CORROSION OF CONFORMITY's 'Deliverance' Certified Gold In U.S.

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY's "Deliverance", which saw the light of day 29 years ago, and was the band's first studio album featuring Pepper Keenan as frontman, was officially certified gold on August 1 by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for sales in excess of half a million copies.

The RIAA developed its gold and platinum awards program in 1958 to honor artists and create a standard by which to measure the commercial success of a sound recording. The program trademarked the gold record and formalized the industry practice of presenting awards to artists for music sales achievements.

Presently, the RIAA awards a gold honor for 500,000 units sold, a platinum honor for 1 million units sold and a diamond award for more than 10 million units sold.

In the streaming age, each permanent digital album or physical album sale count as 1 unit for certification purposes, 10 permanent track downloads from the album count as 1 unit for certification purposes, and 1,500 on-demand audio and/or video streams from the album count as 1 unit. For songs, 150 on-demand audio and/or video streams count as 1 unit for certification purposes.

Released in September 1994, "Deliverance" went on to become CORROSION OF CONFORMITY's biggest-selling album. It was fueled by the radio success of "Clean My Wounds", which also appeared on the soundtrack for "Tekken: The Motion Picture", and "Albatross".

In 2019, CORROSION OF CONFORMITY celebrated the 25th anniversary of "Deliverance" by embarking on the "Deliverance Revival Tour MMXIX" European tour.

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY was originally an influential hardcore punk/heavy metal crossover act before reaching critical success with a then new lineup on 1991's "Blind" album. That trajectory continued with wider appeal as Keenan took over as the group's primary vocalist on "Deliverance" and "Wiseblood" (1996). These two recordings in particular fused the raw energy of their previous albums, with some great strides forward in classic rock-inspired songwriting and more spacious production and execution. This juggernaut gained mass and momentum with relentless touring alongside such greats METALLICA, CLUTCH, EYEHATEGOD and many more.

Eventually, following the release of "In The Arms Of God" in 2005, Keenan decided to focus all his energy on New Orleans supergroup DOWN — until he reunited with CORROSION OF CONFORMITY for 2018's "No Cross No Crown" album.

In 2014, after nearly a straight decade traversing the globe as a guitarist with DOWN, Pepper reconnected with the core CORROSION OF CONFORMITY trio of guitarist Woody Weatherman, bassist/vocalist Mike Dean and drummer Reed Mullin to hit the road hard. "Reed called me and mentioned maybe playing a couple shows," Keenan recalled back in 2017. "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."

Three months ago, CORROSION OF CONFORMITY confirmed the return of drummer Stanton Moore for its upcoming LP. The "brutal-sounding" follow-up to "No Cross No Crown" is tentatively due in 2024.

Mullin died in January 2020 at the age of 53. The drummer, who co-founded CORROSION OF CONFORMITY in 1982 as a hardcore punk act alongside Weatherman and Dean, had missed a number of shows in the preceding four years due to a variety of health issues, including an alcohol-related seizure he suffered back in June 2016.

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY recorded "No Cross No Crown" in about forty days over the course of a year at a North Carolina studio with longtime producer John Custer.