Release Review: Down – Down IV Part I

When Rex Brown left Down I was worried. This titan of the bass playing world was going to be hard to replace, but enter Pat Bunders of Crowbar. Considering his relationship with fellow Crowbar bandmate Kirk Windstein (who would perform his last riffs on this EP), it made me more at ease with this prospect. When Down announced they were going to do no more albums and stick to EPs, I was admittedly disappointed but disappointment soon returned to pleasure as their EPs have been consistently brilliant. Down have always been influenced by Black Sabbath and they’ve made no secret about doing so. All the songs are clearly marked by Sabbath, from classic sludge opener ‘Levitation’ to Sabbath inspired anthem ‘Witchtripper’, this EP is ripe with riffs. But there are other influences apart from Sabbath, there are hints of Doom Metal, Sludge, Southern and Stoner Metal. One of the wise moves of using the EP format is that the band doesn’t suffer from ‘Down Fatique’, there is no time for filler tracks or overlong interludes which often break up an album. Even though this EP is closer to Sabbath than their previous work, at parts it feels as if Ozzy and co were to make a [...]