The first time I heard King Buffalo was in February last year, when issue 159 of PROG Magazine featured a sampler showcasing the record label Stickman Records. Among the bands I discovered were Elder, Iron Jinn, Full Earth, and Kosmodome, alongside some new names that caught my eye: Papir, delving, Temple Fang, and, of course, King Buffalo.
When I heard the tracks ‘Mercury’ and ‘Balrog’, I was taken aback by their galloping, hypnotic, layered guitar textures, followed by a crushing heaviness that carried massive, empowering riffs. There was an occult, doomsday-like atmosphere to their sound that spoke volumes.
Now, here I am listening to their new album, Doomsayer, and let me just say that this is a real corker. This New York-based trio has kept the spirit of metallic, dooming psychedelia alive, with a powder keg of sound ready to explode at any second.
Since their formation in 2013, the group has brought together members from local Rochester projects. The lineup consists of guitarist and vocalist Sean McVay, bassist and synthesist Dan Reynolds, and drummer Scott Donaldson. The band originally featured Randall Coon on guitar, making them a quartet before his departure.
The group initially started out as a four-piece before Coon relocated to Philadelphia, leaving McVay, Reynolds, and Donaldson to carry on as a trio. So far, the band has released six studio albums, beginning with their 2016 debut, Orion, and continuing through Dead Star.
With their seventh studio album, Doomsayer, you can feel the tension being cut with a knife as King Buffalo takes you deep into the wilderness, pushing the boundaries of occult-inspired doom and heavy psychedelia. It’s the kind of record that makes your skin crawl and leaves you asking, “What in the hell was that?! Play that again!”
Like an alternate soundtrack to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin, Doomsayer takes you deep into the heart of a cybernetic, dystopian New York City, where society has collapsed and the grandson of the Shredder rules with an iron fist.
I know King Buffalo will inevitably be compared to Mastodon and Tool, but bringing up those comparisons would be a complete cop-out. There’s much more to this band than the influences they wear on their sleeves.
‘Vagabond’ descends into the depths with a powerful riff that McVay handles on guitar before Donaldson and Reynolds charge up their batteries. Together, they propel the track into an edgy, nightmarish landscape, tempered by a militant attack that sounds like the band is preparing for battle.
When Reynolds introduces ‘Hell or High Water’ with a post-punk-inspired, dooming bass line, the pressure begins to build like a pressure cooker waiting to boil over. You can almost imagine the ghosts at the O.K. Corral preparing for another showdown in the Old West, with a country-tinged psychedelic approach that evokes the blistering heat of the desert. Meanwhile, the synth introduction to ‘Battling the Mystagogues’ kicks the album into another gear, unleashing a trip-hop-turned-electro storm that feels as though it has wandered straight into the eerie universe of The Crow. There’s also a nod to Massive Attack’s Mezzanine in its sinister atmosphere.
McVay’s guitar improvisation on ‘Into the Foundry’ creates a spacey, hypnotic arrangement, drawing on progressive influences while steadily building the energy. When the track shifts into its driving lead and riff section, it’s like making the jump to lightspeed. King Buffalo doesn’t just travel down the Hawkwind route; elements of Elephant9 and Motorpsycho are rolled into one delicious, hallucinogenic smoothie that’ll leave you wanting seconds.
The clock-ticking guitar riff behind ‘The Slick and the Dead’, combined with its bass work and, dare I say, Jon Lord-esque organ, delivers a metallic crunch that speaks volumes. Echoing a spiritual journey, the album explores the exhaustion of double-dealing, inner demons, and the feeling that someone always has another card up their sleeve.
King Buffalo reaches for the jugular, unleashing a tidal wave of doom as McVay hammers away at the riffs. As the music unfolds, the journey becomes an inward search for the self, with more tightrope challenges waiting around every corner. King Buffalo has delivered a commanding, atmospheric record that pushes its sound into darker and heavier territory without losing the hypnotic psychedelia at its core.
If this album is any indication of what’s to come, there’s plenty more where that came from. Look out, world! Doomsayer is quite a revelation in the realm of dooming prog metal.
