Earlier this week, Southern metal supergroup Down broke the heavy-metal internet with the news that they will be playing together again next year, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of NOLA, their landmark 1995 debut album. It was announced that the band — which featured, in its classic original lineup, Philip Anselmo on vocals, Corrosion of Conformity's Pepper Keenan and Crowbar's Kirk Windstein on guitars, and Eyehategod's Jimmy Bower on drums — have been booked for the 2020 edition of Graspop Metal Meeting, which will be held June 18th-20th in Belgium. (Down haven't played a show together since the Psycho Las Vegas festival in August 2016.) Now comes news that group will also appear at the Denmark's Copenhell festival, which is set for June 17th-20th.
No word yet on whether Windstein, who recently unleashed the lead single off his first-ever solo album, will appear as part of the lineup — the Crowbar frontman split amicably with Down in 2013 in order to focus on his main band and his family life, and was replaced by guitarist Bobby Landgraf — but it would make sense for the group's core original members to reunite considering the NOLA anniversary. Anselmo acknowledged as much in an interview with Metal Nexus earlier this year. "We do have the 20th [sic] anniversary of 'NOLA' coming up, and I know that we have been offered some shows. And that's all I know," he said at the time. "Pepper's still on tour. Crowbar's always on tour. And Eyehategod, they're on tour for a long time." Graspop notably posted an older photo of the band including Windstein on their official site. Stay tuned for updates.
