Review & Full Album Premiere: Thorgrim, Puca
Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on April 22nd, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Raw-as-hell Wisconsin dungeon sludge rockers Thorgrim will release their new full-length, Puca, this Friday, April 24, through Octopus Rising / Argonauta Records. And settle in, because it gets pretty nasty.
Puca is comprised of nine songs and runs 41 minutes, with a side split somewhere before they get to the 10-minute “Journey to Saturn.” But the Sheboygan trio aren’t through opening cut “Children of Doom” (not a Saint Vitus cover; more like an inheritance of concept?) before they’ve demonstrated the warts ‘n’ all ethic under which their live recording process operates, following on from two demos with what might be considered their debut album of likeminded presentation.
This aesthetic feels inherited from black metal — somebody should probably send the album link to Fenriz — and indeed Thorgrim‘s 2024-2025 material had a more charred cast and a different singer, so Puca is drawing on this as the harsh noise and gurgle-throat vocals of “Darkest Days” play out like a zombie hand reaching through the earth to grab your ankle, a far cry from where some of the other cuts end up, for example the later acousti-grunge strum of “Dark Cabin” picking up from the extremity-blast of “Let’s Go,” with a clever sample between them that says, “My 
friend told me you were a folk band. Totally not a folk band,” bridging a wide stylistic gap with humor.
The buzz and slog and chug of “The Movies” and the oldschool doom rock (like Pagan Altar-style) of “Death Angel” don’t feel haphazard in themselves, in their construction, but the recording works to give that impression just the same, and the thread plays through the drag-you-through-it anticosmic-cosmic, are-those-programmed-drums roll of “Voyage to Saturn” and the subsequent shift into slower-nod voidgaze in “Bride of Frankenstein” — which may or may not be an answer to “Ballad of Frankenstein/Ghostrider” from their 2024 self-titled demo — with a progression that still feels like “Born Too Late” before the experimentalist drone, percussion and malevolent whispers of “Blood of Life” close out.
Given the overarching wow-this-gets-pretty-harsh vibe across Puca, that Thorgrim are able to vary their aproach is significant in that they have freedom to experiment as they will, to make noise with Electric Wizardly abandon and see where it ends up, because any and all applicable refinement is coated in dirt. They aren’t the first to operate with this methodology, but the organic underpinning of the album can’t be denied. I don’t know if it’s a defining course — if Thorgrim will always take such a drilled-down approach — but the way they bring this material to (reanimated, generally lurching) life speaks to depths in their craft beyond the superficial. How it plays out longterm is anybody’s guess, but for now, they do a lot with a little, and that’s always an admirable way to start.
Keep your mind and ears open, take a sip of water, and have at it on the player below. PR wire info follows, and as always, I hope you enjoy:
Thorgrim, Puca album premiere
Thorgrim is an American rock band from Sheboygan, Wisconsin, blending doom, punk, and hints of black metal into a raw, live sound. Formed in 2023, the band focuses on stripped-down, authentic music full of feeling. Mike handles guitar and main songwriting, while Tom (bass) and Colton (drums) contribute to composition and lyrics.
Since their formation, Thorgrim have already released two demos, the first a seven track collection in 2023 and a second expansive eighteen track recording produced with Jeff Hinnendal at Hinnendal Studios in Green Bay, Wisconsin, establishing the band as a visceral and uncompromising presence in the US underground scene.
Their new album Puca captures pain and torment as a force that shapes us all. Recorded live at Fox River Studio and Hinnendal Studios in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in June and August 2025, the album is performed without metronome, edits, or tricks… every mistake, cut, and bruise is part of the sound.
Tracklist:
1. Children of Doom 4:18
2. The Movies 2:57
3. Darkest Days 6:16
4. Death Angel 4:01
5. Let’s Go 3:12
6. Dark Cabin 3:15
7. Journey to Saturn 10:07
8. Bride of Frankenstein 5:19
9. Blood of Life 2:25
