Corrosion of Conformity

- Blind -

Live at The House of Blues

Los Angeles, California

May 4th, 2015

Review and Photos by Travis Baumann

Corrosion of Conformity started as a punk crossover act in the Eighties. After several albums six years went by with many changes to the band until in 1991 they put out the eponymous album "Blind".

This album saw them dig into a more metal sound and also gave them some mainstream success with MTV airplay and a large fan base building.

This album was the only release to feature the vocal talent of Karl Agell. Reed Mullin, one of the founding members of C.O.C., initially started playing with Karl for a benefit concert, performing the "Blind" album in its entirety for the show.

This then lead to them touring under the Corrosion of Conformity - Blind moniker focusing on this era of C.O.C. as the band itself is still in existence (and have put out some great albums in recent years too).

Touring as opening act for the Cavalera Conspiracy "Pandemonium World Tour", also featuring Death Angel, Corrosion of Conformity bring us back to 1991 to hear a classic album that saw a legendary punk band transition into a full on metal act to be reckoned with.

The musicians came to the stage first and began with an instrumental introduction, "These Shrouded Temples". Karl came out and they played "Damned For All Time" as the first main song of the set.

It has been a long time since I listened to this record but it immediately brought me back. Karl's voice reminded me of Samhain era Danzig, just as he transitioned into the more crooning metal titan that he became. I thought it sounded good and was cool to see live.

Next up was "Painted Smiling Face" followed by "Great Purification". Karl introduced Reed on drums in the back and thanked him for the opportunity to tour again as C.O.C. and do these old favorites.

They jumped around the album a bit, doing "White Noise" followed by "Buried". I could not remember the songs from that long ago but I was getting into the show and thought they did a great job.

Somewhere between Thrash Metal and more mainstream metal their sound lays. They had a bit of the crossover punk energy but the songs had more structure and skill and Karl definitely has a more refined metal style voice than the really old C.O.C. material.

"Mine Are the Eyes of God" flowed into "Break the Circle" which lead into "Dance of the Dead". This brought us to what Karl referred to as their "big hit" commenting on how it ended up on Beavis and Butthead and probably the song everyone knew best.

"Vote with a Bullet" was definitely their most well known song but I preferred quite a few other songs over this one for the evening, however the audience was very enthusiastic when they played it.

The time was such that it we were to the final song of their set, which from what Karl said, was a cover song called "Rather See You Dead". He taught everyone the extremely simple lyrics of "Die Motherfucker" repeated until the chorus which was the title of the song.

I didn't catch who the original was by but the audience sang along as requested and they finished off the set with some frenzied mosh pit action and a lot of audience participation.

It was a good show, nostalgic yet fresh at the same time and a good opening for the night's further performances.

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