{"id":29945,"date":"2020-10-09T16:24:23","date_gmt":"2020-10-09T20:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/records\/long-in-the-tooth\/"},"modified":"2020-10-09T16:26:06","modified_gmt":"2020-10-09T20:26:06","slug":"long-in-the-tooth","status":"publish","type":"records","link":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/en\/records\/long-in-the-tooth\/","title":{"rendered":"Long in the Tooth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There\u2019s a sense of bitter triumphalism to this return to form for Brooklyn\u2019s Budos Band. Or rather, bitter triumphalism is the form they\u2019re returning to. Their first three albums \u2013 their eponymous 2005 debut and the subsequent II<\/em> and III<\/em> \u2013 suggested and then confirmed that the millennial Afrobeat revival had its answer to Black Sabbath. Angry, brooding, brutal when push came to shove, The Budos Band\u2019s formula for African funk, Ethiopian in particular, was predicated on muscular guitar, creepy Farfisa, and a recognition of the martial roots of brass instruments. Between 2014\u2019s Burnt Offering<\/em> and 2019\u2019s V<\/em>, however, the band seemed to get lost of a fantasy dungeon side quest, leaning a bit too hard into proto-metal and psych-rock flights. The cowled wizards adorning their record sleeves were a warning, but their spell is now broken, and The Budos Band are back at their belligerent best. The swagger in their uncluttered midtempo grooves, the clear-eyed determination in their horn lines, the sheer satisfaction to be had from numbers like \u201cGun Metal Grey\u201d and the hair-raising \u201cSixth Hammer\u201d, all prove that while they\u2019re not young wolves anymore, as the title Long in the Tooth<\/em> implies, their fangs are still sharp, their bite still bone-crunching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n