{"id":408176,"date":"2026-05-02T09:51:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T09:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/408176\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T09:51:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T09:51:21","slug":"the-death-birth-and-unlikely-resurgence-of-crowbar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/408176\/","title":{"rendered":"The death, birth and unlikely resurgence of Crowbar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crowbar have played shows with some pretty brutal bands over the years: Morbid Angel<\/a>, Napalm Death<\/a>, EyeHateGod, Pantera<\/a> at their gnarliest\u2026 But when it comes to witnessing utter carnage, nothing tops the time they played Philadelphia\u2019s This Is Hardcore festival in July 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looked like somebody had been sliced to bits with a fuckin\u2019 chainsaw,\u201d Crowbar vocalist, guitarist and founder Kirk Windstein recalls. \u201cThere was blood everywhere, all these guys lying around with broken noses, black eyes. Some guy broke his neck during our set! If you can win that crowd over, you\u2019re good.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That\u2019s some achievement for a band whose general velocity is roughly the same as an arthritic tortoise stuck in tar. Especially given they were sharing the bill that day with the likes of Agnostic Front, Turnstile and Nails.<\/p>\n

Article continues below <\/p>\n

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\u201cNaw,\u201d counters Kirk. \u201cWe played all our faster, more hardcore songs over a 45-minute set and the crowd went apeshit for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

God knows what those mangled hardcore kids would make of the unexpected turn the band\u2019s career has taken recently. Crowbar helped define New Orleans\u2019 sludge metal<\/a> scene in the early 1990s, alongside the likes of EyeHateGod, Soilent Green, Down and Acid Bath, with Kirk the sole remaining original member.<\/p>\n

But recent months have seen them become an unlikely TikTok sensation, thanks to teens making videos to their songs, placing them in the unlikely company of Sleep Token and Deftones.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no fucking idea how that happened,\u201d he admits, chuckling like an airbag being squeezed to within an inch of its life.<\/p>\n

Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

CROWBAR – Subversion (Enhanced HD) 1991 – YouTube
\n\"CROWBAR<\/p>\n

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

I don\u2019t know where the term ‘sludge metal’ came from, but I don\u2019t really care for it<\/p>\n

Kirk Windstein<\/p>\n

The story of Crowbar began with a death. Mike Hatch was a guitarist and key figure in the 80s New Orleans underground scene, a fanatical record collector and one of the founding members of local hardcore punk crew Shell Shock.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was like a big brother to me,\u201d recalls Kirk, who was actually born in Middlesex while his US airman dad was stationed in the UK, before moving to the Big Easy as an infant. \u201cMike introduced me to everything. He would come over and do things for my mom and dad, help around the house and they would cook for him, so we\u2019d eat dinner together and then go listen to records in my room. He basically lived with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Mike who gave Kirk \u2013 who had previously sung Metallica, Anthrax and Mot\u00f6rhead covers in a band called Victorian Blitz \u2013 one of his first proper breaks, offering him the job fronting Shell Shock. He played his first gig with them in July 1988, but just four months later, Mike Hatch took his own life.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

\u201cI was devastated,\u201d Kirk says softly. \u201cMike was a part of my family, my best friend. I didn\u2019t know what else to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

United in grief, Kirk and Shell Shock drummer Jimmy Bower decided to continue playing, albeit under a different name. Shelving the album they\u2019d recorded with Mike, they christened themselves AfterShock, then Wrequiem and finally The Slugs, before settling on the name Crowbar. At the same time, their sound was evolving.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were really getting into the doom thing too \u2013 bands like Melvins and Cathedral,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019d have [Peter Steele\u2019s pre-Type O Negative band] Carnivore one side of a cassette tape and Trouble another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kirk says the nascent Crowbar found their sound while they were working on the song Waiting In Silence. \u201cThe creation of Crowbar, I\u2019d credit Jimmy Bower,\u201d Kirk says. \u201cWe knew what we wanted to sound like and Jimmy just started hammering that drumbeat for Waiting In Silence. Somehow I instinctively came in with the guitars [makes slow, swampy, grinding noise]. You know the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jimmy Bower had bailed by the time Crowbar released their first album, 1991\u2019s Obedience Thru Suffering, his place taken by drummer Craig Nunenmacher, alongside guitarist Kevin Noonan and bassist Todd Strange (the band\u2019s line-up has changed countless times over the years). Today, Kirk views it as more of a demo than a proper album, though the song Subversion got picked up by MTV\u2019s Headbangers Ball show (\u201cI remember watching myself on a proper TV with my mom and dad,\u201d Kirk says proudly).<\/p>\n

