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Buried Treasure and Bison Pre-B.C.

Classy.As I assume was the case for a lot of people, Vancouver‘s Bison B.C. hit my radar with the release of their Metal Blade debut full-length, Quiet Earth, last year. After hearing that and rocking euphorically through “These are My Dress Clothes” more times than I care to reveal, I became interested in hearing Quiet Earth‘s predecessor, a 2007 EP called Earthbound.

Admittedly, it was a passive interest. I could have gone online and bought it any time I wanted, but it wasn’t until I saw the band at Planet Caravan in North Carolina that I finally picked up the Forest Records release, and it wasn’t until just today that I finally opened it.

Why the delay? Well, there was no way any of these six songs were going to be “These are My Dress Clothes,” so although I’d paid good money for the EP, the priority level was low. And as is often the case, I feel like an ass because the EP rules. A little more so than on the full-length, Bison (they hadn’t yet added their B.C. at the time) rock with an Entombed-type furor and match it against ballsy Lifesblood-era Mastodon flex noodling. And then there’s “The Curse,” which comes out of nowhere as the fourth track with a shoulder-shimmy riff that could get Satan Himself swing dancing. Good times.

“Dark Skies Above” plods with a monster lock step beast stink and the closing title track (longest of the bunch at 6:19) speeds along nicely while showing off some melodic tendencies and heavily bearded grooves. Earthbound, like Quiet Earth, isn’t about to change my perception of metal — it’s still pretty much in the modern, post-Leviathan vein — but it’s still a plenty enjoyable listen that I probably should have dug into before now. Lesson (probably not) learned.

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