Puke- Back to the Stone Age (1987)
This band first came to my attention a few years back, from an unlikely source: the drummer of Norwegian black metal band Darkthrone, Fenriz, announced that he was a huge fan of Puke. Of course, Darkthrone being one of my alltime favorites, I listened to the Puke records at MRR in the hopes of discovering some antecedent to the Darkthrone sound. Of course, that’s not really the case, although Puke certainly sound more like *Norwegian hardcore* than they do other Swedish bands. By which I mean, this album is unceasingly melodic and often plaintive—Kafka Prosess might be a good reference. But I imagine that fans of Bad Religion, the Adolescents, etc. would very much like Puke, because it is basically extremely poppy, high-energy, and tuneful.
I talk a lot about “neat parts” in music, and this record exemplifies what I mean by that. It is simply overflowing with inventive, memorable guitar riffs. As with early 2000s “arena crust,” the lead guitar is on constant hook-duty here, without just turning into one long guitar solo. This will be another obscure reference, but if you know the very first album by Finnish death metal band Amorphis, the languidly-unspooling guitar lines here are quite similar to the effect on that record.
Now, I am at some risk of overrating this record, because its principle—neat parts—is so very much my agenda here. The songs on this album don’t do everything possible to distinguish themselves, and the less-distinct verse riffs often blend together, but all of the little accents, solos, and staged “moments” are keepers. Still, it’s not my favorite record of all time, and there are no absolute show-stoppers here. The only thing I like more than neat parts are true hits!
If only more bands sought to engage the listener with an stop-to-finish barrage of catchy riffs and flourishes…
[Recommended]