New Orleans in the early 90s was fast becoming a hotbed for underground metal, a scene that appeared to materialise out of the Louisiana swamps.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomewhere along the line the media picked up the term \u2018sludge metal\u2019,\u201d Kirk says distastefully. \u201cI don\u2019t know where it came from, but I don\u2019t really care for it. To me we\u2019re just Crowbar. We just wanted to sound original.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Crowbar\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Press)<\/p>\n

Phil Anselmo really wanted to sing for us. <\/p>\n

Kirk Winstein<\/p>\n

Original they may have been, but the NOLA scene was interconnected to the point of incestuousness. Other musicians regularly hopped between bands. Jimmy Bower went from Crowbar to EyeHateGod, before rejoining the former for a two-year stint in the mid-90s. Kirk points out that his band\u2019s current drummer, Tommy Buckley, is actually married to the sister of early incumbent Craig Nunenmacher, while his own landlord is original Crowbar bassist Todd Strange.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a small town!\u201d he laughs. \u201cThe vibe here is \u2018Eat, drink and be merry.\u2019 A lot of people are struggling, it\u2019s very blue collar, but at the same time, the city has a mystique about it \u2013 there\u2019s nowhere else like it in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was another NOLA fixture who produced the band\u2019s second album, 1993\u2019s self-titled Crowbar. Kirk had first met Phil Anselmo in 1985, shortly before the future Pantera frontman joined glam rock outfit Razor White.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe came to see Victorian Blitz and said he really wanted to sing for us,\u201d Kirk recalls. \u201cHe came and nailed it on one of our originals, but I was the singer at the time, so I basically was like, \u2018I dunno man, he\u2019s a bit young.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

That didn\u2019t stop a friendship blossoming between the two men. In 1991, Kirk joined Phil in NOLA supergroup Down (aside from a six-year hiatus in the 2010s, he\u2019s been a member ever since). By the time it came to writing and recording Crowbar, Pantera were flying high on the back of Cowboys From Hell and Vulgar Display Of Power. Kirk figured the singer\u2019s studio experience would make him the perfect person to produce the album.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe came to band rehearsals,\u201d Kirk recalls. \u201cI remember playing Existence Is Punishment to him and he gives us this look with his arms folded. It was like, \u2018Oh shit, he\u2019s not happy.\u2019 He\u2019s like, \u2018The song\u2019s got one good riff and the rest is shit.\u2019 He taught me a lot about songwriting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until the last couple of years, people would come up to us and be like, \u2018I first heard your band through Beavis And Butt-Head!<\/p>\n

Released on October 12, 1993, Crowbar was the first album Kirk feels properly represented the band. It also exposed them to an entirely new audience when the video for Existence Is Punishment was played on Beavis And Butt-Head.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey made fat jokes about us, but we didn\u2019t care,\u201d says Kirk with a laugh. \u201cThey liked it, that was the important thing. That was the rule, if they threw the horns at some point, they thought it was cool. Until the last couple of years, people would come up to us and be like, \u2018I first heard your band through Beavis And Butt-Head!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the blessing of America\u2019s most hard-to-please animated critics, Crowbar never crossed over into mainstream stardom. Instead, like Kirk\u2019s heroes Mot\u00f6rhead<\/a>, they followed a path of dropping new albums every few years and touring relentlessly on the back of them. And like Lemmy, they weren\u2019t given to wild creative swings.<\/p>\n

