Hey, everyone. Giggens here, your favorite content creator's favorite content creator, and we are back for a review of the brand new Budos Band album, VII.

New York City natives and instrumental legends, The Budos Band, are back with their seventh album, aptly named VII. Known for their incredible knack to blend psychedelic feels, soul and funk vibes, garage rock, and so much more.

Over the last 20 years, The Budos Band have created a kaleidoscopic landscape of a discography. They've since left their home of Daptone to join up with Diamond West Records, and they've created a record here that truly sounds more focused and more hungry than they've sounded in years. Effortlessly combining grit that sounds like it's seen some things, and horn arrangements that make it sound as if the sun was sweating.

Jumping in right off the bat, "Thrice Crowned" – this track is eerie, and the powerful horns accent the fuzzy guitars and lead the drums to an eventual halftime tempo feel. It makes for a headbanging experience before falling back into the initial opening rhythm. The horns throughout this track give off this anthemic uphill battle feel, and the song ends with them just forging on, but feeling slightly defeated.

"Overlander" is a rocking track. The horns literally punch through your speakers, and the fuzzy guitars chug along with them. The drums and percussion add a wonderful texture to the bottom end and hold everything together really nicely, especially when the horns make their triumphant unison breaks. The organ solo was groovy and really '60s garage rock tinged. The trumpet solo on this thing sounds like it's either being pushed to its limits or lovingly performed, but just excellent refrains on this track. It's super catchy.

"Night Raid" follows that one up next, and the fuzzy guitars in this one lead the charge as the drums shuffle along underneath. The horns slowly build up into these peppy shrieks, only to be brought back down to these woozy blows. The song builds up and down, creating this feeling of slowly earned triumph, but constantly weary about the whole situation, especially as it fades out into oblivion.

"Lair Of 1,000 Serpents", not only is that one of the coolest song names on the record, but it just sounds like you're being surrounded by menacing creatures hungry to devour you. There's both an organ solo and a percussion break that both get interrupted by the horns. It's almost as if the horns are the serpents, and they've gotten to the other instruments, which are acting as the main character trying to escape this layer.

"Kudzu Vine" comes up next, and I love the bass and the bongos that start off this one. It's a really strong combo. The horns come in to feel like a gang of weary visitors, weary travelers, and underneath it, the guitars create this hypnotic swirling effect that establishes this dizzying effect as the song progresses, leading to a loud blow of an ending.

"Sharky's Delight" is a great break-up from the tracklist so far. It's a little bit more of a chill groove, and I love the pretty, delicate, calm intro that leads to some crashing drums. But overall, the song has a lifting feel. Like the lead riff takes its time to deliver itself, and you're accepting it as it keeps playing. It's constantly feeling like it's figuring out its next step, which is a cool feeling to experience as you play this song. But the timidness on top of these almost slightly rockier layers is a cool juxtaposition of feelings.

"Curse of the Ivory Fang", again, another top-notch title from the Budos Band. Some wah-wah-affected guitars make for a really groovy '70s drive-in movie feel as the horns march along confidently. I love the really spacey reverb on the guitars in this one in the background, the really slappy snare drum feel, and the overall feeling that this must have been a really fun one to record together. I'm sure there's an actual movie called Curse of the Ivory Fang that I'm unaware of, but I just got this idea of an early '70s groovy vampire, like a Hammer Films experience where this vampire has to get dentures for some reason, and because he has dentures and not his real teeth, as he bites people, he doesn't have the same effect of a normal vampire, and then he ages because of it, and that's the Curse of the Ivory Fang.

"Behind The Black Curtain" – this one is menacing, almost a really heavy, Sabbath-esque riff on this one. And those slow, chugging horns are just melting on top of everything to create this sludgy dirge that gets propelled by the splashy cymbals, adding a spark of shimmer to an otherwise muddy, nightmarish growler of a tune.

"Escape from Ptenoda City" – The intro on this one sounds like a Khruangbin song in the best way possible, until the horns come blaring away, then it's just a full-on battle cry of emotions. I feel like the horns in this one express determination and awareness of the surroundings and excitement for what's to come next. Maybe home, maybe you've escaped.

"The Strigoi", again, you guys, Budos, man. I am not intelligent enough for your albums. I love the groovy '60s organ on this one. This is probably one of the most '60s garage rock-esque tracks on the entire record. The slow, reverb-heavy guitar riff is infectious. It sounds like it's echoing 1966. I really get a feeling that this song was partially inspired by "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" by The Seeds. It's got that glowy, a little sad, melancholic feel until the horns come in and add some bright textures of hope.

The album ends with "Mean Streets", which is a song that at times feels spacy and other times feels super focused, but slightly worn down by the effects of street life. It's a track full of unwanted wisdom. Like you've learned things you wish you didn't learn. Moments of absolute bravery and moments of just wanting to get away, but not knowing if that's entirely possible, and it just ends without an answer.

Overall, this album proves that the Budos Band have way more to say and that they're always going to remain focused, determined, and hungry to create some of the most gritty, fun, exciting, tension-filled riffs. Nothing about this album says "We've been doing this for 20 years." There's nothing tired about this record; there's nothing that's underwhelming or undercooked. Every song feels like it was laid out; they did it, they jammed it out, and they were super stoked with the results. The horn arrangements burst with a hungry inspiration. The guitars echo the best of the muddiest '60s garage rock bands. And the spirit of the album allows you to hear a band that is so locked in with each other.

I always look forward to a new Budos Band album, and this one is certainly not to miss. Definitely feeling a strong 8 out of 10 on this one.

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Forever.