Album of the day: Buzzov-en – Violence From The Vault

Praise for Buzzov-en’s Violence from the Vault from San Francisco’s Aquarius Records:  Not sure why we never reviewed anything by these pot fueled purveyors of crusty sludge, could be that all of their records predated the list, but we have shown much love to post Buzzov-en stoner sludge combo Weedeater, the thing is, everything we love about Weedeater, existed in Buzzov-en, even more.

Heavier, sludgier, stonier, crustier, filthier, these five songs were recorded right before the band disbanded in the mid nineties, and the band are on fire, lurching, churning, downtuned heaviness, KILLER riffs, caveman drum pound, vocals buried WAY down in the mix, from pounding dirge, the thrashing chaotic crunch, the band just sound relentless and fucking ultra intense here, could be that it was close to the end, could be the fact that the whole band was falling apart to problems with drugs, whatever it is, this stuff sounds fierce and violent and raw and on the edge. The sound is weirdly murky and muddy, blown out, but not super hot sounding, more blurred and buzzy, but it suits the mood big time.

There are of course goofy samples before most of the songs, which seems par for the stoner sludge course, and there’s the totally demented drugged out 16 minute ‘Nod’ which does in fact sound like the whole band nodding off mid song, captured on tape, a stumbling, abstract soundscape of guitar buzz, and weird voices, swirling effects, deconstructed riffage, total psychedelic sonic headfuck, which rules, but it’s the other 4 songs that put most of Buzzov-en’s contemporaries, past and present, to shame.

These tracks may have been recorded 15 years ago, but they still sound incredible, and anyone into the current crop of drug metal heavies, who somehow missed out on these guys back in the day, well, now is the time to make things right. The liner notes mention a possible new Buzzov-en record in 2010 as well, we can only hope…

Tags: album of the day, Aquarius Records, Relpase, sludge, Violence from the Vault

This entry was posted on Monday, January 18th, 2010 at 9:28 am and is filed under Album of the Day, Roadburn Recommended . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.