Just before Hurricane Katrina cut a horrifying swath across the U.S. Gulf Coast in August of 2005, the members of metal quintet Down had gathered in their hometown of New Orleans to work on new material for their third CD, Down III: Over the Under. Guitarist Pepper Keenan made the smart move of leaving the area before the storm hit, and apart from losing power for a month, his house was all right. But he didn't walk away from the experience unscathed, and neither did his Big Easy bandmates. "It was somethin' we all went through and are still dealing with on a daily basis," he relates, on the line from Reno, Nevada, before the first stop on a 29-date North American tour. "I mean, it was devastating, man. People lost their houses, I lost family members. Half the city was destroyed."

The fortitude of Louisiana natives in the face of Katrina's destruction is cited on Over the Under tracks like "On March the Saints", but as Keenan explains, the city is still terribly wounded more than two years after the disaster. And it hasn't gotten much help with reconstruction from the Bush administration. "If they did as much in New Orleans as they're doin' in fuckin' Iraq we'd be fine," blusters Keenan, before decrying Kanye West's assertion that Dubya's disregard for Katrina victims stems from his indifference toward blacks. "I don't care about Kanye West," he counters. "I mean, everybody was damaged in the storm. For Kanye West to make it a black thing was retarded."

While Keenan's friends and family continue to rebuild their shattered lives, he's focusing on what he's best at: making ears bleed with Down's sludgy, Black Sabbath inspired brand of doom metal. The group which includes former members of Pantera (vocalist Phil Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown) and Crowbar (guitarist Kirk Windstein and drummer Jimmy Bower)has just finished an extensive world tour with the Ronnie James Dio led version of Sabbath, now operating as Heaven and Hell. "Dio still sings his ass off," asserts the 40-year-old Keenan, who grew up listening to Sabbath (both the Dio- and Ozzy-fronted lineups) with childhood friend Windstein.

Although the serious lack of melodies on Over the Under suggests otherwise, Keenan claims that all of the members of Down were heavily influenced by '70s guitar rock, which would explain why mountain man Windstein was sporting a UFO T-shirt when the Heaven and Hell tour visited Vancouver last March. It also sheds some light on why the band sometimes includes Robin Trower's mind-bending Stratocaster opus from '74, "Bridge of Sighs", in its live set. "I ain't heard a bad Trower record yet," Keenan notes.

While he also holds membership in a more tuneful hard-rock act the Grammy-nominated Corrosion of Conformity Keenan points out that the grinding Down is "obviously a huge priority right now". The terrible beating that Hurricane Katrina laid on him and his mates hasn't kept him from feeling fortunate, at least in regard to how his two-pronged career in metal has played out. "I can't complain," he says. "We always stayed true to ourselves, never sold out. We play music from the heart, you know. What else can you ask for?"

Down plays the Commodore Ballroom on Thursday (October 4).