…dead forever by Buffalo
Vinyl, freshly acquired. Also, first listen.
At first listen, it’s hard to make up one’s mind where this ’72 debut album of the Australian band Buffalo stylistically belongs, except that it’s, well, early seventies. Led Zeppelin come to mind, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Steppenwolf, among others; not surprisingly, Buffalo was signed to Vertigo Records.
What makes this album stand out is how it mixes a hard rock/blues rock core with progressive rock elements. Works great for me, but I can see that it might leave hard rockers not fully satisfied on the one hand, while it’s certainly not daring enough for progrock aficionados on the other. What also takes a while to get used to is the line-up: guitar, bass, drums, and two lead vocals. The album features two cover songs, Blues Image’s “Pay My Dues” and Free’s “I’m a Mover”; all other tracks are original titles. On the back of the album, it sez “Play this album LOUD!” which indeed you should. It’s not your easy-going, mellow lazy Sunday chill-out tunes collection.
If you have something valuable to add or some interesting point to discuss, I’ll be looking forward to meeting you at Mastodon!