Artist: BUZZOVEN
Album: VIOLENCE FROM THE VAULT (MCD DIGI)

Year: 2010
Media type: CD

Buzzoven was formed in 1989 in North Carolina. EP contains material recorded after the Sore album, released by Roadrunner in 1994.

Time has been kind to sludge metal pioneers Eyehategod and Buzzoven. Both bands struggled mightily with shifting lineups, poverty and indifference in the 1990s. Both are now recognized as an important part of extreme metal’s story, inhabiting the strange netherworld between grunge and metal.

Eyehategod has successfully toured recently and talked of recording a new album. Buzzoven’s classic lineup may have splintered long ago but material recorded after the benchmark Sore album was just released by Relapse with the title Violence From The Vault.

Violence From the Vault contains what you’d expect from Buzzoven’s early years. But the sound is even dingier and dirtier than the stuff that made it on the albums. Short tracks including “Paintake” and “I Never” roll with the rambling chaos of G.G. Allin and The Murder Junkies. The riff on “Mainline” will leave you with a case of thrombosis.

“Nod” is a maddening nearly 15-minute paean to heroin abuse that rambles, leaving the comatose feeling common among hardcore junkies. It’s interesting in that it chronicles Buzzoven’s writing process but doesn’t have much replay value. Inhuman levels of feedback and distortion color the entire EP. Describing the production as primitive might be kind -- not that it matters when sludge is on the playlist.

If you like Buzzoven, then Violence From The Vault will be a welcome addition to your collection. It’s a piece of history from one of sludge’s storied bands.

TRACKLIST:

1. Mainline
2. Paintake
3. Breed
4. Nod
5. I Never