Down bassist Rex Brown is trying to remember what he’s done this last year. He mulls it over for a bit, false starting sentences, and humming into the phone as if recalling something trivial like a grocery list. “What have we been doing…” he begins with a throaty Texan drawl. A couple of seconds pass and we find cause for his disorientation: since September ‘07, Down has toured 31 countries – more places than the average person visits in a lifetime.
He highlights this with the giddy pleasure of an awe-struck tourist, confessing an eagerness to touch down in Australia, a country he likens with a “giant Texas”. “Oh,” he says finally, “We got off the road with Metallica in Europe about a month ago. And we’re going to re-release the last record…trying to come up with another track to put on there. As soon as we meet you guys we’re going to Tokyo for a day and then straight into main support for Metallica in the States.
“Lot of goddamn touring,” he continues. “We’re trying to take a break in between and finding our personal lives really are on hold.” He chuckles good-naturedly at the observation. “Part of the gig man, part of the gig.”
The first thing that jumps to mind when you picture Rex, is that long, straw-coloured Viking hair he’s sported since his Pantera days. Tough, unshaved and tattooed, he’s the quintessential metal head – just as much a fan of the genre as a player within it. Ex-Pantera, he fits in well with the rest of the Down mob. The band’s roll call is basically a word association game: think Phil Anselmo (vocals) and you think of Pantera too, on drums there’s Jimmy Bower (Eye Hate God), on guitars Pepper Keenan (Corrosion of Conformity) as well as Kirk Windstein (Crowbar).
Despite all these credentials, Down never set out to create a super-group. Originally a studio-based side project (then with Crowbar bassist, Todd Strange ) the band came together as a roster of close touring buddies with common musical drives and chemistry. While branded with the title by well-meaning fans, there’s an unfortunate implication that accompanies the term ‘super-group’. Sure, the word describes a band built on a foundation of solid musical experience, but it also insinuates that the group’s produce will be the perfect union of each member’s former successes. There’s always been a risk of Down being eclipsed by the achievements of its member’s original bands.
In ’95, Down (then with Strange) released their first record, NOLA. Rather than the pedigree metal animal that fans anticipated, it was a melange of classic rock, blues, distorted guitar thunder and larynx-bleeding vocals. It earned an appreciative thumbs-up from metal fans, unlike the 2002 follow-up A Bustle in Your Hedgerow, largely criticised for its sprawling, unfocused song structures. These problems were most likely exacerbated by NOLA’s rave reviews as well as fan disappointment at the outcome of seven years of anticipation between both releases.
While Bustle was in part the product of twenty-eight days of booze and drugs, Rex stands by the album as a worthy musical feat only made possible by long stretches of day and night shift-work. He also remembers it as a time when addiction took its greatest hold on him, recounting several anecdotes including his ‘accidental’ audition with the band during a drunken jam session, as well as Down’s first tour when his substance abuse was at its peak.
“Things started getting really out of control,” he explains, “I came home and just kept going and couldn’t turn that light switch off. I went through it several times going, ‘What’s the deal? I can handle this shit.’ I mean I was a functioning alcoholic for a long time. But it doesn’t work that way. Your body gives out….Now, I’m the healthiest I’ve been in a long time. Just being on the road and being able to play music with the guys that you love and have the kids really get off on it man, it’s a second blessing. As for Phil, the way he presents himself is a much different Phil than you’ve ever seen.”
Clear-headed as the band is, their new found sobriety isn’t the only the key to 2007’s winner of an album Over the Under. Like Down’s other records, it’s decidedly woolly in sound. Unlike Bustle, though, it has clear musical direction. The songs still kick you in the guts but they’re interspersed with dark melodies and dirty Black Sabbath grooves. Most importantly there’s the pleasant reminder that Anselmo has a pretty incredible singing voice. His long, soulful vocal stretches take precedent over the trademark roars he’s employed liberally throughout his career.
As a whole, the album wrestles with some fairly grim subject matter. Aside from the queasy hell of drug addiction, it touches on the tragic gunning-down of Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell, as well as the group’s battle with Hurricane Katrina in 2005. A Texas dweller at the time, Brown witnessed the displacement of his New Orleans-based band mates after the horrific aftermath.
“Imagine you’re whole fucking city was completely under water,” he says grimly. “Up to ten feet of water in your whole city and it’s under sea level. Really, take a moment to imagine…All the things that you once knew were completely demolished. Then with no federal aid or help to get you out of there. I think that would change your perspective. …” He pauses for a moment. “But you know what? You have to get over it, it’s called ‘life’, it’s called ‘change’, it’s inevitable.”
This is the same message that runs through Over the Under. While the album touches on some of the band’s sore spots, the songs aren’t about wound-licking. They’re about taking control of life in spite of disaster. In the process, the record proudly rebuts the argument that metal is all about doom and gloom.
“Touring this time ‘round it’s a lot cooler seeing the expressions on the kids’ faces and being up close and personal to ‘em,” Rex says. “It’s something I haven’t seen in ages, because we were always on huge stages with fire shooting out of our asses. We’re playing in a much more positive manner than the self-destructive ways you can get after so many years being at the top. We fucking made it out of there. That in itself is a blessing.”
Down will play three incendiary shows in Australia this month.
10 Oct – The Arena, Brisbane
11 Oct – UNSW Roundhouse, Sydney
12 Oct – The Palace Theatre, Melbourne
