After taking a listen to the Why Are We Here? compilation and imbibing a Corrosion of Conformity that I’d not previously been familiar with, it behooved me to hunt down the group’s first long player.

Eye for an Eye doesn’t come off as an extension of the tracks represented on that aforementioned No Core released compilation, although there is some overlap – “Indifferent” is included on both. The Black Flag similarities are still there, but in the vocals throughout the disc, listeners should be able to hear some of the metal influence creeping in. Of course, those breakdowns coming left and right should also point to what was to come, but it might all be obscured by Woody Weatherman’s Greg Ginn inspired guitar soloing.

Coming out of a part of the country – North Carolina - that hadn’t really developed its own, individual punk style allowed the band to eventually work out its own spate of influences over the course of its career. On this early recording, though, the band remains somewhat tied to the group’s forbearers.

The interesting aspect of this particular release is that the cd version of Eye for an Eye includes – tacked on to the end – Corrosion of Conformity’s first EP, recorded after the release of its long player, which was simply called Six Songs with Mike Singing. The Mike referenced in the title is Mike Dean who took over vocal duties, while remaining the group’s bassist, after Erik Eyeck departed.. As listeners make it through thrashy faire like “Coexist,” Eyecke’s throaty vocals announce the beginning of the group’s career. And by the time one gets through to those tacked on tracks at the end, it’s clear that there’s some gradual transformation taking place.

The entirety of this work is fast paced and as aggressive as anything from the hardcore scene at the time. And while Metallica and its cohort were working out speed metal concurrently, Corrosion of Conformity are able to render as nasty a spate of tracks as found elsewhere.

“Not for Me,” a part of the supplemental EP, includes the slurred and endless vocals of Dean as the band whirs through a few chords and the drums pound out a prehistoric vehemence that the group wouldn’t again settle upon. Weatherman’s guitar and his soloing have moved on a bit from the overt Black Flag thing to incorporate a bit of ‘80s metal – or is it New Yawk hardcore? Either way the expanded aural workings of the ensemble render the latter tracks ready for inclusion in any cheese-ball horror move from that decade.

The band would continue to develop its sound over the remainder of the decade. And while some fans found the ever-shifting sound of the group problematic, it can also be seen as the reason that Corrosion of Conformity was eventually able to break its music to a wider audience.

Eye for an Eye and Six Songs with Mike Singing might simply be an historic part of the band’s discography at this point. Beyond that, though, it’s a document of the not just the group growing, but the malleability of punk, metal and hardcore.