“It’s been two years…” begins Crowbar vocalist / guitarist Kirk Windstein, as he reflects on the unfortunate pandemic-related delay of the release of his band’s 12th studio album, Zero And Below, which will finally see the light of day on March 4 via MNRK Heavy. “It’s the first time in my life that I’ve done a record, but it hasn’t come out. So, I’ve had two years to listen to it… and two years later, I’m still really, really happy with it. To me, that’s a great sign that it’s a strong record. I’m so proud of this record! I think it’s the next step for us, I truly do.”               

Throughout the 30 years of Crowbar, numerous different members have come in and out of the band. Zero And Below marks the recorded debut of bassist Shane Wesley. “It’s a weird thing, but it’s a wonderful thing,” explains the sludge metal ambassador of New Orleans. “When I parted ways with Down in 2013, which thankfully I’m back in and loving it, everything’s great! I grew up with those guys. When we first put it out there – Kirk’s doing Crowbar and that’s it – believe it or not, Shane was actually the first dude to show up, to try out. He’s a nice dude and he’s great, but at the time he was 25 years old. It was a little odd for me that he was so much… of course he’s still that much younger than me. At first, I was like, the kid kills it, but…” 

“Anyway, we stayed in touch with one another, stayed friends. When (bassist) Big Todd was leaving the band, we were in Europe (in 2018), and he literally said, ‘I’ve got to go home.’ We’re like, ‘Oh God!’. So, Robin (Kirk’s wife), actually texted Shane – ‘Can you learn 15 songs? We’ll fly you out.’ He was like, ‘Yes, yes, and yes!’ He was all excited about it. The fact that we loved him from the get-go, and we really did. He’s a great dude. Todd had run his course – which I absolutely appreciate. I love Big T for coming back and giving it a shot; it’s just not for everybody. It’s a hard f*cking life. But he did his thing, got married; I’m so happy for him. He lives in Dallas, Texas now. But Shane’s great! He’s an amazing musician. He has a jazz degree in music from the University of Southern Mississippi. This kid – I call him kid, he’s 33 now; everybody’s a kid to me. He rips! I don’t think I showed up one time when he was doing his bass tracks. I said, ‘Shane, you do your thing, and I’ll hear it tomorrow.’ And I never asked him to change one single thing. He’s a beast! And writing-wise as well, he had a good bit of riffs to contribute as well. Shane is officially a full-fledged member of the band. He’s not a hired gun. He’s a member and a great friend. Extremely intelligent, extremely talented dude. And he couldn’t have a better attitude.”

The artwork adorning Zero And Below, created by Marcelo Vasco (Slayer, Hatebreed, Machine Head), perfectly encapsulates all that is Crowbar, including the Fleur-De-Lis. And the album title fits perfectly as the wintery image certainly feels like zero degrees. Additionally, the open burial plot awaiting the coffin’s arrival is undoubtedly below ground. “Honestly, hindsight’s 20/20, but I came up with the title before Covid,” states Windstein. “If you asked me, ‘How’s everything feeling these days?’ I’d say, Zero And Below. Like it can’t get any worse, or I don’t want to jinx any of it. When I saw the initial thing, I don’t even think that we asked him to change one little thing. It’s great, and it fits. To me, it’s a darker album in some ways. Maybe that’s wishful thinking, but to me it’s a darker album than the last few. I tried to do more doom elements, darker lyrics, the whole vibe. For me, it’s a win-win.”

Speaking of darker lyrics, the first single from Zero And Below, “Chemical Godz”, and the song that comes before it on the album, “Confess To Nothing” – both seem to be dealing with drug abuse. Furthermore, “the needle” is mentioned – is that a reference to heroin, specifically? “I mean, yes, but my thing is – thank God I’ve never used heroin. For me, I mainly write in metaphors,” begins Kirk. “But yeah, in that particular song, I’m talking about all the friends I had, that I’ve unfortunately lost because of that. I’ve always written about alcohol and drug abuse because it’s therapeutic to… and it’s really kind of influential, for lack of a better term, to a lot of people. One thing I can say, and I really appreciate it – there’s barely a day in my life that goes by that someone doesn’t hit me up in Messenger or something and thank me for helping them through life. They had drug addiction, this and that. Even since I’ve really been hitting the gym, taking it seriously. I was 250 pounds, and I ain’t the tallest guy in the world. But I’m under 200 pounds now. That’s a big accomplishment. And these guys and girls are saying, ‘I’ve been meaning to get back to a healthy lifestyle.’ It’s just positive. Some people are like, ‘Everything’s doom and gloom.’ I’m like, no, no, no. As dark as some of these lyrics get, other than maybe the first or second record, which this is now our 12th, there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. There’s always hope.” 

“We’ve all been there – well, not all of us – but I have. I’ve seen shit that I will never even mention, how dark a person’s life can be. When someone is so physically and mentally low and addicted, I’ve seen it all. I tend to write about that kind of stuff to maybe give me a wake-up call here and there as well. I still have my struggles, but like I said, thank God I never used heroin, or what I consider hard drugs. I did have a 20-year battle with cocaine; I won’t say addiction, but abuse. I like to be open about it because it helps people. It helps people to say, ‘Hey man, I love his music and if he can have a problem with this, so can I.’ That’s where a lot of my lyrical content comes from, and it always has. It’s positive, but it’s a darker side of life.”

