Down - A Bustle In Your Hedgerow 2002 256 kbps [METAL SUPERGROUP]

Down A Bustle In Your Hedgerow (2002) ***







..:CD Info:..





Artists ... Down



Album ... A Bustle In Your Hedgerow



Release Date ... 03 / 26 / 02



Genre ... Stoner/Sludge Metal / Heavy Metal



[Review]





"I do one thing/I do it well," Philip Anselmo hoarsely screams

to start the "Symptom of the Universe"-inspired "The Man That

Follows Hell," but the fact is he's sorely mistaken on one

count. The erstwhile Pantera prowler does a heck of a lot more

than only one thing, as evidenced by his numerous side projects,

of which Down is the most prominent. As for doing it well -- not

to say that the long-awaited sophomore disc is a waste of time,

but Down II lacks the precision punch of NOLA. Perhaps that's the

fault of the debut, which saw the supergroup supersede even the

lofty expectations brought about by the pedigree, but even on its

own, the second outing suffers from way too much Black Sabbath

meets Black Oak (and not nearly enough Black Flag), which wouldn't

in and of itself be a bad thing necessarily, except for the one-

dimensional portrayal of said influences. The blame, oddly enough,

doesn't belong to Anselmo. Even though the mouthpiece is the most

prominent, his pipes generally show the range that has allowed the

New Orleans native to reach demigod status among metal aficionados,

gutturally blasting out tortured-soul lyrics that all seem to address

his state of mind and body (legend has it the disc was recorded in a

rural Louisiana swamp under the influence of quite a few narcotics).

Pepper Keenan's shtick is a holdover from the last couple of Corrosion

of Conformity discs, and except for the fact that Anselmo is a much

better singer than Keenan and the material is far darker than he usually

takes his main project lyrically, much of Down II could have appeared on

a new Corrosion of Conformity album and few would have blinked an eye.

Which means his contribution to the music is great, but a push in terms

of the quality of said roughage. However, the rhythm section of Pantera

bass-mate Rex Brown (who replaced Todd Strange for this album) and Jim

Bower is the main failing. The thing that made Sabbath and the '70s

Southern rock legends great was having prominent rhythm sections that were

unique and able to stand on their own. These two are content to provide only

the basic, minimal amount of contributions, and merely providing a solid

backbeat is not enough to lift the disc from the doldrums. A few tracks stand

out, like the almost psychedelic "Beautifully Depressed," which revels in its

contradiction, and the closing "Landing on the Mountains of Meggido," a nearly

eight-minute epic which is reminiscent Led Zeppelin if they were truly evil and

didn't just play the part on TV. But too much of Down II is stuck in somewhat-

speedier-than-stoner rock mid-tempos that all run together to form an album that

doesn't go nowhere fast or somewhere slow, but just meanders without really ever

starting the journey.





..:Media Info:..





Audio Info ... 256 kbps CBR



Channels ... 44.100 kHz / 16 bit Stereo



Format ... MP3



# of Tracks ... 15



Covers ... Front





..:Other Notes:..





While not their most celebrated release (they average a CD

every 5-10 years) it certainly is an excellent addition to

the metal collection!