A soup-filled trip to the bowels of the south, Nola comes courtesy of some of the heaviest sludgemuckers out there at the time. As it seems in many of these group collaborations (Temple of the Dog, Covenant) I almost prefer this to anything else that the loaning bands have put out. Here we have Phil from Pantera, Todd and Kirk from Crowbar, Jimmy from Eyehategod (and also Crowbar) and Pepper Keenan from stage 4 Corrosion of Conformity. Together these guys have thrown together a completely Sabbath/Cathedral/Trouble influnced record which writhes pleasurably in the muck for an hour. It doesn't get much heavier than these riffs, which are interspersed with some suprisingly technical blues licks in there (See Stone the Crow). Very dark, very dismal, meant to sonically represent New Orleans (hence the title) in all of it's facets. I can totally picture sitting back in the swamphouse, rocking on the porch with some cold beer, just getting lost in this album. Instead, I listened to it incessantly on the tube rides in London for a week straight, getting lost in my own head. Recommended for those who can't get enough St. Vitus or The Obsessed.
8 1/2 out of 10