Origin:	Puerto Rico
Genres:

Last update/review:	June 27, 2015

Puya

One of very few rock/metal bands to originate from Puerto Rico, Puya began life as Whisker Biscuit, under which name they released a demo in 1994. Switching to Puya, they put out a debut album and then moved to Florida, where they attracted the interest of MCA Records. Fundamental, their major-label debut, garnered quite a bit of publicity due to their use of both metal and traditional Latin rhythms in their music. The Puya sound is less a fusion of two styles (i.e. analogous to what Carlos Santana did with rock and latin several years ago) and more a case of one band playing two styles. Some songs are flat-out metal (sounding a bit like Sepultura at times), others are straight traditional latin/salsa songs, and others mix, for example, Spanish/Latin verses with an English/metal chorus. It's an interesting listen, especially if one isn't prepared for a jazz break in the metal of a metal tune. Virtually alone in this field for the time being at least, this band could really become groundbreaking someday.