{"id":803555,"date":"2020-01-28T11:09:30","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T18:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=944459"},"modified":"2020-01-28T11:09:30","modified_gmt":"2020-01-28T18:09:30","slug":"reed-mullin-corrosion-of-conformity-drummer-dead-at-53","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/reed-mullin-corrosion-of-conformity-drummer-dead-at-53\/","title":{"rendered":"Reed Mullin, Corrosion of Conformity Drummer, Dead at 53"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Reed Mullin \u2014 drummer and co-founder of the long-running, highly influential North Carolina metal band Corrosion of Conformity<\/a> \u2014 has died at age 53.<\/p>\n

His band confirmed the news<\/a> on social media Tuesday, writing: \u201cIt\u2019s with heavy hearts that we say goodbye to a friend, a brother and pioneer. Reed you are loved and always will be.\u201d No cause or date of death was given. A representative for Corrosion of Conformity did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone<\/em>\u2018s request for comment.<\/p>\n

Mullin co-founded COC in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1982 with guitarist Woody Weatherman, bassist Mike Dean and vocalist Benji Shelton, who left the band the next year. New vocalist Eric Eycke appeared on their 1984 debut LP, Eye for an Eye,<\/em> but for 1985\u2019s Animosity,<\/em> they slimmed down to a trio. With its combination of ferocious uptempo hardcore and bluesy, Black Sabbath\u2013influenced hard rock, the album was an early milestone in the punk-metal hybrid style known as crossover.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the Odessey and Oracle<\/i><\/a> of fucking crossover hardcore metal albums,\u201d Dave Grohl, a long-time friend of Mullin\u2019s who played in the drummer\u2019s all-star side project Teenage Time Killers, previously told Rolling Stone<\/em><\/a> of Animosity.<\/i> \u201cI\u2019ve stolen so many of his fucking riffs from that record over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

COC\u2019s sound evolved radically during the next decade, moving from the harsh, technical epics of 1991\u2019s Blind<\/em> to the soulful, Southern-rock-influenced grooves of 1994\u2019s Deliverance,<\/em> the band\u2019s major-label debut and the album where guitarist Pepper Keenan \u2014 who had joined in 1989 \u2014 stepped up as full-time frontman. Later on, the band toured with Metallica and earned a Grammy nomination for a track off 1995\u2019s Wiseblood.<\/em> Throughout COC\u2019s various eras, Mullin\u2019s muscular yet distinctly funky style remained a defining feature.<\/p>\n