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Review: 'White Buffalo, The'
'Love and the Death of Damnation'   

-  Album: 'Love and the Death of Damnation' -  Label: 'Earache Records'
-  Genre: 'Alt/Country' -  Release Date: '12th February 2016'

Our Rating:
Just as Earache have a long association with the heavy, dark, and sludgy but are given to making canny exceptions (landing classic rock led Rival Sons has hardly been bad for the label), so The White Buffalo, aka Jake Smith, may be renowned for his brand of ‘dark blues’, but has a wider repertoire. ‘Sons of Anarchy’ may have brought him to a vast audience, and fast (he’s had nine songs featured on the series so far), but ‘Love and the Death of Damnation’ is a strong album that would have likely made a substantial impact regardless. Quite simply, because it’s good.

‘Dark Days’, the opening track on his third long-player, ‘Love and the Death of Damnation’ is a proper uptempo country rockin’ rooster dooster. The country rock / blues swing of ‘Chico’ ain’t exactly downbeat, either, but Smith’s gravelly tones give it a proper lived-in feel, even while the brass section is bursting exuberantly.

If musically he comes on with a hint of Springsteen on ‘Go the Distance’, the lyrics are telling: ‘Got a pocketful of money, got a tank of gas / You’re not just a woman, you’re a piece of ass / Sittin’ around on a barstool / You can hold your liquor but you can’t shoot pool’ he croons. These are the words of a true blue-collar dude.

There are some big, uplifting choruses to be found strewn about the album, too: ‘Home is in Your Arms’ is positively buoyant. In contrast, ‘I Got You’, a duet with Audra Mae is a bittersweet affair.

His grizzled tones work a treat on the rousing blues boogie of ‘Rocky’, but then, equally, his more sensitive, quieter moments impact because he sounds so damn human: he’s been there, lived it, and emerged battered and bruised but alive. And that kind of depth and resonance, it can’t be faked.

The White Buffalo Online

  author: Christopher Nosnibor

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White Buffalo, The - Love and the Death of Damnation