volumemusic

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''In the Arms of God'' is the seventh studio album by Corrosion of Conformity and was released April 5, 2005. So far, it is the only Corrosion of Conformity album to not feature drummer Reed Mullin. Galactic drummer Stanton Moore played drums on this album. It is also the last album to feature longtime vocalist/rhythm guitarist Pepper Keenan. - Wikipedia

You'll hear everyone from Foo Fighters mainman Dave Grohl to avant-noise sorcerer John Zorn swear by COC's ferocious 1985 album Animosity, a record inextricably linked to the origin of the mid-eighties metal/hardcore "crossover" blitzkrieg. But for a generation of slightly younger (late 20s by now) COC fans, the band's sound is defined by the deafening roar of "Vote With a Bullet" from 1991's Blind, which marked the infamous debut of guitarist Pepper Keenan on lead vocals-even though the rest of the album was sung by Karl Agell, who was subsequently fired and went on to front an unbelievably shitty stoner-rock outfit called Leadfoot. With Keenan out front, COC's subsequent albums, 1994's Deliverance and 1996's Grammy-nominated Wiseblood, were twin Southern rock goliaths spit-polished with the crusty gleam of North Carolina chrome, and Pepper established himself as the unmistakable voice of COC. On In the Arms of God-COC's first album since 2000's vastly underappreciated America's Volume Dealer-the band keeps their filthy seed alive with epics like "It Is That Way" (which recalls "Seven Days" from Deliverance) and "Paranoid Opioid," even though there's no instant super-rock classic like Deliverance's "Clean My Wounds" or Wiseblood's "Long Whip/Big America." Despite the absence of founding member and drummer Reed Mullin (he's replaced here by Stanton Moore of "New Orleans jazz-funk band" Galactic), COC's riffs are huge, Pepper's vocals are unremitting, and the songs are longer than usual (averaging about five minutes apiece, they max out at 8:21 with "Never Turns To More"). It's no Deliverance, perhaps, but it is COC, which automatically makes it better than three-quarters of the records reviewed here.