PUKEWRAITH
PUKEWRAITH "Banquet of Scum"
By Dr. Abner Mality
Boasting one of the best names I've heard in a while, PUKEWRAITH is pretty much a one man band. The man is Brendan Dean, who in the publicity photo looks about as dangerous as a shoe salesman. However, Dean was the voice for GUTVOID, who put out a pretty good album a while back, and he does duty in a ton of other bands.
With PUKEWRAITH, the main purpose seems to be good-natured gross-out fun like a sleazy horror comic come to life. The project would have been a perfect fit for the old Razorback Records label back in the day. Dean has a gruesome subhuman growl and his lead guitar talents are not bad either. PUKEWRAITH's music is fast, ugly death metal with a kind of galloping swing to it. To tell the truth, the pace of most songs is so similar that it becomes a bit monotonous. But not to the point where you can't enjoy it. The frequent solos are right out of the Chuck Schuldiner/James Murphy playbook and it's pretty much impossible to hate songs with titles like "Cyclone of Maggots" and "Grime Fiend".
Think maybe of a cross between GRAVE and GHOUL and you have an idea where PUKEWRAITH is coming from. A lot of one man bands are one-and-done propositions....will this be one of them? Only time will tell....