Smashing songs from Sloth _{by Madelaine Empson}

In 1995, Pumpkinhead released their debut album Sloth, “the sound of a band that’s already found its feet” (Kevin List, Rip It Up). Compressing the Christchurch quintet’s “live energy into a head-spinning whirlpool of fierce punky rock, powerful pop, and tempo-hopping Faith No More-style metal” (NZ Herald), the critically acclaimed album and single I Like made their mark on the New Zealand charts and saw the rockers “writing, recording, and playing as many gigs as we could”, having “a whole bunch of fun” along the way, drummer Jason Peters says.

30 years on and for their first official tour since the 90s – “quite the treat and never to be repeated” – Pumpkinhead will reunite for three exclusive Aotearoa shows this spring.

Back then, Pumpkinhead “rode the wave of alt grunge metal, taking inspiration from a plethora of incredible bands from that time both locally and internationally.” Today, Peters goes “to shows with my daughter and she introduces me to cool new bands like Turnstile and Loathe, so it’s all come full circle.”

“We were pretty epic live back in the day, the fountain of youth was flowing through us”, Peters laughs, adding the band all have families and mortgages now. But while the Meow show on the 10^th of October might not have that same kind of manic energy, “we are really looking forward to smashing out songs from Sloth and with support from awesome bands like Pull Down The Sun and Infinity Ritual, the gig will be noisy, groovy, and bombastic I’m sure”.