Crowbar made an outstanding video for “Chemical Godz”; then YouTube slapped an age restriction on it, with the warning, “This video may be inappropriate for some users.” A move that severely limits the number of views. “Well, it bothered me in the sense that people couldn’t watch it, but it didn’t surprise me,” admits Kirk. “Justin Reich, who did the video, he had shot that footage beforehand. Ironically, he shot this footage and he presented it to another band. Their record label said, ‘No, it’s too dark.’ Well, apparently it was too dark. You’ve got to sign into YouTube – you could be 12, but you’ve got to say you’re 18 in order to watch the video. It’s really shot well. It’s top-quality stuff. Justin did the ‘Dream In Motion’ video from my solo album. He did that in a day and a half, and the first cut that he did, I saw it, I said, ‘Don’t change a f*cking thing! This is brilliant. This is exactly what I wanted.’”

The first four songs on Zero And Below are up-tempo, heavy, and full of ultra-thick riffs. Then track five, “Denial Of The Truth”, is almost like an intermission. And it seems to be a song of hope, emitting positive vibes. “For me, I hope that everything I write gives somebody some kind of hope,” concedes Kirk. “Life is tough. I’ve been trying to stay away from it a little bit, but I get on Facebook every morning and so-and-so passed away. This guy passed away, this guy’s wife died, this guy’s kid. Does it ever stop? Life is not necessarily… I’ll say this… it is dark, it is hard. But if you make it the best you can do, it can be very, very enjoyable. I’m a hell of a lot happier at 57 than I was at 45, and a hell of a lot healthier. But I’ve lived it.”

“It’s Always Worth The Gain” is the only song on Zero And Below that drummer Tommy Buckley has a writing credit on. It’s very percussive in nature; a drum-driven number. The lyric, “Burning for eternity, the fire that’s inside of me,” is Kirk Windstein in a nutshell as his creative flame never dims. “Thank you, and I’m going to tell you what – I wrote that song in about seven-and-a-half-minutes, on the spot, in the studio. What I did was, I said, ‘We need a rock and roll, call and answer.’ I told Duane Simoneaux, our producer, I said, ‘We have never had a call and answer, where I sing.’ Actually, I was thinking of the song, the title track from Motörhead’s Rock ‘n’ Roll. The reason I gave Tommy a writing credit, he didn’t write any riffs or anything. I said, ‘Dude, when I tell you to f*cking go off on the drums, I want you to go as crazy as you can, without ruining the song of course. Just go for it.’ He’s like, ‘You sure old man?’ Just go for it, dude. So, I wrote that, and we did a click track. Tommy came in; put it this way, I was so impressed with the drumming that I actually skipped two lines of vocals because he was too busy. But I told Duane, ‘We’re keeping that! I’ll just lay back on the busy drum parts.’ I’m glad you mentioned that song because it’s one of my favorites. I can listen to that thing 25 times a day.”

“Zero And Below” is the only track written solely by Kirk, the others are all collaborative efforts. “The outro, that is actually the first time we’ve ever had an acoustic guitar on a Crowbar record,” beams Kirk. “I said, ‘Duane, do you want to grab a 12-string?’ He said, ‘No. I want you to single note an octave lower, and single note an octave higher.’ And that’s what you got. It sounds like a 12-string guitar, but it’s actually a six-string twice.” 

Lyrically, “Zero And Below” appears to be an anti-suicide song, as evidenced by the words: “Please don’t end it all… There’s no coming back, never fade to black.” “Yeah… once again, it may also touch upon drug stuff. I hate to constantly touch upon the drug subject, but it’s just something that I’ve always written about. Like I said, I’ve had my share of struggles, God knows. And I’ve had so many – I can’t count them on two hands and two feet – friends that have OD’d and died. But it’s also anti-suicidal. Like, please don’t end it all. Honestly, I tend to just write what I’m feeling at the moment. And a lot of songs, people are like, ‘What’s it about?’ I don’t even know. And it’s true! I just wrote something down. Sometimes my hand cannot write as fast as my brain works. I’ll just scribble down stuff, not that it’s not important or anything. Not that I don’t love it 100%. If you go back to a song like ‘High Rate Extinction’, it’s metaphors. That song’s actually about alcohol talking to me.” 

“At the end of the day, as long as it is something that when I listen back to it, I enjoy it, and I think I’ve accomplished something. I’m proud of myself; us guys, the whole band. I don’t want to act like I’m a one-man band. People don’t realize, (drummer) Tommy Buckley has been in this f*cking band since 2004. And (guitarist) Matt Brunson has been in this band since 2006. Shane’s only been in it for a few years, yeah. But people are like, ‘You’re always changing members.’ Not really. Two of the dudes have been around damn near f*cking 20 years. These guys have all given… like I tell ‘em, it ain’t like I’m flying first class. It ain’t like while we’re doing an overnight drive in a f*cking van cause we’re going to play a festival, it ain’t like I’m laying in a bunk; I’m in a f*cking van. We’re all in this together. So, you either love it, or you don’t belong here. Guess what? Thankfully, they love it! And that’s what makes for the strong band that I truly believe Crowbar is.”

(Photos by Justin Reich)