BUZZARD - Gambler reissue
Dying Victims Productions
Of course the greatest thing about doing this blog is discovering cool new extreme metal. But on the other hand it's also cool to hear about something unearthed from the past. Case in point Belgium's BUZZARD who released this their only album back in 1984 on Atler Records. I believe Dying Victims Productions deserves major props for this reissue because this album rocks.
I've been stuck listening to this reissue for a few weeks now, yeah every day. I say that because it's pure sounding metal from 1984. It's got plenty of straight up rockers for example opener "Stone-Hard and Loud" which just grabs ya by the collar and screams "METAL" in your face. Yeah you've got great 80's era riffs, cool fiery solos plus real guy vocals. If there's one song on here that describes this band it's the album's second cut "We Are Heavy Rockers".
A quick history of BUZZARD is that the band started out in 1979. As is expected the band went through a fair amount of line-up changes over the years up to the recording of this album. And from what I've read it continued after this album came out. Prior to this the band did put out a demo in 1983 titled A Strange Gang.
I listen to this album and think OK sure it's from 1984 at a time when PRIEST, MAIDEN and DIO were kings as well as METALLICA and SLAYER were in the wings. But this album just fuckin rocks. There's a couple of melodic numbers but they're not ballads, thank you very much. The rest of it just fuckin rocks. And I say that with plenty of enthusiasm because I remember 1984 so well.
So why did this band die after putting out something so great? Well the album was released at the end of October 1984. The following week their guitarist Steev Deceuninck was involved in a motorcycle accident and was in a coma for a week and a half, requiring three months of rehabilitation. When he recovered the band returned to doing shows. They did work on a follow up album but in February 1986, they decided to call it quits.
Be that as it may this is a hidden gem.
LISTEN HERE:
https://dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/gambler
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