Crowbar (American band)

Crowbar
Crowbar performing at Mod club, Saint Petersburg, 2015. Left to right: Jeff Golden, Kirk Windstein, Matthew Brunson, Tommy Buckley
Background information
Origin	New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Genres	Sludge metal
Years active	1988–present
Labels	Zoo, E1 Music Gold Metal
Associated acts	Acid Bath, Black Label Society, Corrosion of Conformity, Down, Eyehategod, Soilent Green, Kingdom of Sorrow, Pantera, Superjoint Ritual, Valume Nob
Website	Official website
Members	Kirk Windstein Matthew Brunson Tommy Buckley Todd Strange
Past members	Jeff Golden Craig Nunenmacher Steve Gibb Kevin Noonan Matt Thomas Jimmy Bower Sammy Duet Tony Costanza Rex Brown Pat Bruders

Crowbar is an American sludge metal band from New Orleans, Louisiana, characterized by their extremely slow, low-keyed, heavy and brooding songs that also contain fast hardcore punk passages. Crowbar is considered to be one of the most influential metal bands to come out of the New Orleans metal scene. Their slow, heavy, and brooding style of metal is known to be influential in the sludge metal, doom metal, and stoner metal genres.

The band dates back to 1988, when Kirk Windstein joined the premiere hardcore punk band Shell Shock in New Orleans. He met Jimmy Bower, who was their drummer, and both quickly became friends. The band collapsed when Mike Hatch, their guitarist, committed suicide in late 1988 (some Pantera fans believe that this was the inspiration for the song "Hollow" from their 1992 album Vulgar Display of Power). The band, replacing Hatch with Kevin Noonan, carried on as Aftershock, where Windstein and Bower began to play low-tuned hardcore punk mixed with doom metal. Under that name they released a demo in mid-1989, and then renamed themselves WREQIUEM, with Mike Savoie, their bassist, leaving the band (He went on to direct music videos for Crowbar, Down, and Pantera), and Todd Strange joined them. Then in 1990 they renamed themselves The Slugs, and released a demo in mid-1990, but the band collapsed. Kirk considered becoming the guitarist for Exhorder. But Kirk and Todd reformed the band, with Craig Nunenmacher as the drummer, who was later replaced by Tommy Buckley (Soilent Green), and Kevin Noonan again on guitar. The band renamed themselves Crowbar in mid-1991.