Corrosion Of Conformity’s reunion with Pepper Keenan will see the band working on “leftover” material from previous album sessions.
Many of COC’s albums – including Blind, Deliverence and Wiseblood – were produced by John Custer. And drummer Reed Mullin says a bunch of old demo tapes recorded with Custer have turned up, and that they feature a number of riffs that didn’t make it on to any albums.
COC confirmed in September that frontman Keenan will return to the fold in 2015 for an album and tour. Keenan has spent the recent years working with Phil Anselmo’s Down and COC have recorded two albums without him.
Mullin tells Indy Week: “Pepper and I were talking the other day, and we’ve got some riffs left over from that era that I never used for COC stuff, and he didn’t use for Down.
“They’ve just been sitting around from when we used to do demos at Jag Studios. He was, like, ‘Man, I found a couple cassettes. Remember those cassettes we used to do with Custer down at Jag?’
“He found a cache of some good riffage in his house down there in New Orleans that I guess he had packed away. And, for some reason, I can remember a lot of the riffs those guys write.There’s a song on the new COC album, the three-piece, and the music is music Pepper and I had jammed back in 1989, and I ended up just putting lyrics to it.
“It’s called Tarquinius Superbus, after the last Roman king. For some reason, I remember a lot of the stuff they do, so I’m kind of like an encyclopedia of a lot of their riffs.”
Mullin also gives more details on COC’s plans for 2015, saying they will work on the album before playing their first shows with Keenan back in the fold in March.
He adds: “I think the first shows that we’re going to do with the four-piece are going to be in March. Before then, I guess we’re going be working on the new album. Woody’s going to have a baby in April, so we’re going to take a little time off in there, and then get back to touring with Pepper.
“He’s taking time off from Down and he makes so much damn money doing Down, we’ve got to get him while we can get him. He’s really excited about it, and we’re awful excited to do it.”
