Crowbar stalled out after the 2001 LP Sonic Excess in It's Purest Form. Leader Kirk Windstein was dealing with Down, membership was in flux, and Crowbar's infamous label woes were a constant headache. But the long-running New Orleans sludge metal outfit wasn't going to go out like that, and Windstein started the resuscitation process in summer 2003. He tapped original drummer Craig Nunemacher, and Pantera vet Rex Brown offered to handle bass and production. Down II producer Warren Riker also signed on. The result was Lifesblood for the Downtrodden, a typically pummeling tribute to the Art of the Riff, but an album that also found new methods of mayhem. Windstein's vocals never waver from a raging and vengeful wronged-soul growl, but his guitar work searches out tense melodies amidst the animalistic main riffs, and Nunemacher and Brown are relentlessly rhythmic without sacrificing dynamics. Lifesblood for the Downtrodden was an album to change minds about Crowbar.

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