Quite a lot has changed in the Corrosion of Conformity camp in the eight years since ‘No Cross No Crown’ was released. Drummer Reed Mullin passed away in 2020, and longtime bassist Mike Dean quit the band. However, with Stanton Moore returning on drums, the band suddenly consisted of three fourths of the line-up that recorded 2005’s ‘In the Arms of God’, which in my opinion is the last truly great album they released. Or rather “was”, because ‘Good God / Baad Man’ is a much better album than I could reasonably have expected from the band.

Which exact style of music Corrosion of Conformity plays varies from album to album, but they have never quite sounded the way they do on ‘Good God / Baad Man’. While vocals and the overall southern sleaze are fairly typical for Pepper Keenan-fronted Corrosion of Conformity, the band never made an album this loose and jammy. The guitar riffs are still rooted in the Black Sabbath tradition, but they used to be tight and fairly metallic, whereas ‘Good God / Baad Man’ is a rock album first and foremost. A fairly seventies-sounding one as well, though it does get monstrously heavy at times.

Those who want to hear the band play heavy riffs more than anything will still find plenty to enjoy on ‘Good God / Baad Man’. Closer ‘Forever Amplified’, though somewhat psychedelic, is vintage mid-nineties Corrosion of Conformity, as is ‘You and Me’, while ‘Lose Yourself’ is built upon a massive riff and surprisingly busy rhythms, and ‘Gimme Some Moore’ is hyper-aggressive – by the standards of this album at least. This time, though, those riffs just have to share the stage with the pounding heavy funk of ‘Baad Man’, the barroom boogie of ‘Swallowing the Anchor’, and the wah-drenched ‘The Handler’.

Highlights of the album include the lengthy, psychedelic ‘Run for Your Life’, which honestly sounds like it could have gone on for half an hour longer, and features some impressive instrumental interplay. The preceding instrumental ‘Bedouin’s Hand’ is also an exercise in dark atmosphere building. In ‘Good God? / Final Dawn’, the album also opens with an unpredictable, dynamic rocker that feels familiar, yet doesn’t sound like anything the band has ever done before. My favorite song, however, is ‘Brickman’, a largely acoustic blues song with some amazingly haunting lead guitar stings that elevate the track to a completely different level.

After Keenan’s return to Corrosion of Conformity slightly disappointed me on its predecessor, ‘Good God / Baad Man’ is an album I didn’t realize the band still had in them. They audibly had a lot of fun recording the album. Despite the wide range of sounds, especially when it comes to the guitars of Keenan and sole remaining original member Woody Weatherman, it just sounds like as a listener, you are thrown right into the room with the band. The result sounds like Black Sabbath, ZZ Top and mid-seventies Lynyrd Skynyrd thrown into a dark pit full of crushing stoner rock guitars. Heavily recommended.

Recommended tracks: ‘Brickman’, ‘Run for Your Life’, ‘Good God? / Final Dawn’