Buzzard premiere their first single 'Darkness Wins' ahead of their full release on April 11th, 2025

“If Buzzard‘s first album, Doom Folk, cast its own genre designation in the title, the upcoming second Buzzard LP, Mean Bone, flips that around. Not doom folk, but a ‘folk doom,’ drawing from Americana and slow, churning heavy groove in such a way as to feel like a reversal of the balance that Buzzard‘s sole auteur and denizen, Christopher Taylor Elliott, portrayed on the first record less than one full year ago.” -The Obelisk

Follow up LP Mean Bone continues to answer the question posed by Doom Folk, “What if Dylan listened to Sabbath and read Lovecraft?” The 13 tracks incorporate bigger full-band arrangements and heavier metal guitar while preserving the acoustic instrumentation, social commentary, and all-around doom saying.

In the three decades prior to creating Buzzard, Elliott performed in coffee houses and church basements around New England as a solo artist and half of male/female duo Austin & Elliott, releasing CDs and winning accolades in the folk genre. However, unlike most of his fellow singer/songwriters, his love for the word play of Bob Dylan is matched by his passion for the tritonal riffs of Tony Iommi. Never quite fitting in with any particular scene, Elliott has continued writing and releasing music independently, following the muses of songwriters like Townes Van Zandt, prog titans like Mikael Åkerfeldt, and doom gurus like Yob.

The origins of Buzzard the band lie in a photograph taken by a friend of a buzzard perched atop a cross in a Cleveland cemetery The image inspired another friend and fellow Emerson College MFA alum to design a logo for a fictional doom band named Buzzard. Inspired by the logo, Elliott made the band a reality, putting pen to paper and pick to axe in his home studio. Buzzard draws on the pessimistic philosophy of Thomas Ligotti, the revenge yarns of Tales from the Crypt, the metal of Trouble, Sleep, and Candlemass, the ironic wit of Bill Hicks and George Carlin, the narrative poetry of Greenwich Village troubadours, and the Satanic gospel blues of Zeal & Ardor.