My buddy John said that “Supernaut” by Black Sabbath was one of Frank Zappa’s favorite songs, which totally made me go, “Obviously” but then, also, “Wait, Zappa? Seriously?”

It does make sense. The drums. The groove. The riff. THE RIFF. Oh, it’s so good. So heavy. So much pace on it, too, but the weight of that riff is unbelievable. I could see Zappa vibing to that. Stroking his goatee. Just listen to this for a second:

My wife and I were listening to the song in the car and talking about it (all via John’s radio show, Oh Boy! 3am, which has playlists if you’re not up at that hour, and you too can check it out for stuff like this Tommy Bolin episode here) and I told her how that kind and era of Sabbath always makes me think of Down.

Down? Exactly.

Down doesn’t get discussed much. If you’re a 90s metal kid, you probably already know them, but for those that don’t - let me explain the connection.

Down were a side project, hence their relative obscurity. If you knew they existed in 1995, it was probably because you were already following one, if not several, of their main bands.

You had Phil Anselmo from Pantera, Pepper Keenan from Corrosion of Conformity, and a host of other metal scene characters (including Crowbar, Eyehategod, and you can go to wikipedia or whatever, but those two were my reasons to be checking them out).

Whenever I explain Down to people, I usually say they were like Black Sabbath crossing over with Lynyrd Skynyrd, plus a little ZZ Top thrown in for good measure (re: the guitars have a variation on a “soft” touch to them. They’re not attacking the strings so much as sitting on them. The feel and the touch are extremely present in Keenan’s approach and it shows. Plus, on top of all that, the whole band has some proper Texas groove and feel you just don’t automatically expect to hear in mid-90s metal).*

Keenan, in particular, had the guitar sounds coming on a whole other supernautical level.

Did I mention I was a guitar nerd? That was the real hook for me. Anselmo had that voice (and those shorts), but the guitars. The GUITARS. Down cranked out some killer licks which hooked me from the first time I heard them, which was after blindly buying a copy of Nola.

Pantera was coming off of Far Beyond Driven and their “look, we’re not Metallica, and we’re also more than the cowboys from hell band” style was in full swing. Dimebag was shredding, squealing, and coming into making magic like “Walk,” but Keenan was on some whole other s***.

I liked Corrosion of Conformity but I didn’t love them. “Vote with a Bullet” was probably the first song I heard. The video was on MTV and the local hard and indie rock station. “Big Problems” made it onto the Clerks soundtrack, and the palm-muting on “Clean My Wounds” would have made Billie Joe Armstrong proud, but none of that inspired me to plunk down the $14+ to play it through my crappy little boombox speakers.

And still, something was there. I knew Pepper Keenan and his band by name. I definitely watched for him in the guitar magazines because there was just something special. I knew what he was doing was hard to emulate. I liked that challenge.

Now, jumping all the way forward in time, I also know Down has gone on to put out lots of music, tour, and even this Dr. John cover that confused me on my YouTube home screen the other day, but when I think of the band I think of them in 1995 with their first album, which does indeed have a very special place in my heart. I did put $14+ on the counter at Gallery of Sound to get this one. I don’t exactly know why, because I am pretty sure I bought it without hearing anything, but I do know the reward I felt the minute I put it in and pressed play.

It opens with this count-off, crash, and riff:

That four on the floor is pummeling. Straight to the dancefloor with that one. Then the way the drums bounce when they come in behind it? I know it’s not a Texas shuffle, but don’t for a second think Billy Gibbons wouldn’t hear this and smile because of that feel.

From the moment Nola starts, you could sense there was another repertoire they were drawing from, entirely related but entirely separate from the worlds Pantera and Corrosion of Conformity were operating in.

Playing Down in 2026 makes me think of hearing Power Trip for the first time. I had a similar (but still, very different) reaction to them. That same feeling of a band playing exactly in a gap between their influences without trying or needing to split any of the differences. Both bands just own all of it, unapologetically.

But, back to Down - they had that ability to thrash, with some extra groove, always, and they never ever tried to be funky. Take the “Temptation’s Wings” riff for example. It reminds me of that. How he rides up on the low e and casually bends it all slow like. I just want to pick up a guitar and turn up as soon as I hear it.

The single, if we can call it that, should have been “Stone the Crow.” It’s anthemic. Super catchy, too:

Before I end up listing the full album, I have one more to stop myself at. Again, it’s all about the riff. Anselmo does what he ought to do on the vocals - and while he’s at it, air drum the snare part. Trust me. Note the steady quarters and the pulsed, stuttered 16ths. That is a backbone right there. And when the band lifts and rips together? It is magic. Hear it that way and then return to just Keenan’s guitar parts, because they’re too perfect on this one, all the way through.

Lifer. What a word, right? We had two versions of it when I was growing up. For one, it was to refer to the kids who would become adults without ever leaving the town we were from, and/or the adults who clearly had never left and therefore, by our teenage assessment, lacked the awareness that the world was bigger than the valley. Lifer also referred to anyone who was dedicated to an idea for life. There were straightedge lifers and junky lifers and hessians and metal heads and crust punk lifers.

Then there was “Lifer” by Down. The “I’m staring right back at my…sayyyelllff.” Over the riff. The chugga chugga palm muted stuff. The pentatonic flairs. The RIFFS.

Did I just write riff too many times? Probably. But a guitar nerd has to be a guitar nerd sometimes and this is one of those times. Sabbath will always rock. I don’t need Zappa to tell me. But for my generation, as a 90s guitar kid, the sounds on Down still knock me over.

Ps. Honorable mention to Phil Anselmo. And his shorts. Love those shorts. I will never not see a person in cut off camo pants and say “nice Anselmo’s.” I don’t care if it doesn’t make sense to the person I’m saying it to because once in a while, it does, and that’s worth it.

Anselmo’s scowl had as much to do with me coming to Down as Keenan’s guitar. It’s like the combo was what signaled “this is too much for you not to find out” to me. He’s a complicated guy in more ways than one. Everybody in Pantera was. I think remembering the smoking, the drinking, the strip clubs, the fun, the sheer Texas energy they brought to everything (including his shorts!) counts for something.

Whatever it was that gave his throat its impressive coarseness is part of the lore. I still don’t know how he does it, but that essence of not needing to emote words to make an impression, there’s a charm to it.

Pps. * it’s a New Orleans / southern thing, not specifically Texas. AND, Keenan uses crazy heavy picks against relatively heavy gauge strings, typically tuned way down (like C# down for Down, sometimes all the way to C!). What sounds like a “soft” touch turns out to just be heavy, as I’ve learned.

Ppps. I got a bunch of my Pepper Keenan pick and string thoughts from an interview I also wrote about here.