Straight Outta NOLA: New ‘Crescent City Carnage’ Comp Highlights New Orleans’ Heavy Underground

Image courtesy of Crage Records

With all the controversy swirling around scene fixture Phil Anselmo this year and ongoing worries over Mike IX Williams’ health concerns, it’s easy to lose the forest for the trees, and forget that New Orleans is still home to one of the most potent heavy music scenes in the country. Down, EyeHateGod, and Crowbar tend to rack in most of the attention that drifts down NOLA way (and their status as OGs is unfuckwithable), but there’s a healthy underground roiling away beneath most peoples’ radars. A new comp, Crescent City Carnage Vol. I, seeks to remedy that by bringing together 10 unreleased and/or obscure tracks from the fringes of the city’s homegrown metal, punk, and hardcore community.

Most of the bands share current of former members of heavyweights like Soilent Green, haarp, Hawg Jaw, Spickle, and the aforementoned EyeGateGod/Crowbar juggernaut, because eveyrone knows everyone in NOLA. While New Orleans is best-known for its sludgy, slow, syrupy musical output, the standout tracks on this particular comp belong to the shorter, faster, snappier punk bands like Short Leash and GLUT, as well as Ossacrux’s epic crust and Fat Stupid Ugly People’s beer-soaked crossover.

The whole thing’s worth a listen, and is available now from Crage Records. Stream the whole damn thing below: