Hope ya’ love it slow, hard and heavy, because the rebirth of CROWBAR is upon us.

Make no mistake: the massively influential merchants of sludge never went away. But as the band’s 25th year of existence dawns and their tenth full length album is unleashed upon the world, cofounder, frontman and riff-making warhorse Kirk Windstein is determined to give the band he unapologetically calls his “baby” the total dedication it demands. The unrestrained push and relentless concentration surrounding Symmetry in Black is music to the ears - figuratively and literally – for new adherents and the legion of underground fans and fellow musicians who swore allegiance to Crowbar long ago.

Symmetry in Black is the perfect album to arrive in the number ten slot of the Crowbar catalog, a penultimate achievement embodying the early sloth of doom touchstone Obedience Thru Suffering (1991), the moody dissonance of modern classic Odd Fellows Rest (1998) and the crisp thunder of the album’s eOne Metal predecessor, Sever the Wicked Hand (2011), with nuggets of Crowbar’s storied history sprinkled throughout.

The crushing signature sound of Crowbar is at its peak on Symmetry in Black, the band’s most diverse yet cohesive release. It was coproduced with fellow New Orleans resident Duane Simoneaux, who worked on Sever the Wicked Hand and mixed by Josh Wilbur, whose diverse credits include work with Lamb Of God, Gojira and Killer Be Killed.

“We needed to move our sound forward but at the same time, make sure everything stayed 100% true to who and what we are,” Windstein explains. “The album is heavy, dark and killer. There’s everything we are on here. It’s just Crowbar 2014. We’re really proud and excited. And where we stand with Crowbar right now, we can only go up.”

Crowbar’s influence looms over every doom band started since, even stretching to NWOAHM bands like Unearth, Chimaira and Killswitch Engage, whose bassist, Mike D’Antonio, did the artwork for Crowbar’s last album. Throwdown covered “Planets Collide” back in 2007. Underground bands like Primitive Man and Vengeful have tackled Crowbar classics, as well. Hatebreed covered “All I Had (I Gave)” and the band’s frontman, Jamey Jasta, is such a fan he started the Kingdom of Sorrow side-project with Windstein. He eventually came onboard as a Crowbar manager and advisor, as well.

The sludgy, swampy, boundary pushing, ball-busting spirit of Crowbar and their extended family is as synonymous with New Orleans as Black Metal is with Scandinavia, old-school hip-hop with the Boogie Down Bronx and hair metal with Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. The resilience of the hurricane hardened populace, the scent of slow-cooking seafood, the horrific haunts of The House of Shock and the ferocity of the never-sparkling, grim killers of Anne Rice’s old-school vampire books all lurk somewhere within the Crowbar sound, oozing with the primitive weight of Black Sabbath and Saint Vitus.

Windstein has cleared his calendar in order to put every ounce of his focus into what he lovingly calls “the family business,” charging full-throttle into worldwide touring in support of Crowbar’s new masterpiece, together with drummer Tommy Buckley (by his side for nearly a decade), longtime guitarist Matt Brunson and new bassist Jeff Golden.

“I’ve heard Lemmy say it and I’ll say the same thing: there’s been times where I was the only member in Crowbar, just like Lemmy in Motörhead,” says Windstein. “When we did the Lifesblood for the Downtrodden record [in 2005], there wasn’t a band. That’s why Craig Nunenmacher, who was in Black Label Society, played drums. And Rex Brown, who is still a great friend, played bass and produced. We jammed, but there wasn’t a band.”

Crowbar in 2014 is rock solid, with everyone in the quartet unified by a shared vision.

Crowbar’s New Orleans DNA is shared by their brothers in bands like Eyehategod, Soilent Green, Goatwhore and Graveyard Rodeo, who started around the same time. Each group is an innovator in its own right, markedly different from one another, but sharing some sort of intangible vibe. Rock has been in Windstein’s blood from day one.

“I was born in 1965 in England,” he explains. “We didn’t leave until ’66. My dad was there for the whole Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, The Beatles thing as a young guy in the Air Force. He was a Stones fanatic that was his favorite band. Elvis, too.”

Kirk Windstein fell in love with hard rock thanks to Kiss and Van Halen, before going headfirst into the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. The debut records from Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax were super important for him, too. It’s funny to think about now, but the man whose career has been defined by doom was once in thrash bands. But the deeper he delved into the Black Sabbath catalog, with a little extra spice from The Melvins seminal Gluey Porch Treatments debut and the crossover rumblings of the late Peter Steele’s pre-Type O Negative band Carnivore, Windstein found his mu