King Buffalo – Regenerator (LP White)

Following 2021’s The Burden of Restlessness and Acheron, Regenerator is the third installment of King Buffalo’s “pandemic trilogy”. Regenerator is the fifth full-length from the Rochester, New York-based trio King Buffalo. Written and recorded by the band with mixing and engineering by guitarist/ vocalist Sean McVay and mastering by Bernie Matthews, the seven-song outing is the third in King Buffalo’s stated ‘pandemic trilogy,’ following 2021’s The Burden of Restlessness and Acheron. Both of those albums – like 2018’s Longing to Be the Mountain, 2016’s debut, Orion, and the various EPs and other offerings they’ve made over the last eight years – made bold declarations about who King Buffalo are as a band, and Regenerator is no different. As McVay, bassist/synthesist Dan Reynolds and drummer Scott Donaldson continue to explore the outer reaches of modern psychedelic music, melding progressive rhythms, drifting atmospheres and accompanying surges of electricity, this new collection only further establishes them as one of the brightest lights shining in underground rock today. As the third of three, Regenerator inherently ties together the previous two LPs, and as the band unfold the leadoff title-track across nine and half minutes, it becomes clear just how truly they have marked out their own sonic presence. The later melodic highlight “Mammoth” – with McVay’s most confident vocal performance yet – shimmers with hope that somehow doesn’t come across as desperate; on “Hours”, the group engages classic space rock, and the closing “Firmament” acts as a summary for all three albums, marking the final installment of this trilogy as the essential cornerstone of King Buffalo’s work to date.