Cosmiclava where the lava flows

Some bands are always good for a nice surprise, especially when it's a band that never belonged to your favourite ones. In my case PUNY HUMAN is a band like this. Well, I never have heard their first album 'Revenge Is Easy', which has been released in 2000 but I wrote a review about the next release 'It's Not the Heat it's the Humanity'. It wasn't a worse album, but for me personal it didn't help to boost PUNY HUMAN's profile. One shouldn't judge a band to early and I'm glad that I didn't do it, because their new album 'Universal Freak Out', which has been released 2007 is more interesting than the previous one. The band is still on the roster of Small Stone Records, but they found a new drummer and entered the studio to record 'Universal Freak Out' with the help of additional guest vocals. Jim Starace is still their main vocalist, but why shouldn't one ask good friends if they want to make their contributions during the process of recording, and among this guests we have also Danko Jones. Not that I'm a fan of his music, but I was just surprised to find his name here.

Anyway, this album marks the triumphant return of PUNY HUMAN, because they have not only written some real catchy killer songs, but also injected a slight dose of 70's Punk Rock into their heavy fuzz rock. 'The Bus will eventually crash' sounds as if early Grand Funk Railroad have listen to a lot of 70's Punk Rock while 'Every brain cell is immense' could be a result of a session between Clutch and Five Horse Johnson, but this isn't the only song, where it seems as if Clutch have left traces in  PUNY HUMAN's sound. Humour is also an important thing in PUNY HUMAN's world so that listening to 'Universal Freak Out' can be a very uplifting experience, while you can feel that they must have had a lot of fun during the recording of the album. All this and the variety of the included material keeps the album interesting for a very long time and now for the very first time in my life I will keep an eye on the group's further activities. A really refreshing change!
(KK)
www.punyhuman.com
www.smallstone.com