Revelation: Sick Again

This album was supposed to have been released in 1998, but unspecified legal problems kept it on the shelf until 2007, when a bootleg vinyl version surfaced. Now, at last, it's out on CD from the label that was supposed to have issued it all along. Buzzov-en are kindred spirits to violent, rage-fueled Southern punk/metal acts like Eyehategod, Acid Bath, and Antiseen; on Revelation: Sick Again, they sound like a faster Eyehategod, with slightly more comprehensible vocals and a greater reliance on sampled movie dialogue (including snippets from some fairly high-profile movies like Sling Blade and Blazing Saddles, which may have led to some of the aforementioned legal problems). "Junkie" has a surprisingly boogie-esque main riff that a band like Corrosion of Conformity could have done a lot with. There's also more of a psychedelic edge to some of their material, particularly "Locked Up," wherein the vocals are treated in a manner that recalls Black Sabbath's "Planet Caravan," even as the guitar riffs descend slowly into the abyss. Buzzov-en are perpetually hovering between crispness and slackness; they avoid the utter shambling disarray of Eyehategod, but aren't quite tight enough to be a metal band, either. They're some kind of slovenly variant of stoner rock, with extra feedback and relentless lyrical negativity (track titles: "Drying Out," "Junkie," "Locked Up," "Lose"). Longtime fans will be pleased with this unearthed material, which doesn't sound time-locked at all; it could have been recorded anytime between the mid-'90s and today, which says a lot about them and their chosen style.