Pulkas – ‘Loaded’

Brit Metal does not

Always get its rightful praise

Till after it’s gone

Pulkas were one of the great nearly-were bands of UK metal in the 1990s. They were one of the first metal bands I ever saw live, stepping up from support act to headliner status on One Minute Silence’s ‘All Out Of Bubblegum’ tour when the headliners had to pull out. They opened up with ‘Loaded’, and the bass damn well made it feel like they were about to shake the entire Reading Alleycat down. The second time I saw them – on a tiny, 6″ off-the-floor stage at Reading University, singer Luke Lloyd (who famously collapsed a lung during a practice section when he screamed too hard) met the eyes of anyone who dared with a look of pure, unadulterated hatred. This was a band that fucking set out to kill its audience.

However a successful future was not to be – the band split after just releasing a single album, the quite frankly fucking amazing Greed. The band put this down to “boring tedious music business bulshit.” In their all-too brief lifespan, the band won plaudits from everyone who saw them – 5K gig reviews in Kerrang!, the fourth-best album of the year according to Metal Hammer’s 1998 Best Of list, and fan-voted the Best New Band the same year in said-same magazine. They received favourable comparisons to the crushing intensity of bands like Neurosis. And they thoroughly deserved every word of praise they got.

The band – sans drummer Rob Lewis – reformed briefly under the moniker of I-AM-I, but never released anything. Bassist Jules McBride showed up in Murder One, a heavy metal supergroup of sorts, which also included members of Raging Speedhorn (which reminds me, their last ever London show is on Tuesday – it’s gonna be brutal) and Medulla Nocte. But then they also split up. Why do all the great bands go and do that?

PS: There is a video for ‘Loaded’ – but it’s shit.

PPS: If anyone knows what the members of Pulkas are up to these days, drop me a line in the Comments. I really, really want to know!