PUPPY "The Goat"



PUPPY

"The Goat"

Well, here is something off the beaten path. I suspect Puppy has more than their share of snarky millennial style irony, based on the cover art of "The Goat". That has all the hallmarks of a Satanic ritual but cloaked in nice pastel pinks. That sums up Puppy's approach in general...a mixture of dark and light, metal crunch and sugary pop.

Guess what? I actually like it. Or at least most of it, because there are a couple of moments when the poppiness becomes too cloying. Surprisingly, the Pupsters have a good grip on the raw riffing that takes its cues from metal, punk and grunge. Production here is definitely NOT on the flowery or overproduced side and tunes like "Vengeance" and "Demons" deliver some strong riffs. Depending on what track you're listening to, these guys can sound like Sabbath, Metallica, Nirvana and more, but combined with the sweet male vocals and bubbly harmonies of Britpop. There is something about the singing style here that reminds me of Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats. If you really want to dig into the obscure, there was a band in the early 2000's called Winters that also tried mixing heaviness and dreamy pop in a similar way.

Songs are short and to the point. The early part of the album has the really heavy stuff  like "Poor Me", "Just Like You" and "Entombed" while the second part starts to get a bit saccharine with "Nightwalker" and "Bathe In Blood". As you can tell from the song titles, Puppy seems to have a dark side to their lyrics, although whether it is serious or done with tongue in cheek is hard to say.
It is a little smarmy but beneath the surface impressions, they are actually pretty clever songwriters who have tapped into something a little bit different. This is not something you listen to for rabid moshpit thrashing but it does blend two disparate styles in a primal way.

Time will tell if this Puppy makes it into full grown dog-hood.

SPINEFARM RECORDS

PUPPY

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