The Budos Band has built a reputation over the years as purveyors of dark and heavy Afro-funk. Nothing in their previous three albums could have prepared fans for the heavy waves of darkness on their fourth album Burnt Offering. As the cover art indicates, the Budos boys are making clear allusions to the early 1970s “Wizard Rock” heavy psych / proto metal sounds of Black Sabbath or Dust and it certainly shows up in the sound. It’s a heavy, grittier, tougher sound, one that still has echoes of previous records, but charts a new and exciting course for the band. “Burnt Offering” sounds like a mythic example of the instrumental backing tracks of the Sabbath album we all wish David Axelrod had produced. Though the band had a signature sound and a safe place in the neo-funk upper echelons, this change in tone, theme and sound is a most welcome change indeed.