The music is as hot and sultry as a Southern summer.

One can almost hear humidity forming beads of water on the guitar strings, creating a distortion that is simply beautiful. The vocals reflect the aggression produced by extreme heat, high humidity and swarms of mosquitoes. One can even feel the occasional bite from a cranky alligator.
The beautifully distorted, sludgy guitar sound and the aggressive vocals are the essence of Swamp Metal. It makes you want to put on the combat boots and go slamming and stomping. I imagine if I was a 21st century warrior I would feed on this music. Swamp metal is also sludge doom of the best kind, music that lets you slop on the couch like a real stoner, while the lyrics reflect the cold hard facts of life. These guys are angry and the heat makes them produce a truly evil sound which is as melodic and slow as the southern drawl.

Crowbar, formed in 1989 by Kirk Windstein and drummer Jimmy Bower, has been said to have the original New Orleans sound. They were the first band to play this grinding, brutally aggressive metal, very reminiscent of Pantera but with a sludgier, more doomy sound. There have been numerous member changes and the current lineup consists of Kirk Windstein on guitar and vocals, Sammy Pierre Duet on guitars, Jeff "Okie" Okoneski on bass and Tony Constanza on drums. Their music most definitely reeks of the grinding, sludge-ness of the deepest south. Songs like "Glass full of Liquid Pain" from Equilibrium (2000) and "Buried Once Again" from Sludge; History of Crowbar (2000) are a brutal reminder of the hardships of life.

Corrosion of Conformity is another band that plays this kind of music. They started out as a Raleigh, North Carolina high school band in the early 80s and have undergone numerous style changes over the years, from punk to thrash, all the way to sludge. It has been a pleasure to follow this band from underground metal to what they are today and they are probably the only band in history of metal who have retained their fan base through the changes. The music they now produce has the heaviness of southern sludge metal while still retaining that crisp edge that puts them a bit further north on the map. The current line up consists of Pepper Keenan on guitar and vocals, Woody Weatherman on guitars, Mike Dean on bass and vocals and Jimmy Bower on drums. Songs like "Vote with a Bullet" from Blind (1991) and "Diablo Blvd." from America's Volume Dealer (2000) are a must for a hot day in the New Orleans (or Carolina) swamps.

Still, the ultimate swamp metal band has to be Down. They formed as a side project in the early 90s, as the band members were friends trying to break the downtime they had with their respective bands. The current line up features former Pantera vocalist Phil Anselmo, Pepper Keenan from CoC and Kirk Windstein from Crowbar on guitars, Pantera's Rex Brown on bass, and drummer Jimmy Bower from CoC.
Phil Anselmo's vocals sound brutal and bourbon soaked, which is enough to make any woman weak in the knees. Together with Pepper Keenan he captures the essence of the South and transforms it into metal. Their music, as you might expect from the lineup, is a fusion of the music played by Pantera, Crowbar and Corrosion of Conformity. They use sounds from all three bands and turn them into something evil; even Pantera's music sounds like happy music compared to Down. They conjure up visions of overfilled ashtrays, stale beer and sweaty bodies. I can almost hear them swat a mosquito or two, while playing. It's filthy metal and I love it. Songs like "New Orleans is a Dying Whore" from Down II (2002) and "Stone the Crow" from their debut Nola (1995), only hint of the slow, grinding brutality Down produces.

The Southern summer couldn't possibly get hotter or more humid than this... So make yourself a nice, strong Mint Julep, crank up your swamp metal, go and sit on the porch and enjoy the heat.