Year Of Metal #079: Budgie - Budgie
We’re whipping back in time now to 1971 and the good old days of shuffling, bluesy hard rock that just about meets the threshold of heavy metal. Budge are a Cardiff outfit; I mention that only because I can’t think of any other old school Welsh metal bands (there are a couple of turn of the century offerings, including, unfortunately, Lostprophets). These guys came hot on the heels of Black Sabbath, and from doing a little reading, it seems they went down a proggy route (you can ascertain that by examining in order the covers of their records), but back in the beginning, it sounds like their main reference point was Led Zeppelin.
Witness the lovely, gravelly riff that starts off opener “Guts”. It’s a bit Jimmy Page’s first draft, but it’s no crime to pale in comparison to Page, riff-wise. It’s produced by Rodger Bain, who was at the board for Sabbath’s early stuff. Budgie can’t quite pack that level of heft in any department (save maybe for the drums, which are loose and lively here), but that doesn’t detract from the charm at all. They’re lads doing their best with a winner of a riff in their pocket, and you can’t go too far wrong with that in mind.
I like “The Author” a lot, even though it is their most obviously Led Zep-aping tune (specifically III). Vocalist Burke Shelley doesn’t have all the heft in the world, but it’s a spirited performance, and I like the minimalism of this power trio cooking in the studio. The guitar part is mainly just one note over the verses, and the jagged playing and dropping in and out helps to build the groove. It doesn’t sound like they’ve overdubbed this at all, with Shelley (on the bass) and guitarist Tony Bourge just tearing it up without any backing for quite a long time, which leaves drummer Ray Phillips free to chuck in any fills he fancies. Bain’s production isn’t in any way as atmospheric as that on the Sabbath LPs, but he knows how to use the space and give his artists freedom to essentially fuck around for minutes at a time.
They hint at the prog to come on the sprawling “Nude Disintegrating Parachutist Woman”, a plus-eight minute song made of multiple parts, all of which are sort of the same idea but you’ve still got to give them props for doing something a bit more ambitious. Bourge really gets to shred on this one, to decent effect. And they get a decent bit heavier on “Rape Of The Locks”, a boogie number with plenty of heft and bite.
Amusingly there are two short and sweet tracks which serve to cool things off a touch. This is a pretty common trick on metal records and one I’m quite keen on; you’d be hard pushed to argue that this album really needs these breathers, though, on account of it’s really not all that heavy. I like these pretty spots all the same, though, especially “You And I”, which has shades of a White Album deep cut.
They save their most convincing stab at “proper” metal for the very close of the record. “Homicidal Suicidal” is standard hard rock fare until it reaches its final two minutes. Here everything gradually slows down and becomes increasingly rudimentary and caveman-like. This kind of stuff does tempt me to investigate the band a little further, especially reading that they’re cited as an inspiration for Metallica. Not that you can go wrong with an album of somewhat daffy hard rock, but it seems as though they’ve more gears to offer.
