Old Dirty Buzzard - What a Weird Hill to Die on Review

Never judge a book by its cover. So says the saying. I’ll add to that never judge an album by its cover or by the band’s name. They can deceive. A lot. When I looked to Old Dirty Buzzard I thought it would be some kind of Southern Rock band or even some ‘intended to be funny, but never is funny’ pop thing. No, sir. I was flat and totally wrong. I’ll admit that I put “What a Weird Hill to Die on” in just to listen to it for a few momnents and then rule it out. But, wow, opening track “Long Haired Country Boy” is so wow. And by wow I mean a dirty, sleazy, doomy, malicious, and moody track that is the perfect mix of Motörhead classic years with Led Zeppelin “Houses of the Holy” era. The band that is here to make some noise, but with style. Lots of style. “Long Haired Country Boy” goes so sleazy and uncompromised and the band found such a dirty way of making its music that the fan will hardly think this combination isn’t for real. In fact, “What a Weird Hill to Die on” goes like this for some tracks.

Old Dirty Buzzard have lots of resemblances with Motörhead not only about its sonancy but also regarding to its iconography. The thing is that the band had the wondrous idea of making it a psychedelic Motörhead by adding the misty and mystic mood of Led Zeppelin plus the doomy cadence of early Black Sabbath. That’s where the psychedelic goes. However, psychedelic here means not with all the colors of the rainbow, instead, those colors are blackened by the band’s dark mood. From Led Zeppelin only the ethereal atmosphere, not the colors. By the way, from where I’m standing, I don’t see Led Zeppelin as such a hippie band. There’s some dark in it. Old Dirty Buzzard got them alland put them here. “Hammer Coming down” shows this. Its sore vocals plus the full of effects Fast Eddie Clarke inspired guitars make an invincible combination. The guitars in the album are much more for Fast Eddie Clarke than to Jimmy Page or Tony Iommy. Its dry interventions do make a stand. We’ve got “Path of the Dead” as a sample of the supreme combination the band does. Its almost Black Metal atmosphere on vocals showcases a band that doesn’t allow any colors in their music. Everything is black, dark, and gray. More Metal than this I guess it’s impossible. So much for the ruling out. If Motörhead were a darker band they would be Old Dirty Buzzard for sure.