Southern/Sludge Metal
USA

Released 3rd of April, 2026

The North Carolina chameleons call court, reclaiming CORROSION OF CONFORMITY’s kingdom.

After an eight year halt on the main band’s output, the members of CORROSION OF CONFORMITY have regrouped and brought with them their eleventh album since No Cross No Crown in 2018.
This isn’t without some unfortunate events in that time. Co-founder and longtime drummer REED MULLIN tragically died in 2020 at the age of 53, while another founder, MIKE DEAN left CoC in 2024 under amicable terms and without the door fully shutting behind him.
Of course, this means that WOODY WEATHERMAN is the only original member from the hardcore days, with PEPPER KEENAN being the the second longest serving (and most influential on the sonic shift) left.
Those big shoes have been filled, respectively, by NICK SHABATURA on drums (more on that later), and ex Down guitarist and current Pantera bass tech BOBBY LANDGRAF. There’ll be no tripping up with these two, that’s for sure.

GOOD GOD/BAAD MAN, then, is the latest chapter after that cabinet reshuffle, and one so big, it is split in two parts.
Within them both, we find a band who mix things up the spicy stuff more than a Texas BBQ rub or a fine Mississippi gumbo.

Opening with GOOD GOD?/FINAL DAWN, KEENAN and Co. enter with an Appalachian lesson in sludge and stoner, with plenty of girthy groove to get going. Like the following song, YOU OR ME, these two have tapped into the really early hard rock roots of Americana and blended in some Brit love of the psychedelic.

GIMME SOME MOORE is a boisterous callback to thise HC days and (most probaby) a nod to their last drummer, STANTON MOORE from the New Orleans funk band galactic. He filled the stool for the 2005 album, In The Arms Of God, and again between Mullin’s death until early this year. I need to point out that what you hear on this album is STANTON, as SHABATURA joined after the album was done.

There is a hint of the doom band Carhedral on THE HANDLER that has a real stoner boogie, while RUN FOR YOUR LIFE is a blue collar blues bonanza that acts as a calming (yeah, right) stopgap before part 2 kicks in.

The second part starts, obviously, with BAAD MAN and features a chuckle moment from me with a sample of the ‘Real bad man’ meme in the intro. It’s a railroad funk ride with a big chest and a sleazy swagger.

As we delve deeper, ASLEEP ON THE KILLING FLOOR is an energetic power plant of MC5 style chaos, which is juxtaposed by HANDCUFF COUNTY and SWALLOWING THE ANCHOR, both are fuzzed out, sexy and sleazy little numbers with a Rolling Stones tip of the hat.

The final blow comes in the form of FOREVER AMPLIFIED. The stoner piece is as soulful as it is stone solid in groove, with some gorgeous backing vocals during the closing jam.

Is GOOD GOD/BAAD MAN worth the wait? From this point of view, most definately. The band have taken a deep dive in what it means to be CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, and answered with an album that gets the fist pumping and the soul satisfied.
It may not not be extreme in execution, and flirts with metal with a turn of the heel, but what it does is deliver an album for the free willed, sideways thinking in us all.

Good god, is it a good album for real bad men and women? Yes, but I’ll a bad man to force that opinion.

GOOD GOD/ BAAD MAN is out now through Nuclear Blast records.

Available on major streaming platforms, on physical formats in a good record shop near you and as a digital download on the CORROSION OF CONFORMITY Bandcamp.