BSH Saturday Music Club: Odd Fellows Rest

It’s another week of the BSH Saturday Music Club, where we get together, listen to an album of our choice and write down our impressions. This week Thomas has chosen the 1998 classic by New Orleans sludge metal legends Crowbar, Odd Fellows Rest.

I don’t know what it is about my personal taste, but I have always been attracted to difficult Music. And while this upcoming example is certainly what people think of when those two words are squashed together in a long-bearded sonic interweaving, the music that grabbed me the most is something I can feel deep in my bones.

Whether it’s the most soulful, straight-from-the-gut hard bop inspired by Coltrane, or some of the heaviest riffs you’ll ever get your ears on, what kept me interested and made me want to listen to a record again was something where you could just tell there was feeling behind it and no attempt to loosen anything up. Nothing that they were going to compromise on to reach a bigger audience or anything like that, just something that felt Good.

And while I could just talk endlessly about why I like the music I like (boring!), it is pretty obvious in Crowbars Odd Fellows Rest.

While I could always point to an album that interests me more, be it a powerviolence album from the mid-2000s or whatever the latest death metal album from Florida is, Odd Fellows Rest feels like the perfect heavy album that’s just so easy to digest. There are no hyper-aggressive vocals or tempos so fast that you can’t really nod your head; no, it’s just grooves in a deep sludge tone with some heavy riffs and lyrics that just get stuck in your throat.

Odd Fellows Rest is an album that will appeal to basically anyone who likes guitar music with any kind of distortion. That’s my opinion anyway.

Crowbar is truly my go-to band. When I’m not really sure what to wear, this album is the first thing that comes to mind – or maybe it’s their 1993 album of the same name, or the one from 2001. Sound excess in its purest form – and that’s because of pretty much everything that has to do with it. From the almost perfect sound of the guitars, the well-mastered drums, the pure, raw vocals of the band leader and only surviving original member Kirk Windstein, or even lyrics like “Don’t kill it before it grows” that are so easy to sing along to on “To Carry the Load”, there is just so much about this record that I like and enjoy so much.

And if you really want to get a clearer picture of who Crowbar is, all you have to do is look at this photo of them. It’s music for big boys (and everyone else too).

JasonM: There was a Canadian band from the ’60s with the same name, but they only had one song, and not a good one at that. You definitely can’t confuse the two. After the “Intro,” the New Orleans band sinks deep into a thick guitar soup on “Planets Collide” that would stand alongside Alice In Chains and Pantera and the creeping, eerie Sabbath-esque “To Carry the Load.” When they find a groove like they did on “…and Suffer As One,” it’s an interesting listen, and without the Tom Waits-meets-Cookie Monster vocal theatrics of Cannibal Corpse. Always a plus. They sound a little more metal, less sludge, on “1000 Year Internal War,” but they seem to get back on track on “December’s Spawn.” The highlight for these ears is probably “Behind the Black Horizon,” as it’s heavy, but unhinged in a good way. The only deviation from the intensity is the title track, which sounds a bit trippy.

Maddie: I think I talked about this last week too, but it’s worth repeating: I really appreciate this series because it forces me to push the boundaries of what I normally listen to. Because this is definitely a little harder than anything I have in my normal rotation, and I still really enjoyed it, and I think that’s really cool! It’s different enough for sure, but it also never slipped into the strange, it still maintained some touch points that I could access even if this isn’t a style I’m super familiar with. There was something really visceral about this listening experience for me, and while I don’t know if I’d necessarily call it enjoyable for me, it was a cool reminder of how music can meet embodiment.

Joe D.: Like Maddie, these music clubs have certainly pushed some of what I normally listen to – especially this summer’s version, as I am not generally a metal fan, aside from rare exceptions (hello, the first few ISIS albums). I can’t say that Crowbars Odd Fellows Rest fits that niche for me, although the riffs are solid, but it was nice to give hardcore metal another chance. What caught my eye was the release date: 1998, making this their fifth full-length release – these guys have been at it for a long time! To have that kind of staying power is impressive, even if Kirk Windstein is the only remaining original member, and it’s cool to think about how influential this record must be in that scene.