Corrosion of Conformity and Friends Pack Out London’s O2 Forum

Location: O2 Forum (Kentish Town), London, England
Date: November 4, 2018

American sludge metal veterans Corrosion of Conformity released their long-awaited new album “No Cross No Crown” earlier this year, and it shows the band back in their golden age. The album was mostly promoted across the US, with only a few clubs and festivals in Europe. CoC decided to return to Europe as headliners, but only for a run around the United Kingdom. To make the tour stylistically appealing, CoC brought along Orange Goblin, Fireball Ministry and Black Moth.

The tour wrapped up at London’s O2 Forum Kentish Town, where more than a thousand fans of the sludge, stoner and doom metal scene headed out. With the hall’s excellent acoustics, there was plenty to look forward to from the show.

The warm-up kicked off with Black Moth. The band, with three albums under their belt, tries to win people over with a mix of garage rock, doom metal and stoner rock. They were nicely tight, though they’re not reinventing anything. They bet on a proven recipe, so there was no shortage of moves reminiscent of Black Sabbath. Black Moth get a bit more attention mainly thanks to their female vocalist, otherwise they’d get lost in the flood of similar bands. In half an hour, Black Moth played their set solidly. They sound promising, but they still need some miles on the clock.

Next up were Fireball Ministry, a somewhat forgotten American band betting on hard rock and stoner metal. Instrumentally, Fireball Ministry are definitely easy to listen to. The guitars are catchy, with melodic solos, and there’s no lack of punch either. It gets snagged on the vocals, which you have to get used to practically the whole show. They’re polished enough, but the tone is a bit unusual and sticks out quite a lot from everything else. The Los Angeles quartet warmed up a good chunk of the crowd, so everyone was well prepared for the remaining bands.

Orange Goblin have some serious miles behind them, and it showed in their performance. The band served up powerful stoner metal, and on top of that threw in a wrecking-ball track paying tribute to the legendary Motörhead. Of course, there was no getting by without Black Sabbath-style riffs. Orange Goblin, who were presenting their latest album The Wolf Bites Back, gave it everything they had. The band came across as energetic on stage, and singer Ben Ward also proved to be a great hype man.

Orange Goblin had about an hour, so they could play a bit more than the previous bands. Alongside the new stuff, they even played an older track or two, and the best-known songs weren’t left out, such as Acid Trial, Scorpionica, They Come Back and Red Tide Rising. Orange Goblin, with more than 20 years of rock ‘n’ roll career behind them, show no signs of fatigue. Quite the opposite, actually. Their set is full of energy, and a proper party breaks out!

That left Corrosion of Conformity, who slowed the music down a bit. More sludge metal riffs came to the fore. You’d expect the band to favor the current album, but that wasn’t the case. This year’s No Cross No Crown is merely a solid effort that doesn’t top their nineties albums. Apart from the odd new track, the band mostly served up familiar songs from the albums Wiseblood, Deliverance and America’s Volume Dealers. Despite the slower songs, Corrosion of Conformity really went wild at times. Stoner metal elements were also present, which added more dynamics to the repertoire.

The band isn’t spring-chicken young anymore, with years of active rock ‘n’ roll life behind them. But by some miracle, they’re still holding up well. Bassist Mike Dean looks a little worse for wear, but he still squeezed out plenty of energy. The guitar duo of Pepper Keenan and Woody Weatherman mesh perfectly, and Keenan also handles vocals, which still have real power after all these years. The only thing missing was drummer Reed Mullin, who was absent from this tour. There’s nothing to complain about in Corrosion of Conformity’s set, which closed with the classic Clean My Wounds. The band sounds powerful, is energetic and tight enough, and doesn’t come across as routine on stage. Definitely a show worth seeing!

At London’s O2 Forum in Kentish Town, Corrosion of Conformity, Orange Goblin, Fireball Ministry and Black Moth served up a wide range of metal and rock styles. A tour finale done right!