With the release of Puya's second album, "Union", Allmusic dismissed the band as "Puerto Ricans making American nu-metal". Guess that reviewer must not have actually listened to the album, as Puya's music has nothing in common with nu-metal, and as for "American", the assertion that this is a Puerto Rican band playing American-style music is immediately discredited by the fact that their songs are often laced with salsa and other Latin styles. In contrast, the same album was the subject of a Guitar Player article which described the album as "Puerto Rican prog-metal". Going back to their debut album, "Fundamental", Music Street Journal also covered Puya as part of progressive metal music, stating that "although it really doesn`t fit the traditional definition of that genre, it includes very unique musical influences and quirky arrangements."
With all these descriptions of Puya's sound, what do they actually sound like? Actually the best comparison would be that Puya is a Latin precursor to
Candiria, the American experimental band that jumped from prog to punk-metal to hip-hop to jazz, often in the same song. There are huge differences, though: Puya plays far more Latin-oriented music and not quite as much punk/hardcore inspirations, and hardly any hip-hop...actually more funk-inspired than hip-hop inspired. But Candiria and Puya both share an avant-garde and often progressive sensibility to mixing jazz and fusion with metal, and utilizing a little rapping as part of their mix as well. Not quite as obvious a comparison would be Mexican jazz/rock band
Santana. Arguably, Puya can be described as a metal version of Santana, what with both bands mixing jazz and Latin music.
The approach to different genres is definitely in the avant-garde/experimental vein: Oftentimes, tracks on "Fundamental" will start off as metal and end up as jazz or Latin music, or vice-versa. But the band also utilizes jazz chords and technical breakdowns...and then out of nowhere there will be a funky cut with rapping, like "Keep It Simple" (which sounds
Gorillaz-esque in its mix of Latin guitars and percussion and rapping), or a salsa songs that also manage to sound like 1980s-period
Miles Davis. The opening of "Montate" is an excellent example of the interplay between the jazz-inspired electric guitar playing and Latin horns, shifting to a more straightforward metal style, and then a technical breakdown leading to a salsa chorus, and featuring an electric guitar solo over Latin rhythm more reminiscent of Santana than metal.
Puya formed in 1988 as a progressive rock band, shifted into a more Latin-inspired band and released two albums: This LP in 1999, and the less commercially successful, though excellent "Union" in 2001, broke up in 2005 and reformed in 2009, releasing the EP "Areyto" in 2010. Guitarist Ramon Ortiz formed a harder-edged band,
Ankla, which is more metal-oriented and doesn't include Puya's jazz influences, although both bands utilized Latin music. However, Puya's two LPs, "Fundamental" and "Union", are the best of this output, with "Fundamental" making the most use out of time signature experimentation and unique genre shifts which make Puya very difficult to compare to other bands. If you're looking for something unique and original in the world of metal, Puya is a very rewarding listening experience.
