Corrosion Of Conformity's Mike Dean has talked about the band's influence on Metallica, during the band's Load era. Load, which was released in 1995, showcased a much looser change in style for the Big Four act. Speaking exclusively to eonmusic at Download Festival, Dean said that Metallica had taken the seventies-tinged style, and brought it into the current age.

Agreeing that Corrosion Of Conformity's Deliverance and Wiseblood albums weren't that far removed from Load and its follow-up Reload, Dean said; "Yeah, I think there’s some similarities."

The bassist continued; "I think they were looking to tap into; “Where do we go from here? We’ve done the crunchy, chunky, fast” – they were looking for some new kind of territory to explore, and I think they did kind of explore some of the heavy seventies’ thing that we were doing, and mixed it with the contemporary thing and try to make it relevant. I think that’s an attractive thing to musicians who are getting to be more musical in their song writing."

Going on to talk about expectations for Wiseblood, Mike said that the band's record label had been disappointed by its sales, but had lofty expectations; "I think artistically, we were satisfied that we did what we wanted to do, but when you’re on a label like Sony like that at the time, in the 1990s when they’re looking for what is the next fucking Nirvana, you know; “What is going to make us some money in this rock thing”, and we know that we’re not going to have that commercial success, we know what we’re into - it’s just a ride for us, so we’re going to use this ride. It certainly should have made them some money from the numbers, but their expectations were shaped by like Mariah Carey or whatever at the time. But artistically, I think it’s one of the best, it holds up."

Read the entire interview at eonmusic.

Corrosion Of Conformity and Orange Goblin will team up for a co-headline tour of the UK this fall, with support from Fireball Ministry and Black Moth. Tickets at livenation.co.uk.

Dates:

October
26 - Engine Rooms - Southampton, England
27 - The Institute - Birmingham, England
28 - Rock City - Nottingham, England
30 - The Ritz - Manchester, England

November
1 - O2 ABC - Glasgow, Scotland
2 - The Plug - Sheffield, England
3 - Cardiff University Great Hall - Cardiff, Wales
4 - The Forum - London, England

(Photo - Dean Karr)