It’s been cited as one of the most influential hard rock albums in Australian music history. Buffalo’s “Volcanic Rock” turns 45 this year.
To mark the occasion, vocalist Dave Tice is playing some special shows with current band, Buffalo Revisited, playing the album and a handful of other hand-picked highlights from the band’s five-album career.
The first will be presemnted by the I-94 Bar at Sydney’s Bald Faced Stag Hotel on Saturday, June 30.
Recorded mostly live at United Sound in Sydney, “Volcanic Rock” appeared in August 1973 on the Vertigo label, also home to Black Sabbath.
Attracting minimal airplay, it was critically-hailed and tracks like “Freedom”, The Prophet” and “Shylock” wrote the template for stoner rock.
Its striking cover art by J. Phillip Thomas - depicting an androgynous human standing atop a volcanic mountain holding up a phallus-shaped rock astride a rock outcrop resembling a female torso – resulted in it being banned from numerous stores.
All but one of its songs were co-writes by Tice and guitarist John Baxter. It was Buffalo’s second album and is widely regarded as the band’s best.
“Volcanic Rock is where we really crystallised our sound and direction,” Dave Tice told UK hard rock bible Classic Rock in 2015.
“The line-up was stable and we had a lot of gigs under our belts, so we were tight and focused. We were all on top of our game.”
Classic Rock went on to say: “Forget AC/DC and Rose Tattoo – a bunch of bruisers with thundering riffs and a questionable line in album covers beat them to it.”
Buffalo Revisited is Tice, guitarist Troy Vod, bassist Steve Lorkin and drummer Marcus Fraser. Supports will be announced soon with tickets available here.
