American heavy metal force Corrosion of Conformity is set to play a new set of dates across the United States starting this december. This will be a part of their extended tour in support of their latest album, No Cross Noo Crown, which was released in 2018. Spirit Adrift and the Native Howl will play opening sets on the new dates.

After a decade long stint with New Orleans supergroup Down, guitarist and vocalist Pepper Keenan reconnencted with his former Corrosion of Conformity bandmates in 2014.

“Reed [Mullin] called me and mentioned maybe playing a couple shows,” Keenan recalls. “I said, ‘Let’s just go to Europe and see if it works.’ So we went to Europe and then ended up going back four times in one year … We toured for a year and then started tracking.” (Blabbermouth)

The band subsequently got together with longtime producer John Custer and recorded No Cross No Crown in about forty days over the course of a year in North Carolina.

“We took our time and didn’t put any pressure on ourselves,” Keenan said. “I’d go up from New Orleans and we’d do four or five days at a time, just hacking away at it. It was fun because we did it like a demo, but in a studio. We were writing and putting it on tape at the same time. We took what parts we thought were great from the old days and weren’t scared to go backwards. It kinda wrote itself that way.”

The album’s title came from a tour stop in England.

“We were playing this old church from like the 1500s that had been turned into a performing arts center,” Keenan remembers. “The dressing room had stained glass windows and one of them showed this poor fella being persecuted. Underneath it said, ‘no cross no crown.’ So I just took that idea. We’re not trying to be on a soapbox, but we used it as a catalyst to write songs around.”

Mullin died in January 2020 at the age of 53. The drummer was a founding member of Corrosion of Conformity in 1982 and had missed a number of shows in final four years due to a range of health issues, including an alcohol-related seizure he suffered back in June 2016.

The tour dates are as follows:

Nov. 10 – Baton Rouge, LA – Chelsea’s Live
Nov. 11 – Pensacola, FL – Vinyl
Nov. 12 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade (‘Snowblind Fest‘)
Nov. 13 – Memphis, TN – Growlers
Nov. 15 – Columbus, OH – Ace Of Cups
Nov. 17 – Raleign, NC – Lincoln Theatre
Nov. 18 – Wilmington, DE – The Queen
Nov. 19 – Laconia, NH – Granite State Music Hall
Nov. 20 – Reading, PA – Reverb
Nov. 22 – Flint, MI – Machine Shop
Nov. 23 – Joliet, IL – The Forge
Nov. 25 – Louisville, KY – Headliners Music Hall
Nov. 26 – Pittsburgh, PA – Mr. Smalls
Nov. 27 – Grand Rapids, MI – Pyramid Scheme

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat