Having been a big fan of COC's Deliverance and Wiseblood; I was saddened to learn that Pepper Keenan was not a part of this project. But I'm sure there's an even amount of fans on the other side of the coin who are more excited to have the group return to their punk-rock roots. This is the same line-up, of course that brought us the classic "Vote With A Bullet".And the album is not completely the 180 that Pepper's arrival seemed to be in 1994. "River Of Stone", at six minutes, still has that swamp jam familiarity, for example. But something like that is always just as quickly followed up with something else like "Leeches"; which is full on Fear-fury.
And on the overall, I was unable to climb the mountain with the remaining three without Keenan leading the way. With him the riffs are crunchier. Without him, it strays too far to the punk side of things. True too with lyrics. Pepper's stories of individual struggles is often traded with bitching about "Rat City" or generalities of greed. This album is decent, but where COC is concerned, my heart lies in dixie. (2.5 of 5 stars)
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