Crowbar
This quartet emerged as one of the leading lights of the New Orleans extreme metal scene with a sound which blended Black Sabbath/St Vitus-styled heaviness with hardcore aggression. Kirk Windstine (vocals/guitar), Kevin Noonan (guitar), Todd Strange (bass) and Craig Nunenmacher (drums) made their debut with the dark and doom-laden OBEDIENCE THROUGH SUFFERING, after which Noonan was replaced by Matt Thomas, a former band-mate of Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo in Razor White. Anselmo, an old friend who collaborated with Windstein on side-projects such as DOWN AND BOTH LEGS BROKEN, helped refine and improve the band's sound with his sympathetic production on CROWBAR, which included a brutally heavy interpretation of Led Zeppelin's No Quarter, adapted stylishly to the Crowbar sound to produce a valid cover version. The band added to their good press on the road with Paradise Lost in the UK and Pantera in the US, releasing the LIVE +1 EP (which was packaged with Crowbar in the UK) to coincide, before returning to the studio with the stated intention of making Crowbar sound 'like Jethro Tull'.