"Levitation" kicks off the album with a blast of sludgy and doomy metal. The first thing you will notice about the album is stylistic shift of the band on the album. Moving away from the more modern and slick earlier albums, Down IV is very raw and grimy. Singer Phil Anselmo delivers a great performance as usual, sounding very gruff and ragged here, matching the roughness of the guitars. New bassist Patrick Bruders adds some more finesse to the bass playing, not to knock former bassist Rex Brown. Guitarists Pepper Keenan and Kirk Windstein sound great as usual on the track, and the departure of Windstein after the completion of this EP was a sad loss for the band. In any case, a great opening track with some mystical and occult-like lyrics. Lead single "Witchtripper" is what initially attracted me to the EP. Think of Queens of the Stone Age meets Slayer and you get the sound of track. Incredibly heavy and doomy, it is my pick for the best song that the band has ever done. Anselmo's low pitched vocal interjections add a great element of paranoia and uneasiness to the track. Drummer Jimmy Bower pounds away in spectacular fashion, and is a great drummer. The song's creepy lyrics seem to concern dark magic and witchcraft, and suite the deep, growling music very well.
Down IV continues on with "Open Coffins". Very confrontational and hostile, the song is most traditional Down song on the album. Sonically, the song is less sludge and more Pantera-like than any other track. A decent song, but much more modern rock than the very doomy and creepy first two tracks. "The Curse Is A Lie" is a slow-burner of a tune, very hypnotic and trippy. The cryptic lyrics made no sense to me, but certainly sounded cool atop the deep and downtuned sludge-metal riffs and rock-solid drumming. Black Sabbath were obviously a big influence on the direction of this album, and their influence can clearly be heard on the direction of this track. A pretty good song, I love the heaviness and rawness of the EP.
"This Work Is Timeless" is a thundering steam-roller of metal magic. Very groove-based, Anselmo works great when he has a huge guitar groove-riff to work with, and the song is again in the vein of Pantera. However, the track contains elements of progressive metal, with quite a few complicated musical changes and drumming patterns. I love the end of the song, and the twin leads sound hauntingly beautiful. Anselmo's effect-covered vocals repeat over and over at the end, increasing the tension before coming back for one more round of riffs and vocal flexing. A complicated song, but quite good. Down IV closes with the doomsday-sounding "The Misfortune Teller". Again, the lyrics are pretty cryptic and apocalyptic, par for the course for Anselmo, who has penned some pretty complex lyrics in his day. The riff is again quite heavy, plodding and Iommi-like in heaviness. Massive.
"Down IV" is very heavy, raw, and pissed off. There is no "Stone The Crow" on this album. Instead, we get six very deep and dark songs about witches, the end of the world, and of course, death. I personally like the new direction, but the depth of its darkness and heaviness may be a bit much for some. I look forward to the next EP.
Rating-8/10
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