Puppy – “The Goat” [Album Review]

You’ve got to hand it to alt-metal trio Puppy because they’ve made their long-awaited new offering The Goat so fucking hard to pigeonhole that, every time you give it a spin there is something new on there to grab your attention.

Now, when I say The Goat is almost impossible to pigeonhole, it means that some of you out there will embrace the challenge whereas some of you find their incredible ability to switch styles in the middle of songs utterly infuriating. Take the brilliant “Poor Me” as an example, a song dripping with the kind of haunting pop-doom hooks that you’ve come to expect from a band like Ghost while three minutes later, you’ve got the swirling, chugging, writhing groove of “Just Like You”. All matched by frontman Jock Norton’s melodic vocals, you’ve got the trashy, almost cock-rock riffery of “And So I Burn”, the moody “Bathe In Blood” or the fuzzy alt-rock of “I Feel An Evil” who needs to stick to one style eh? Clearly not Puppy!

If further proof is needed, the fact that Puppy can sit as comfortably with the Bloodstock crowd as they can with the Glastonbury lot, should underline their diversity and is something that, in this age of manufactured pop, should be positively encouraged because, quite honestly, whereas most bands say there is something on their new record for everyone, in the case of Puppy and The Goat, that really is the case.

The Goat Track Listing:

01. Black Hole
02. Vengeance
03. Poor Me
04. Just Like You
05. And So I Burn…
06. Entombed
07. World Stands Still
08. Bathe In Blood
09. Nightwalker
10. I Feel An Evil
11. Handlebars
12. Demons

Run Time: 43:54
Release Date: January 25, 2019
Record Label: Spinefarm

Like everyone, Puppy have their “Demons”: