Corrosion of Conformity have had a handful of incarnations over the year. There’s the original band that was more inspired by thrash and punk, their transition to a stoner rock band in the ’90s that gave them their greatest commercial success, and then their re-emergence a few years ago as a trio with the Animosity-era lineup that went back to their roots. Last month, Down guitarist Pepper Keenan, who was with the band for the ’90s stoner rock era – and never really officially left the band – said in an interview that he might be returning. Heavy Blog is Heavy caught up with C.O.C. drummer Reed Mullin, who was playing in support of the band’s new album IX, and pretty much corroborated Keenan’s statement:

“Yeah, we’re getting together next year.” the Mule confirms. “We’re going to do an album and do some touring. We’ve done this three piece enough to where we want to do something different. That’s going to happen probably somewhere close to the beginning of the year. He has that band Down that does okay.”

Yeah, Down does fine for themselves, but they’re enough of a part time band that they should be able to pretty easily accommodate Keenan’s C.O.C. touring plans. Either way, there are definitely factions of fans that like the Pepper-era of the band more then any other that will be happy to have him back.