''Wiseblood'' is the fifth studio album by American heavy metal band

Corrosion of Conformity Corrosion of Conformity (also known as COC) is an American heavy metal band from Raleigh, North Carolina, formed in 1982. The band has undergone multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with guitarist Woody Weatherman as the sole const ...

. It was released on October 15, 1996 by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

, the band's second and final album for the label. Its name comes from the novel ''

Wise Blood ''Wise Blood'' is the Debut novel, first novel by American author Flannery O'Connor, published in 1952 in literature, 1952. The novel was assembled from disparate stories first published in ''Mademoiselle (magazine), Mademoiselle'', ''Sewanee Rev ...

'', written by

Southern Gothic Southern Gothic is an artistic subgenre of fiction, country music, film and television that are heavily influenced by Gothic elements and the American South. Common themes of Southern Gothic include storytelling of deeply flawed, disturbing or ...

author

Flannery O'Connor Mary Flannery O'Connor (March 25, 1925August 3, 1964) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. She wrote two novels and 31 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries. She was a Southern writer who often ...

Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...

's lead vocalist

James Hetfield James Alan Hetfield (born August 3, 1963) is an American musician. He is the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, co-founder and a main songwriter of heavy metal band Metallica. He is mainly known for his intricate rhythm playing, but occasionall ...

provides backing vocals on "Man or Ash". The song "Drowning in a Daydream" was nominated for

Best Metal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance is an award presented at the Grammy Awards to recording artists for works (songs or albums) containing quality performances in the heavy metal music genre. The Grammy Awards is an annual ceremony, where ...

at the

40th Grammy Awards The 40th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 25, 1998, at Radio City Music Hall, New York City. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Rock icon Bob Dylan, Alison Krauss & Union Station, and R. Kelly were the ...

ceremony (which went to

Tool A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates ba ...

for "

Ænema "Ænema" is a song by rock band Tool, released as the third single from their second major-label release ''Ænima''. Adam Jones made a video for the song using stop-motion animation; it is included in the ''Salival'' box set. The song reach ...

"). The album had sold 130,000 copies by 1999, selling less than '' Blind'' and ''

Deliverance ''Deliverance'' is a 1972 American survival thriller film produced and directed by John Boorman, and starring Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, and Ronny Cox, with the latter two making their feature film debuts. The screenplay was adapted ...

.''

Reception

''Wiseblood'' received a mixed-to-positive review from

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine, who gave the album four stars out of five. He described ''Wiseblood'' as the "closest Corrosion of Conformity have gotten to old-school heavy metal, yet their fondness for

industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

soundbites and thrash-metal keeps the group sounding contemporary." However, Erlewine stated that it "doesn't have half the hooks of its predecessor, which means it sounds great while its playing, but it disappears into the abyss once it's finished." Despite receiving mixed reviews, ''Wiseblood'' peaked at number 104 on the ''Billboard'' 200; this was the band's highest position on the chart for 22 years, until ''

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'', which peaked at number 67. It also peaked at number two on the

Heatseekers Infrared homing is a passive weapon guidance system which uses the infrared (IR) light emission from a target to track and follow it seamlessly. Missiles which use infrared seeking are often referred to as "heat-seekers" since infrared is radi ...

chart. However, it only spent two weeks on the US ''Billboard'' 200. One of the album's singles, "Drowning in a Daydream", peaked at number 27 on the

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chart.

Track listing

Japanese edition

Personnel

Corrosion of Conformity *

Pepper Keenan Pepper J. Keenan (born May 8, 1967) is an American guitarist and vocalist, best known for his work with heavy metal bands Corrosion of Conformity and Down. He joined Corrosion of Conformity in 1989, but did not become the lead singer until the ...

– lead vocals, rhythm guitar *Woody Weatherman – lead guitar * Mike Dean – bass guitar *

Reed Mullin Reed or Reeds may refer to: Science, technology, biology, and medicine * Reed bird (disambiguation) * Reed pen, writing implement in use since ancient times * Reed (plant), one of several tall, grass-like wetland plants of the order Poales * R ...

– drums Additional personnel *

– background vocals on "Man or Ash" (uncredited)

Chart positions

Album

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'' (United States)

Singles

References

{{Authority control Corrosion of Conformity albums 1996 albums