metal dudes could like Discharge. That always made sense to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Corrosion\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Danin Drahos)<\/p>\n

Following the success of Blind and the departure of Karl Agell, Corrosion Of Conformity embarked on their most commercially successful period. Such was the demand for them that major label Sony\/Columbia bought 50% of the shares in COC\u2019s then-label, Relativity Records, in order to bypass the band\u2019s existing contract.<\/p>\n

It looked like the move had paid off. 1994\u2019s Southern rock-tinged Deliverance<\/a> \u2013 which saw Pepper stepping up as vocalist and the return of original bassist Mike Dean \u2013 boasted radio hits Albatross and Clean My Wounds, nudging the band towards the big time. But when it came to making the follow-up, 1996\u2019s Wiseblood, it became clear that COC\u2019s corporate paymasters weren\u2019t happy with the way things were going.<\/p>\n

\u201cWiseblood was a very aggressive-sounding record, and Columbia wanted us to tone it down a bit,\u201d says Pepper. \u201cThey wanted us to write with some guy who wrote songs with Aerosmith, but I thought, \u2018Nah, you guys are pushing it now!\u2019 So we said we\u2019d go write a song on our own, went to the studio, and came back with Drowning In A Daydream. We got nominated for a Grammy for that one!\u201d<\/p>\n

COC recorded Wiseblood at four studios, including New York\u2019s renowned Electric Lady studio, at the same time as Metallica were completing work on their Load<\/a> album.<\/p>\n

All I said was, \u2018Let\u2019s go to Europe and let\u2019s see what happens\u2026\u2019. We had a blast, and that turned into a new record.<\/p>\n

Pepper Keenan<\/p>\n

The two bands were already fans of each other\u2019s music, and Metallica frontman James Hetfield contributed backing vocals to Wiseblood track Man Or Ash.<\/p>\n

The same year, Metallica insisted taking Corrosion out as support on the Poor Touring Me world tour. It was a world away from performing on the floors at local halls back in the 80s.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalk about getting thrown to the dogs, man!\u201d Woody laughs. \u201cThey had the weird stage in the centre of the arena, and we were saying, \u2018Where do we put our amps? Where are we gonna go hide?\u2019 Well, you\u2019re not! The amps are down on the floor under the stage. Everybody\u2019s looking at you! What a trip that was. But we took it in our stride.\u201d<\/p>\n

But not everyone was happy with the fact that COC were on the road with the world\u2019s biggest metal band. \u201cThe label didn\u2019t have any part of it,\u201d says Pepper. \u201cThey were like, \u2018How did you get a Metallica tour?\u2019 The Columbia folks were pissed that we weren\u2019t playing the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inevitably, the relationship between Corrosion Of Conformity and their label didn\u2019t last the decade. But after being booted off Columbia, they simply carried on releasing records. 2000\u2019s America\u2019s Volume Dealer was followed five years later by the full-bore In The Arms Of God.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just nasty, sludgy, as heavy as we could make it,\u201d says Pepper of the latter.<\/p>\n

Significantly, In The Arms Of God was the first COC album not to feature founding member Reed Mullin. A phenomenal drummer who could also sing like a bird, Reed had stepped away in order to start another band, Brown, overseen by long-time COC producer John Custer and heralding Reed\u2019s debut as a frontman.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody was grooming him to be a singer, so it was an odd thing,\u201d muses Pepper. \u201cBut whatever, he did all that, and he came back eventually. You can\u2019t control this shit.\u201d<\/p>\n

During Reed\u2019s absence, the remaining members recruited Stanton Moore to take up the drummer role and everything rattled along without incident. That is, until Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in the summer of 2005.<\/p>\n

Following the chaos caused by that disaster, Pepper also stepped away from COC for a few years to focus his on other band, NOLA supergroup Down, of which he\u2019d been a member since their foundation in the early 1990s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was another challenge,\u201d admits Woody. \u201cKeenan was working his ass off with Down; they were constantly touring.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Reed Mullin returning to the fold in 2010, COC were a trio for the first time since Animosity 25 years earlier. Fittingly, 2012\u2019s self-titled album and 2014\u2019s IX saw the band returning to their rowdy hardcore roots.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was sort of an appetite for hearing Animosity and Technocracy material and some of the early stuff, so we wrote the songs that we felt like writing and it sort of meshed with that era of COC,\u201d says Woody. \u201cIf we were playing a festival and Down was playing at the same festival, Pepper would come up and sing some Deliverance and Wiseblood songs. We were all still pretty tight, so that was a foreshadowing for what would happen later.\u201d<\/p>\n

The revolving door spun once more in 2015, when Pepper Keenan finally rejoined his three comrades.<\/p>\n

\u201cReed called me on the phone one day and we started talking about doing a reunion thing, because it was the 21st anniversary of the Deliverance record,\u201d says Pepper. \u201cAll I said was, \u2018Let\u2019s go to Europe and let\u2019s see what happens\u2026\u2019, and that\u2019s what we did. We had a blast, and that turned into a new record.\u201d<\/p>\n

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY – Gimme Some Moore (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO) – YouTube
\n\"CORROSION<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

The classic COC line-up\u2019s first album together in 18 years, No Cross No Crown, emerged in January 2018. But tragically, it would be Reed Mullin\u2019s swansong. The drummer had been battling alcohol addiction for a several years, and his condition had led to severe seizures that sometimes necessitated him being replaced by other people for gigs.<\/p>\n

On January 27, 2020, just as the band were about to tour in Australia, Reed passed away.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a heavy deal, when he passed,\u201d says Woody. \u201cHe was at home, trying to take care of himself and get his mind back right. He did tour with us some on No Cross No Crown, but he was having trouble and a few things had to be cancelled.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rest of the band did all they could to help Reed with his problems. Even Dave Grohl, who knew COC from his own days on the 80s hardcore scene, tried to help his fellow drummer.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrohl facilitated a trip to a couple of rehab places,\u201d says Woody. \u201cHe reached out because he was good friends with Reed, but none of that stuff took, which was sad, but it happens. We reached out all we could and tried to help him, but in the end it got to him. All you can do is try your best to help people, and it doesn\u2019t always work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Due in part to losing their friend and drummer, Corrosion Of Conformity spent the next few years finding their bearings again. Both Woody and Pepper make it clear that there was never any chance that the band\u2019s story was over, but when Mike Dean announced his second departure from the band in 2024, it was time to make a brand new plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Mike, for him it was personal issues,\u201d says Pepper. \u201cHe\u2019s got a studio and he was focusing on producing bands, and he wanted to stay at home more often than not. We fully supported him on that. He has done his time! Ha ha ha!\u201d<\/p>\n

For their new album, Woody and Pepper enlisted ex-Down guitarist Bobby Landgraf for bass duties and returning drummer Stanton Moore. Written and recorded over two-and-a-half years, Good God\/Baad Man is an audacious double album that touches upon almost every era of COC, showcasing yet another incarnation of this seemingly indestructible band. Pepper and Woody have been revitalised by the experience, and the future once again looks bright and very, very loud.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously I\u2019m not 16 anymore, I\u2019m 60!\u201d says Woody with a chuckle. \u201cBut I still feel like a teenager, because I have fun, I enjoy it, I like making rock music and I like travelling. We make it fun, we have a blast, and I do it for the same reasons. We still don\u2019t answer to anybody except ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good God \/ Baad Man is out now via Nuclear Blast.<\/p>\n

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