1995\u2019s Time Heals Nothing was doomy and dirgey with punk outbursts. 1996\u2019s Broken Glass was punky with doomy, dirgey dives. 2000\u2019s Equilibrium was\u2026 you get the picture. That\u2019s not to say they didn\u2019t tweak the formula sometimes. 1998\u2019s Odd Fellows Rest, a fan-favourite, saw their sound taking on a more soulful edge. But otherwise, Crowbar\u2019s lot was releasing albums to fan acclaim, with no real shot at mainstream success.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor years, we would literally go on tour to play music because we loved it, and we could get free beer,\u201d Kirk admits. \u201cWe weren\u2019t making any money \u2013 none. We\u2019d get home and get a shitty part-time job or something. We\u2019ve really tried to stay on tour as much as possible because at least that\u2019s something fun to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were moments of glory amid the grind. In 1994, Crowbar opened for Pantera on the latter\u2019s arena tour, at the precise moment Far Beyond Driven hit No.1 in the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were above Michael Jackson!\u201d Kirk marvels. \u201cPeople were literally tearing the seats up in the arena and destroying stuff. It was a wild tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dealer was watching me the whole time, thinking if I got a little taste I was gonna buy from him.<\/p>\n

Kirk Windstein<\/p>\n

But as Crowbar\u2019s profile inched up, Kirk found himself becoming increasingly reliant on cocaine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was 32 years old when I first properly did coke because before then I couldn\u2019t afford it,\u201d he admits. \u201cIt became a really bad thing for a long time \u2013 when I started making money with Down, it only got worse. Nowadays you have so much more reason not to fuck with it because of the fentanyl [mixed with the cocaine] and all that shit. But [to quit] all I had to do was erase my coke dealer\u2019s numbers from my phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Easy as that?<\/p>\n

\u201cNot quite,\u201d he concedes. \u201cI stopped going to the bars where I knew dealers were too. I remember one of the dealers came up to me when I was in a bar taking a piss and he hands me a bag of coke. I took out my key, did a bump each side, tied the bag back up and handed it back to him. He was watching me the whole time, thinking if I got a little taste I was gonna buy from him. I just smiled and went, \u2018I\u2019m good.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

His relationship with alcohol is more complicated. In 2010, he pulled out of a planned tour with his doom side-project, Kingdom Of Sorrow, to enter an AA programme and \u201cturn over a new leaf\u201d. He still drinks, but strictly only beer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t handle hard liquor anymore,\u201d he says. \u201cI can\u2019t wait to taste a beer I like, but if it\u2019s hard liquor it makes me wanna puke just thinking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Kirk\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Jimmy Hubbard)<\/p>\n

For all the musical and non-musical diversions, Kirk has stayed true to Crowbar for well over 35 years. But having turned 60, he\u2019s under no illusions about the strains that life in a band can take. He\u2019s recently been suffering from back issues that turned out to be related to a synovial cyst pressing on his spine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t really walk,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was very, very painful and was mentally draining because I\u2019m wondering, \u2018Am I gonna be using a walker and sitting down to play for the rest of my career?\u2019 A neurosurgeon talked me out of having any kind of surgery \u2013 the cyst can be drained \u2013 but he was like, \u2018It\u2019s not a very high-risk thing, but do you really wanna be that dude?\u2019 I remember reading about [80s rocker] Don Dokken, he had bad surgery and said he can\u2019t play guitar or even wipe his own ass now. Fuck that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cysts aside, the future looks good for Kirk Windstein and Crowbar. Thanks in part to that unlikely TikTok success, their recent UK tour was a sell-out. They may not have made an album since 2022\u2019s Zero And Below (their 12th), but these New Orleans warhorses are more popular than ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetter late than never!\u201d Kirk booms. \u201cThank God it\u2019s happening. We\u2019ve not changed anything, and all the songs and albums people are going crazy over are actually old. We have been busting our asses our whole lives playing music. But we are finally getting a pay-off from all the hard work and sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crowbar play Damnation in November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crowbar have played shows with some pretty brutal bands over the years: Morbid Angel, Napalm Death, EyeHateGod, Pantera…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-408176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}