In the crowded London music scene, Puppy has released Pure Evil, an album that is both original and captivating
Hardworking London-based power trio Puppy releases an energetic sophomore album that deserves to be added to your shortlist of albums to listen to today.
Produced by: Puppy
Ever since the band’s early days dating back to 2015, London-based band, Puppy has offered an engaging and accessible brand of music. Known for their massive metal riffs often resulting in fist-pumping and headbanging, Puppy isn’t a band that will be unknown to the masses for much longer. Musically, Puppy is heavy metal, alternative rock, and occult rock all mixed into one. Currently signed to Rude Records, Puppy has performed at several music festivals held in the UK over the last few years, including Glastonbury Festival, Download Festival, Bloodstock, Slam Dunk Festival, and 2000 Trees Festival.
On their Facebook page, the band laments, “It took three years and a Lemony Snicket-esque series of unfortunate events, but we couldn’t be more proud of this record and are so excited for you all to hear it.”
The album they are referencing is Pure Evil. On it, the band has polished and refined its sound since its last album in 2019 (The Goat). On this project, the fuzz-heavy guitars are more straightforward, the rhythm section is more dialed in, and the writing has matured. Genuine in their approach, they have even been compared to Alice In Chains, Smashing Pumpkins, and QOTSA. Yet their music is unmistakably their own creation. Thirty-five minutes later and we were left wanting more.
Vocalist and guitarist Jock Norton explains the reasoning behind the creation of the album,
“We had to dig fairly deep to find the purpose in doing any of it because the global narrative was rightly shifted to more important things. But I think that sort of introspection had filtered through into other aspects of our lives, so being able to record this album sort of gave us a bit of purpose and something to cling on to. Ultimately for us, we wanted to feel engaged, productive, and useful, even if it was only for ourselves and each other. Like I said, there’d be times when it would feel a bit meaningless, but getting to a place where you’re comfortable with that and happy to let the work be its own reward really helped us grow as a band and as people I think.”
The band also details other external forces at play,
“Without wanting to state the obvious, Pure Evil is an album born out of a strange time. It felt like everyone’s world got a lot smaller, and for us, that world had shrunk even more where changes with [our] label and management had left us as a band pretty much on our own. We had no roadmap for what to do next, and no one but each other to help us navigate it as people, let alone a band. It was these twin feelings of isolation and solidarity that led us to the point of deciding we would record this album ourselves in our practice space. A few friends we share the room with piled in and we turned it into a working studio.”
On Pure Evil, Puppy plow through all the external circumstances trying to hold them back, and carve out their own niche in the London music scene. Pure Evil is a purely enjoyable record that’s deserving of a listen.
Pure Evil is available on all streaming services.
Standout Songs: The Kiss, Wasted Little Heart, Spellbound, …And Watched It Glow, Angel
7.8
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