New Year's Evil & the 2007 Honor Roll

Before I begin my usual lengthy screed re: the Slab du Jour, here's the year-end wrap of what and/or who mattered @ SLN. It's no Top 10 list, I pretty much hated what I heard in 2007, thus:

- Mars: Thanks for your contributions here. I might've nuked this thing permanently if you hadn't stepped in to lend a hand.

- Irish Dave: For being one of the first, and most consistent supporters of this blog-- not to mention for starting your own great site.

- Lonesome Cowgirl: For being the coolest Femme Fatale on the net (as well as having great taste in tuneage).

- Goinsidemyhead: Your rants make my day-- even if I disagree with/don't understand every word. Don't stop, man.

- Kevin @Sector 2814: Great feedback, great blog. A fellow hockey puck to boot.

- The guy from L.A. who called me a "sexist pig" and a "faggot" in the same sentence. What could bring a smile to yer cheeks faster than base-level hypocrisy?

- Mick Farren: For giving me faith in the old-school rockers... he, for one, gets it. He even gave SLN a recommendation here.

- Electric Wizard: For proving me right -- you are the most redundant band in metal. That's three unlistenable albums in a row. Please break up before #4 or at least change your name so I'm not filled with hope every time I plunk down $20.

- Most of all, thanks for the hours of pleasure provided by the music of the artists I've featured here. I'd be dead or in a rubber room if not for y'all.

Apologies to anyone I've lunkheadedly left out, friend or foe. Anyway, enough of this holding hands around the fire singing "Aulde Lang Signe" (cue audible sigh of relief from writer and reader alike).



BUFFALO (AUS) - Only Want You for Your Body

Ridiculous album cover (complete with half-naked, morbidly obese woman)? Check. Sexual innuendo as an art-form? Check. Gruff, macho vocals? Check. One heavy guitar riff piled on top of another after another? Check. Shit kids, I believe we have ourselves an entry into the early metal sweepstakes! Buffalo were/are often referred to as the Aussie Black Sabbath, which is partially on the money; They wuz fuckin' loud and obsessed with the gloomier side of life-- but these yobs possessed a whole 'nother personality-- a swingin', sex-crazed playfulness that set 'em apart from the Boys From Birmingham.

Only Want You for Your Body, released in 1974, was their third LP and final gasp of greatness. Despite often sounding as lead-footed as a white fratboy who regularly dons Hawaiian shirts, there's definitely some groove to the Buffalo sound. They're tighter'n teenage cootch, which is an apt analogy as that seems to be what's on their minds most o' the time. If you're a fan of the genre, you'll be won over immediately by sonic sucker-punches like "I'm a Skirt Lifter, Not a Shirt Raiser" and the not-quite-psych, not-quite-metal headfuck of the heavily phased/panned "Dune Messiah". "What's Going On", with its crude, repetitive main riff and piercing screeches courtesy of David Tice, brings to mind pre-leather 'n' studs Judas Priest, if that means anything to ya.

Guitar God John Baxter was relieved of his duties before this opus even hit the streets. They became a run of the mill, AOR-style hard rock band for two more albums before throwing in the towel in 1978.

Look in the comments.