Buzzardstein - Live Demo (C)

Buzzardstein are a band that I had come across a couple times, hearing their name floating across the internet before I really understood what they “meant”. Then, one day the idea of Sludge really clicked for me, and of course I started searching out everything I could find. In a strange twist of fate, I found out that Buzzardstein’s bassist was around some of the same internet haunts that I was – and he had links to copies of Buzzardstein’s “live demo”, their only release so far. The link came with a thousand warnings of terrible audio quality, and being a general waste of time, so I braced myself for a recording that would make Varg Vikernes’s skin crawl. Unsurprisingly, the quality on the live demo is actually not that terrible. It certainly doesn’t sound like Steve Albini had anything to do with it, but it’s listenable, and adds to the sludgy effect overall. The live demo manages to jump from traditional Grief-style sludge to more Noothgrush-esque bluesy sludge that you find yourself unable not to tap your foot to, and somewhere in between in the span of three songs. The vocals are completely unintelligible, but provide amazing atmosphere for the crushing riffs that drive Buzzardstein down, down, down south. Though Buzzardstein may by no means be a big-name band that has the ability to tour often or far, or produce albums at every whim, I feel completely comfortable putting the live demo in my playlist right between Grief and Eyehategod.