08. Buffalo Volcanic Rock 1973 (Vertigo)
Heavy Metal
A slice of ball busting metal from down under.
Overview
Hailing from Sydney Australia, Buffalo may well have been the quintessential heavy metal band from Australia and were also seen as one of the early purveyors of both doom and stoner metal. They were also out before their far better known Aussies AC/DC, as by 1972 they had put out their debut album
Dead Forever.
Dead Forever was a real mixed bag which contained several Black Sabbath style rockers and some softer tracks in its song selections, the album was nothing special but it’s still an interesting listen. The band’s sound was largely centred around their root psychedelic beginnings, which of course is how a lot of the heavy bands from this era started out and
Dead Forever is featured on my “Albums that missed the cut……….” Section for 1972. The band by their second album
Volcanic Rock, had trimmed down to just a foursome when they lost one of their vocalists in Alan Milano and leaving David Tice as the band’s sole vocalist. The rest of the band was made up of John Baxter-Guitar, Peter Wells-Bass and Jimmy Economou-Drums. Signed to the Vertigo label,
Volcanic Rock was a major step-up in terms of heaviness for the band from their debut album and is probably the heaviest album in this year’s listings! The album is a real piece of Australian heavy metal history and along with its follow up album 1974’s
Only Want You For Your Body, both albums rank as the band’s two strongest releases. On its initial release, the music on
Volcanic Rock was somewhat overshadowed by its controversial album cover, which seems to feature an androgynous character (top half male/bottom half female despite the muscular legs) on its cover and standing above a phallus shaped rock…….spouting out lava! The group on this album were hot for sure and
Volcanic Rock stands as a great slice of Aussie heavy music from this period.
Album
Sunrise (Come My Way)- The heavy crunching intro, then falls in to a heavy melodic pace and David Tice’s raspy hard rocking vocals dominate much of the song and meld superbly with the song’s flourishing hooks.
Freedom- With what seems like a perfect metal start, the song then sets into a brooding sluggish pace and doesn’t let up on the heaviness for a second!
Till My Death- Sounds more like an improvised track and a step back to their psychedelic roots.
The Prophet- A heavy storytelling effort which harkens back to the biblical age and accompanied by some really heavy instrumental sections throughout, again the band excel at this heavy brooding sound.
Pound of Flesh- An instrumental as the band get to grips with what they do best and this is to pluck their instruments at hand, this then leads into……..
Shylock- Back on with the power here for the album closer, the dynamic Shylock sees the band on top notch again, as they blast their way through this stellar track. There are actually some sections of this song, that I’ve actually noticed have been pinched by future well known metal artists, this is not surprising given its quality!
David Tice- Vocals
John Baxter- Guitar
Peter Wells- Bass
Jimmy Economou- Drums
Production- Spencer Lee
Verdict
The album was essentially recorded as a live effort in the recording studio, with just the vocals and additional guitar sections being overdubbed later. This of course gave the album a raw and instant sound, something that a lot of these heavy albums from this period benefited from, depending on your point of view of course! As for the album itself, well it sounds like a real grassroots effort, as the band had recently undergone a so-called transformation from their debut set, sure the rambling instrumentals are still on-board here, but the focus of the songs and the overall heaviness have gone up a couple of notches, and for this reason this album very much belongs in this year’s top ten list! As for the songs themselves, well from the first moment you hear “Sunrise (Come My Way)” you know this album is going to be good, the song has a crunching melodic vibe with hooks to match, all accompanied by some no-nonsense raspy hard drinking sounding vocals, all followed up by some essential guitar sections. The second track “Freedom” sets out with a brooding pace and sounds like the type of song that a future Soundgarden could’ve put out and the fourth track "The Prophet" continues in much in the same vein, but it’s the album closer the show stopping “Shylock” that really steals the show here, this song is one of those mesmerising hard rock efforts that may rank as the best song that the band ever did. Its stop start dynamics, are full of both energy and power, and have the ability to leave the listener drooling and looking for more! On the negative side for the album, a track like “Till My Death” has a more improvised feel about it and is very much a glance back at the band’s heavy psychedelic beginnings, rather than a glance forward as the rest of the album seeks to do. At times the album does tend to pad itself out a bit as well, as on certain tracks there is extensive jamming seemingly out of necessity than design. This is not necessarily a big negative, but it does represent that the band were somewhat stuck on material for this album, but it was probably better that they opted for this remedy, instead of possibly just sticking on a couple of weaker tracks to bulk things out. In terms of attitude, hell this this album is what it’s all about!