# Kirk Windstein

Kirk Michael Windstein (born April 14, 1965) is an American musician. He is the frontman, vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and sole constant member of the sludge metal band Crowbar. He is also a founding member of the heavy metal supergroup Down, playing guitar with them from 1991 to 2013 and later rejoining the band in 2020. In 2005, Windstein formed Kingdom of Sorrow with Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed. Their debut album was released in 2008. Windstein began his musical career in 1985 as a guitarist for a cover band called Victorian Blitz, and in 1988 joined a hardcore punk band called Shell Shock as a vocalist and guitarist.

## Life and career
### Early work

Windstein played guitar for the cover band Victorian Blitz in 1985, which performed renditions of songs by WASP and Judas Priest. Other members included Sid Montz (with whom Windstein would play again in Crowbar), Kevin Noonan, and Danny Theriot.
After leaving Victorian Blitz, Windstein joined the New Orleans hardcore punk band Shell Shock as their guitarist and vocalist. With Windstein in the band, they began to play more of a crossover thrash style rather than straightforward hardcore punk, as it better suited Windstein's vocal style and a two-guitarist lineup. The band's sound was described as "wedding the primitive attack of Cro-Mags with the blistering speed of Slayer". After finishing the recording of a new album called No Tomorrow, guitarist Mike Hatch committed suicide. Kevin Noonan replaced him for the final Shell Shock show in 1988, and the band became what is now Crowbar.

### Crowbar

After the collapse of Shell Shock in 1988 due to the suicide of Hatch, the band enlisted Kevin Noonan and carried on as Aftershock, which played a mixture of hardcore punk and doom metal. Under that name, they released a demo in mid-1989, but then renamed themselves Wrequiem when bassist Mike Savoie (who would later direct music videos for Crowbar, Down, and Pantera) left the band and was replaced by Todd Strange.
In 1990, they renamed themselves The Slugs, and after a demo in mid-1990, the band collapsed. Windstein considered becoming the guitarist for Exhorder but he and Strange reformed the band, with Craig Nunenmacher as the drummer and Kevin Noonan on guitar. The band renamed themselves to Crowbar in mid-1991.
Crowbar was originally signed by Mark Nawara to Pavement Music and released their debut album, Obedience thru Suffering, in 1991. Windstein's childhood friend Phil Anselmo (who at the time was with Pantera) produced their next effort, a self-titled album released in 1993. The album went on to achieve international success with songs such as "All I Had (I Gave)", "Existence Is Punishment", and a cover of Led Zeppelin's "No Quarter". MTV's Headbangers Ball began to play the music video for "Existence Is Punishment", which was also featured on Beavis and Butt-Head. Following that success, the band toured with Pantera. Together, they partied heavily, and footage of these events appears on Pantera's third home video and Crowbar's "Like Broken" video, in which Windstein dressed up as Hulk.
In 2001, Crowbar went on hiatus because Windstein concentrated on other bands. Upon Windstein's return, Crowbar released Lifesblood for the Downtrodden in 2005, and two years later released a live DVD called Live: With Full Force. The band went on to release Sever the Wicked Hand in 2011, Symmetry in Black in 2014, The Serpent Only Lies in 2016, and their latest, Zero and Below, in March 2022.

### Down

Down released their debut album NOLA via Elektra Records in 1995 with Windstein on guitar and bass, Anselmo on vocals, Pepper Keenan on guitar, and Jimmy Bower (Crowbar, Superjoint Ritual, Eyehategod) on drums. The band played a 13-show tour with Todd Strange on bass, and the album was certified gold by the RIAA. Following the tour, each member returned to their respective bands.
Crowbar recorded three albums before Down reunited to release Down II: A Bustle in Your Hedgerow in 2002. Following its release, Down toured on the second stage at Ozzfest, and then continued to tour on the "An Evening with... Down" tour. Afterward, both Windstein and Keenan returned to their main bands, thereby allowing Windstein to record Crowbar's Lifesblood for the Downtrodden with Rex Brown on bass, Craig Nunenmacher (Black Label Society and original Crowbar member) on drums and Down producer Warren Riker in early 2005.
In 2007, Down released the album Down III: Over the Under. They released an EP titled Down IV – Part I in September 2012. In late 2013, Windstein announced that he is leaving Down to concentrate on Crowbar full-time because of the band's 25th anniversary in 2014. In 2020, he rejoined Down.

### Kingdom of Sorrow

In 2005, Windstein teamed up with vocalist Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed to form a new side venture called Kingdom of Sorrow. The band's self-titled debut album was released on February 19, 2008, through Relapse Records. It debuted at No. 131 on the US Billboard charts and sold 6,000 records in its first week of release. The album was recorded at Planet Z with producer Zeuss, known for his work with Shadows Fall and many others.

