COC: Pepper Keenan (vocals, guitar); Woody Weatherman (guitar); Mike Dean (Fender Rhodes piano, bass); Reed Mullin (drums). Additional personnel includes: John Custer (guitar); Warren Haynes (slide guitar); Doug Wilson (piano); Teresa Williams, Chen Chapman (background vocals). Few contemporary hard rock bands carry the musical torch lit by Black Sabbath with the kind of conviction displayed by Corrosion Of Conformity, aka the now-abbreviated COC. With AMERICA'S VOLUME DEALER, these purveyors of '70s drenched stoner/groove-rock add new dimensions to their sound. There's a deep undercurrent of almost country-like Southern rock here, on tracks such as "Stare Too Long" and "Take What You Want," that fits neatly with the band's trademark doom-laden low-tuned riffing still found in abundance in "Congratulations Song" and "Over Me." Some of this country flavor could arguably be attributed to producer John Custer (who collaborated on "Take What You Want"), who also worked with the now defunct Cry Of Love. Technically retro and presented in the spirit of '70s hard rock, AMERICA'S VOLUME DEALER oozes with dry, abrasive production values evocative of the pre-digital era; and while the band finally bit the bullet and abbreviated their name, there's nothing abbreviated about their sound.

• Genre: Pop
• Format: Vinyl
• Released: 07/22/2016