Squawk - Budgie

Budgie's second album is a slight disappointment after the first, at least for those who enjoyed the Black Sabbathesque doom metal of the self-titled debut that is largely absent here, favouring a more hard rock approach in the style of Led Zeppelin. The sludgy guitar tone still occasionally rears its head from the murky depths, but is stilted by upbeat harmonies in 'Drugstore Woman,' and if Tony Bourge's riffs were a little lacking in originality on the previous album they're practically screaming out for some inspiration here. Everything about this album takes a slight step down from the first, not least Burke Shelley's vocals which have become rather irritating in their whine, ...

Budgie - Budgie

immediately striking thing about this album is how dingy and heavy it sounds, comparable to Sabbath s definitive Master of Reality and even sharing the occasional riff, but Budgie s sound is clearly striving for more commercial acceptance that never really happened. Burke Shelley s high vocals are typically seventies and don t have any of the fury later associated with metal, but his bass work is impeckable (a bird-based pun there, expect several more before the day is through) and really fleshed out by the low-end production that makes Tony Bourge s sludgy guitars the highlight of the album. He s no Tony Iommi, but Bourge s slow, blues-tinged riffs in Guts, Nude ...

Budgie - Budgie

Budgie's debut album with the same name as the band is a 1971 album. Like the 2nd album by the band, it features a superbly named track, in this case it is "Nude Disintegrating Parachutist Woman". The final track on the album is a slow track with a whiney voice which I really don't like - Homicidal Suicide, not a single catcy riff in there at all. The same goes for Everything in My Heart, which is frankly just terrible. The rest of the album though is solo heavy and despite the occasional squawk from the vocalist, it's largely instrumental and therefore has a tendency for tracks to blend in with one another - particularly considering that the riffs don't vary a great ...