They used to be Girl Band, now they’re Gilla Band and while the name has changed, one thing stands firm – walls of skull exploding noise.

Previously, they swerved between walls of sound and insane sonic beatdowns, but never a hardcore group or necessarily punk – they almost sat between the noise bands and carried with them a love of Detroit techno and something that almost felt more akin to ’80s indie.

Their debut back in 2015 saw them winning a legion of devoted fans, but it’s 2026 now and a lot has changed, mainly there’s a bunch of bands who have cribbed a bunch of their notes and got super famous in the process (they know who they are).

Instead of softening their stance for some hits, Gilla Band are standing firm and ‘Pugnello’ shows just how fantastically unpredictable they are, battering the speakers and everyone’s heads and being absolute one-offs in the process.

‘Placeholder’ is a one song knife fight in a phone box, all metallic reverb and bedlam, grinding you down to a fine powder all the while.

Opener ‘The Angelus’ is a fizzing thing that kicks off like it’s going to be somewhat normal, but doesn’t let up, that turns drone music into something almost tortuous (in a good way, obviously – we’re here for the pain if we’re listening to a Gilla Band LP, right?).

But the best thing about this group is that their not po-faced and serious – amongst all the borderline abusive volleys of violent bass and sound, you catch the line “close friends get to call him TC”, from the theme tune to Top Cat.

And such is the noise, instead of the usual boring tickbox references of The Fall, this album reminds you of the ’90s camcorder footage of techno nights, where the equipment can’t deal with the sound of a DJ playing bangers at plus-eight on the decks.

The album doesn’t subscribe to being a rock bore, feeling more akin to the kids who got down to breakbeats as much as they did punk records. Did Gilla Band invent a new genre called Acid Rage or something?

There’s Chemical Brothers discordant stuff as well as the onslaught of atonal guitars and sincerely, Gilla Band continue to plough their own furrow, and while it’s early doors yet, this might just be their career best.