Music Review//Cold Pumas - Cold Malaise

Pumas are primarily known being fast. And on this album Cold Pumas warm up the atmosphere of a decidedly cold spell (around this reviewers neck of the woods, at least) with some well timed punk based rhythms on their debut album Cold Malaise.


The quiet domestic scene pictured on the sleeve gives little clue as to the contents of the album and quite rightly perhaps. The dark production of the album, with the vocals buried beneath the clatter of drums and chords and reverb a plenty is one that is more easily visualized by an image of abject darkness, emphasizing the hidden facets of the album. 

But despite the unrelenting bleakness in it's production and the industrial landscapes it evokes in the minds eyes there is a vibrancy to the music that is very listenable. If you care about the lyrics of a song to any strong degree then this may not be the best listen but taken as a whole it's different enough to make you sit up and pay attention. 

Opener A Versatile Gift is at first jarring, setting the bands elements equally in the mix and making a wall of sound that is inescapable. But on further listens it's a perfect introduction to the dense mix of the albums world. As the album progresses it gets less cloudy, the vocals become clearer on tracks such as Sherry Island and The Modernist Crown but the dense storm of metal surrounding them doesn't and it's for this reason that the eight track album length is blessing. 

One track longer and this could have been merely average but the way it stands this is still a pretty good listen. 

Reviewed by Sebastian Gahan.

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