Gilla Band – Pugnello
Release Date: 25.09.2026
After what has felt like four long years waiting, Gilla Band’s highly anticipated new album Pugnello has arrived. Having drip fed singles since May, the group’s studio return has been a teasing one. Aggressive, explosive and sharp Pugnello is furiously unhinged with Gilla Band’s signature chaos. A fusion of indie, post-punk and post-industrial hard rock, the Dubliner noise rock quartet push the boundary of writing catchy hooks and embedding within violent whirlwinds of noise.
‘The Angelus’ opens the album with a spoken word entry delivered by Dara Kiely, before the drums crash with an unintelligible beat. Famously a dynamic genre-hopping band, the song moves seamlessly from its post-punk introduction and into a chaotic middle of noise rock to a hardcore breakdown. All the while Kiely’s voice screeches behind a roaring rhythm section. It’s the perfect three minutes and thirty seconds to set up the rest of the album.
“Elvis has left the building” Kiely hysterically screams, meanwhile Gilla Band smash down the walls and thunder their way in. Despite the group’s noise rock label, Pugnello is rhythmic and has an abundance of catchy hooks, riffs and choruses that expand and are pushed to their absolute limits. The album contains multiple examples of this endless quest to push a song to its limits. Best seen in ‘Placeholder’ as the main rhythm kicks off the track, joined in order by vocals, drums, flanged sound effects, guitars and bass. All the while the same dance beat sits behind the song as it stretches further and further outwards until changing rhythm and feel halfway through. The ability to push the track’s hook to its limit, adding new elements and keeping it fresh is a signature of Gilla Band that can be traced back to older fan favourite ‘Lawman’.
Another key feature of Pugnello is the sway towards a post-industrial hard rock feel and the use of synthesised beats. The looped bass in the foreground of ‘Alogia’ and clicking throughout ‘Three Hands Clapping’ creates a robotic feel in the former and while the latter sits at the front of your mind like a CIA torture method. Similarly ‘Computer Sadness’ offers the atmospheric, eery ritualistic element to the album with a vocal performance produced with perfect execution.
In a year full of contenders for album of the year Gilla Band have well and truly thrown their name into the hat. It’s a masterfully written and produced album, displaying their full range of songwriting that pushes new limits for such an expansive band. It’s an absolute must listen with a 2027 tour paired with it.
Recommended Tracks: ‘The Angelus’, ‘Giraffe’.
Rating: 9/10