Raleigh, NC · sludge metal · stoner metal · crossover thrash

Corrosion of Conformity

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North Carolina crossover veterans who moved from hardcore into thick Southern sludge and stayed there — Sabbath swing filtered through a punk's impatience.

Corrosion of Conformity formed in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1982, when bassist Mike Dean, guitarist Woody Weatherman, drummer Reed Mullin and singer Benji Shelton began playing fast hardcore punk influenced by Black Flag, Bad Brains, Minor Threat and Discharge alongside heavier acts like Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Early tracks appeared on the No Core cassette compilation and the Why Are We Here? 7" in 1982 and 1983.

Shelton left in 1983, and after a brief spell with Robert Stewart, Eric Eycke of fellow Raleigh band Colcor took over vocals for the group's debut, Eye for an Eye (1984), a twenty-track hardcore record later reissued in 1989. Eycke's departure left Dean and Mullin sharing vocal duties on 1985's Animosity, a record now regarded as an important crossover thrash release despite little label promotion at the time.

Pepper Keenan joined in 1989 as vocalist and second guitarist, and by 1991's Blind the band's tempos had slowed and its riffs thickened into a heavier, blues-inflected Southern metal sound. That album, along with the two hardcore-era records before it, attracted Columbia Records, which signed the band in 1993. Deliverance followed in 1994, reaching the Billboard 200 and producing the singles "Albatross" and "Clean My Wounds".

Founding members Woody Weatherman and Mike Dean anchored the group through numerous lineup changes and periods of inactivity, including a hiatus from 2006 and a stretch as a trio with Dean singing after Keenan left to focus on Down; Keenan rejoined in 2014. Reed Mullin remained the group's drummer until his death in 2020, after which John Green took over, and Dean himself departed again in 2024.

Their catalogue spans eleven studio albums, running from the hardcore-era records and the crossover material through the stoner-leaning albums that remain their best known, including Wiseblood (1996) and No Cross No Crown (2018), the band's first release to reach the top 100 of the Billboard 200.

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sludge metalstoner metalcrossover thrash