Being a kid growing up in Northeast Texas in the 1990s, you couldn’t help but be completely enthralled in all things Pantera. Especially those music videos. Phil was practically a walking billboard, showcasing all the great bands from his hometown that we desperately needed to discover. One of those bands was Crowbar, which I originally noticed in Pantera’s “I’m Broken“ music video. Formed originally in 1988 as hardcore punk band Shell Shock, with Jimmy Bower on drums and Kirk Windstein on guitar, the band went through several stages and band names before finding its low-tuned groove and adopted moniker.
While their first album was a failure in terms of notoriety and sales, the band’s self-titled sophomore album, Crowbar, was the right album at the right time. Produced by Phil Anselmo in 1993, Crowbar is 37-minutes of mind-crushingly slow, agonizing, sludge that make up the band’s signature sound. Songs about perseverance, loneliness and pain coupled with the slow meaty