Lord Buffalo - Holus Bolus

Angry Metal Guy

Four long years ago, just at the onset of the Great Plague, in the face of uncertainty and anxious hand-wringing, I found myself agreeably distracted for the briefest of moments by Lord Buffalo’s sophomore LP Tohu Wa Bohu. These Austin, Texas boys culled fruit from the darker corners of Americana music and spat out an oaky mélange of gothic country-psych rock that spoke to the sullen farm boy in me. The Plague has since waned to a sniffle, but there’s still plenty of uncertainty and anxious hand-wringing when one surveys the news headlines. Can Lord Buffalo once again pull me away from doom scrolling long enough to fall under their Middle American spell? I’ll say this for them, they have a way with album titles. Tohu Wa Bohu is the Hebrew for the phrase “formless and empty” found in the book of Genesis. Meanwhile, Holus Bolus¹ is an antiquated term that means “all at once.” Thankfully, the band is consistent in more than just obscure rhymes.

Many of the same influences from their earlier albums are still embedded on Holus Bolus. There’s the obligatory burnt offering at the altar of David Eugene Edwards, particularly his Wovenhand iteration, as well as Nick Cave, both for his work with the Bad Seeds and his excellent film scores with Warren Ellis. I noted in my review of Tohu Wa Bohu that one could hear hints of Timber Timbre in a song or two. That aspect of their sound has expanded on Holus Bolus, especially in the vocals of Daniel Jesse Pruitt. That said, Lord Buffalo has landed on a more cohesive sound on this outing, pruning the occasional rabbit trails down in favor of a compact compositional range and tying it all together with a warm but close-sounding production job absolutely saturated with off-kilter reverb of both instruments and vocals.

Holus Bolus by Lord Buffalo

In my review four years ago, I expressed hope that Lord Buffalo’s next record would see them surpass the sum of their influences and hit on their own unique perspective. I’d say they’ve done so. They’ve leaned hard into the atmospheric side of their approach, upping both the Americana earthiness and trippy psychedelia. Case in point is the deceptively majestic “Malpaisano,” which starts as a languid, haunted country elegy before a heavily distorted keyboard and horn section elevates it to an otherworldly plane. Two songs later, a natural companion piece presents itself in “Cracks in the Vermeer.”² Where the latter was almost a vignette of stately sadness, “Cracks in the Vermeer” is fleshed out into a full song, with a first half deeply depressive, yet gentle, giving way to a funereal chant and the darkest stretch of the album. It’s not all dolor and ennui on Holus Bolus, tho. The leadoff title track is a propulsive rock song full of banally apocalyptic imagery, from empty strip malls to prairie fire kindling. Meanwhile, second advance single “I Wait On the Door Slab” gathers the various threads of the album and binds them into six minutes of twisting gothic folk and doom rock. Each of these songs is a complete thought, as well as a brick in the lyrical wall Lord Buffalo builds across the album.

So far, so great, but as good as all this material is, I have a niggling issue with the overall album composition. This is a slight album, at just under 40 minutes. Not a problem in itself, but the two longest tracks are instrumentals. The first one, “Slow Drug,” fits the album’s mood and style wonderfully, with an odd swagger and heavily distorted vocal humming that integrates well with Holus Bolus’ other affectations. The problem is that it falls second in the track listing, derailing the momentum set by the fantastic opener. It would flow better later in the runtime. With one instrumental, and a good one, already under their belt, Lord Buffalo close with the seven-plus minute “Rowing In Eden,” which is unfortunately the one throwaway track on an otherwise stellar set of songs. It’s not bad on its own, tapping into the same haunted atmosphere as the rest of the album, but the time could have been better spent expanding the lyrical content of this missive on the American landscape at the twenty-first-quarter-century mark.

Lord Buffalo have taken a significant step forward forging their own take on the gothic Americana sound with Holus Bolus. That said, the album composition holds this back from becoming the jaw-dropping statement I’m now convinced they have in them. They remain an exciting contemporary of acts such as Wailin’ Storms and All Them Witches, and I’ll happily follow them wherever they go next.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Blues Funeral Recordings
Websites: lord-buffalo.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/lord.buffalo.band
Releases Worldwide: July 12th, 2024

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