### Solo work

In January 2020, Windstein released his first solo album, Dream in Motion.

## Personal life

Windstein married Robin Windstein in 2013 and has a daughter from a previous marriage. He is a Christian.

## Equipment

Windstein has used various guitars in his career, including ESP Guitars, Gibson and Solar. Solar released a Windstein signature model in 2024. Windstein endorsed Orange Amps in 2010 along with Pepper Keenan. In 2007, Windstein's tour rig for Down was described by The Guitar Magazine as based on four Marshall Amplification 1960B 4×12 cabinets loaded with Celestion speakers, all driven by one Marshall JCM800 2203X 100-watt head. For this tour, Windstein played several ESP Viper guitars through a pedalboard containing overdrive, wah pedal, chorus and phaser units made by Boss, Dunlop, MXR and others. His guitars at this time were always tuned 11⁄2 steps down from normal, meaning that his "standard" tuning from low string to high was C♯–F♯–B–E–G♯–C♯, while his "drop B" tuning was B–F♯–B–E–G♯–C♯.

## Discography
### Crowbar

| Date of release | Title | Label |
| September 26, 1991 | Obedience thru Suffering | Pavement Music |
| October 12, 1993 | Crowbar | Pavement Music |
| March 29, 1994 | Live +1 (EP) | Pavement Music |
| May 23, 1995 | Time Heals Nothing | Pavement Music |
| October 29, 1996 | Broken Glass | Pavement Music |
| July 7, 1998 | Odd Fellows Rest | Pavement Music |
| March 7, 2000 | Equilibrium | Spitfire Records |
| August 8, 2001 | Sonic Excess in Its Purest Form | Spitfire Records |
| February 9, 2005 | Lifesblood for the Downtrodden | Candlelight Records |
| February 8, 2011 | Sever the Wicked Hand | Housecore Records |
| May 27, 2014 | Symmetry in Black | E1 Music |
| October 28, 2016 | The Serpent Only Lies | E1 Music |
| March 4, 2022 | Zero and Below | MNRK Heavy |

### Down

| Date of US release | Title | Label | US Billboard peak |
| September 19, 1995 | NOLA | Elektra | 57 |
| March 26, 2002 | Down II: A Bustle in Your Hedgerow | Elektra | 44 |
| September 25, 2007 | Down III: Over the Under | Roadrunner Records (Europe) | 26 |
| September 18, 2012 | Down IV – Part I (The Purple EP) | Roadrunner Records (Europe) | 35 |

### Kingdom of Sorrow

| Date of US release | Title | Label | US Billboard peak |
| February 19, 2008 | Kingdom of Sorrow | Relapse Records | 131 |
| June 8, 2010 | Behind the Blackest Tears | Relapse Records | N/A |

### Solo

| Date of US release | Title | Label | US Billboard peak |
| January 24, 2020 | Dream in Motion | eOne Music | N/A |

## Music videos

* 1991: Crowbar – "Subversion"
* 1993: Crowbar – "All I Had (I Gave)"
* 1993: Crowbar – "Existence Is Punishment"
* 1994: Down – "Stone the Crow"
* 1995: Crowbar – "The Only Factor
* 1996: Crowbar – "Broken Glass"
* 1997: Crowbar – "Like Broken" (full-length home video)
* 1997: Pantera – "3 Watch It Go" (full-length home video) (Windstein as The Incredible Hulk)
* 2000: Crowbar – "I Feel the Burning Sun"
* 2002: Down – "Ghosts along the Mississippi"
* 2005: Crowbar – "Dead Sun" (filmed in Miami, Florida, around August 2004 and directed by John-Martin Vogel and Robert Lisman)
* 2005: Crowbar – "Lasting Dose"
* 2005: Crowbar – "Slave No More" (filmed in Miami, Florida, on June 21, 2005, and directed by John-Martin Vogel)
* 2007: Crowbar – "Live: With Full Force" (full-length DVD)
* 2007: Down – "On March the Saints"
* 2008: Kingdom of Sorrow – "Lead into Demise"
* 2008: Kingdom of Sorrow – "Lead the Ghosts Astray"
* 2011: Crowbar – "Cemetery Angels"
* 2012: Down – "Witchtripper"
* 2014: Crowbar – "Walk with Knowledge Wisely"
* 2014: Crowbar – "Symmetry in White"
* 2016: Crowbar – "Falling While Rising"
* 2019: Kirk Windstein – "Dream in Motion"
* 2021: Crowbar – "Chemical Godz"
* 2022: Crowbar – "Bleeding from Every Hole"
* 2023: Sun Don't Shine – "Dreams Always Die with the Sun"
* 2023: Sun Don't Shine – "Cryptomnesia"
* 2025: Sun Don't Shine – "The Promise Song"