Bassist Mike Dean explains the track: “‘Wolf Named Crow’ started with a couple of riffs Pepper was sitting on for a while. We learned those and collectively came up with a bridge on the spot and it fell together naturally. It reminds me of a new take on Wiseblood-era COC and Reed played some very original, yet very Bill Ward inspired fills. It’s easily my favourite track on this record.”
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CORROSION OF CONFORMITY’s No Cross No Crown somehow sounds as though no time has passed between 2005’s In The Arms Of God and today. Recording in North Carolina with longtime producer John Custer, CORROSION OF CONFORMITY cut No Cross No Crown in about forty days over the course of a year.
Some of these new jams sound like they could’ve easily appeared on Wiseblood or Deliverance, two of CORROSION OF CONFORMITY’s most revered records. Beefy Southern stompers like ‘The Luddite‘, ‘Little Man‘ and ‘Forgive Me‘ are interspersed with melancholy guitar interludes like ‘No Cross‘, ‘Matre’s Diem‘ and ‘Sacred Isolation‘ – just like Sabbath used to do in the ’70s. “We started doing that on Deliverance”, Keenan points out. “My theory on that is that if you’re trying to make a record flow, you need to break it up a little. When you need a breather, write an interlude. I like writing those mellow pieces just to space things out and make the next thing come in heavier.”
No Cross No Crown stands as irrefutable proof of CORROSION OF CONFORMITY’s ability to overcome. “CORROSION OF CONFORMITY and the prior records I’ve done with them didn’t just go away”, Keenan observes. “It’s an honour to be back out there and have an opportunity to do it again in a real way and not some washed-up reunion thing. Even before we wrote the record, we were out there for a year seeing there was a demand for it and that there was a void that we could fill. That’s been CORROSION OF CONFORMITY’s deal from day one. We’re not chasing anybody around. We’re not gonna worry about what the new trends are. CORROSION OF CONFORMITY is CORROSION OF CONFORMITY.”
Oran O’Beirne
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