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| Corrosion of Conformity | |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Raleigh, North Carolina, United States |
| Genre(s) | Hardcore punk (early) Crossover thrash (early) Heavy metal Sludge metal |
| Years active | 1982–present |
| Label(s) | Sanctuary, Columbia, Metal Blade, Relativity, Caroline |
| Associated acts | Down No Labels Leadfoot UNICEF Metallica Pantera Disturbed Motörhead Soundgarden The Allman Brothers Galactic |
| Website | www.coc.com |
| Members | |
| Pepper Keenan Woody Weatherman Mike Dean Jason Patterson |
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| Former members | |
| Reed Mullin Karl Agell Phil Swisher Simon Bob Sinister Eric Eycke Robert Stewart Benji Shelton |
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Corrosion of Conformity (also known as C.O.C.) is an American heavy metal band from Raleigh, North Carolina formed in 1982.
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Corrosion of Conformity (C.O.C.) was formed in Raleigh, North Carolina by bassist and vocalist Mike Dean, guitarist Woody Weatherman and drummer Reed Mullin in early 1980s.[1] Their hardcore punk-oriented 20-track debut Eye for an Eye—the only album featuring the vocalist Eric Eycke—was released in 1984 (later re-released by Caroline Records during 1990).[2] Soon after, Eycke left the band and C.O.C. continued as a three-piece with Dean and Mullin sharing the vocal duties on the 1985's follow-up Animosity.[1] In 1987, COC recruited Simon Bob Sinister away from their fellow Carolina band and Death Records labelmates, Ugly Americans. The band's 1987 release, Technocracy featured the hectic thrash musicianship of COC with a cleaner vocal style than they had in the past.
Mike Dean departed in 1987 and Simon Bob soon followed, leaving COC in a state of flux for a couple of years. The remaining members re-tuned the line up and searched for a new vocalist, even posting a classified in Flipside Fanzine for a singer similar in sound to "James Hetfield or Ozzy Osbourne" to go with their new metal sound. Caroline Records released some old tracks with Mike singing during this time with the aptly named Six Songs With Mike Singing EP.
After much searching, Karl Agell was recruited on vocals, Phil Swisher on bass and Pepper Keenan as a second guitarist. COC gravitated towards a more straightforward heavy metal sound. By 1991's Blind they had become a heavy metal band. Blind was the first COC album to receive mainstream attention. The video for "Vote With A Bullet" received airplay on MTV and the album cracked the Billboard Heatseekers chart in early 1992. The album has sold around 250,000 copies in the US to date.
In 1993, Agell and Swisher left the band and formed the band Leadfoot, Dean returned and Keenan took over lead vocals. The following year COC signed to Columbia Records, and the release of Deliverance saw the band move toward Southern metal, a sound that they also carried onto the Wiseblood and America's Volume Dealer albums.
Deliverance was the band's biggest selling album. This was mainly due to the singles "Albatross" and "Clean My Wounds" becoming Top 20 hits on rock radio and the album managed to spend almost 4 months on the Billboard Top 200, peaking at No.155. On the Heatseekers chart, it peaked at No.5 and lasted almost a year on that particular chart. US sales for the album were just over 440,000 by the end of 2005 and this album should be eligible for Gold status within the next few years.
Wiseblood was released in October 1996. Despite producing a Top 30 radio hit with "Drowning In A Daydream" and a worldwide tour with Metallica, the album failed to match the sales set by the previous album. Total US sales to date are just over 150,000. COC was nominated for a 1998 Grammy Award in the "Best Metal Performance" category for the song "Drowning in a Daydream".
Soon after the release of Wiseblood, Columbia dropped COC, who then moved to Sanctuary Records. The band released its first album for its new label, America's Volume Dealer, in November 2000. The album was even more of a commercial failure than Wiseblood not even managing to make the Billboard Top 200. However, the single, "Congratulations Song", did give the band another Top 30 hit. No videos were made from the album. Mullin left the band in 2001. Since then the band has worked with a series of drummers: Jimmy Bower of Eyehategod, local Raleigh percussion professor Merritt Partridge, Stanton Moore of Galactic and Reed's former drum technician Jason Patterson, who previously played drums in the Raleigh-based rock band Cry of Love.
In April 2005, COC released In The Arms of God to much critical acclaim. The album performed much better than their previous effort, debuting at No.108 on the Billboard Top 200 and even topping the Heatseekers chart. This was achieved without even one radio hit from the album. A video was made for the song "Stonebreaker" which saw airplay on MTV2's recently revived Headbanger's Ball. The band spent the rest of the year touring the US and Canada. They were the opening acts for Motörhead and Disturbed and also went on headlining tours with Crowbar, Fu Manchu, Alabama Thunderpussy and Danko Jones all providing support. A European tour was scheduled for September/October 2005 but was later cancelled, after Hurricane Katrina ravaged Keenan's adopted hometown of New Orleans. A co-headlining UK tour with Clutch commenced in January 2006.
In recent years COC has mixed elements of stoner rock with their metal sound. They have also collaborated with a number of other artists: James Hetfield of Metallica contributed vocals to the song "Man or Ash" on Wiseblood; Warren Haynes of the Allman Brothers' Band and Gov't Mule played slide guitar on "Stare Too Long" on America's Volume Dealer; and Stanton Moore of Galactic played drums on In The Arms of God.
Members of COC have also participated in collaborations: Keenan plays guitar with the metal supergroup Down, and Dean contributed vocals to a track titled "Access Babylon" on Dave Grohl's Probot project.
The band is currently on a hiatus while Pepper records and tours with Down. This has led many to believe a new COC album will not be released until 2009 or 2010.
| (1982) |
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| (1983-1984) |
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| (1984-1986) |
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| (1986-1987) |
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| (1987-1988) |
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| (1988-1989) |
(C.O.C. on hiatus) |
| (1989-1993) |
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| (1993-2001) Classic lineup |
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| (2001-2002) |
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| (2002-2003) |
(C.O.C. on hiatus) |
| (2003-2004) |
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| (2004-2005) |
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| (2005-2007) |
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| (2007-present) |
(C.O.C. on hiatus) |
| Date of Release | Title | Label | Chart positions | US sales |
| 1983 | Eye for an Eye | No Core/Toxic Shock/Caroline Records | ||
| October 1985 | Animosity | Metal Blade Records | ||
| 1991 | Blind | Relativity Records | 250,000 | |
| November 27, 1994 | Deliverance | Columbia Records | 155 | 440,000 |
| October 12, 1996 | Wiseblood | Columbia Records | 104 | 150,000 |
| October 10, 2000 | America's Volume Dealer (Available as Dualdisc) | Sanctuary Records | ||
| August 7, 2001 | Live Volume (CD, DVD and DVDA) | Sanctuary Records | ||
| April 5, 2005 | In the Arms of God | Sanctuary Records | 108 |
| Date of Release | Title | Label | Chart positions | US sales |
| 1987 | Technocracy | Metal Blade Records | ||
| 1989 | Six Songs With Mike Singing: 1985 | Metal Blade Records |
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