Down will drop 'Down IV Part I - The Purple EP,' a six-song set, on Sept. 18, and in advance of the release they are offering a full stream via Billboard.com. The band has made no secret of the fact that they plan to follow it with three more EPs, which begs the question. Why aren't they releasing full albums? The answer is simple. It's easier and more efficient to go the EP route, since it gets music into a fan's hands sooner than later.

"It's about getting people more music quicker," Down frontman and fearless leader Phil Anselmo told Billboard. "It's obviously easier to knock out six songs rather than 12 songs. Me personally, I hate doing full-length records 'cause it drains the f--- out of you. And [an EP] leaves ways less chance for songs that you'd consider filler songs to get through. I think it's the healthiest way for Down to continue to get music out on a reasonable schedule."

That's a very fan-friendly way of doing things, so Down diehards will happily take EPs over longplayers.

But that's not to suggest that the members of Down, especially guitarist Pepper Keenan, are over the album as a viable medium. The EPs also make room for more creative freedom. "It allows us to shift gears between EPs," Keenan said about the process. "With Down we have a couple of styles of songs, and it's sometimes hard to fit a particular song with an album, so we have to put it aside for who knows how long. Now we can we can create EPs that can shift progression and diameters as they progress. That's our idea -- in theory, at least."

Anselmo wouldn't commit to release dates for the other EPs nor will he promise to continue including colors in the titles, since he wasn't on board with that assignation in the first place. "People are calling it 'The Purple EP,' but I had nothing to do with that," he said. "Left that totally up to...the press, to the fans. I left it up to everybody else. Call it what the f--- you want, and we'll move on from there. I honestly don't care. I don't know what the next one's going to be called, if anything. The music speaks for itself."

Who cares what they're called as long as they're good, loud and full of sludge-tastic, NOLA born and raised riffs. And with Down, that's par for the course.

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