Cold Hands (1991)

There's not really a name for Boss Hog's music. The band is a nom de punk for members of several New York underground rock bands, notably Pussy Galore and the Honeymoon Killers; Cold Hands is their second outing. While those bands specialize in deliberately offensive B-movie ugliness, the intent here seems to be to attempt some of the sublimity of the very hard punk rock made by Chicago's now-legendary Big Black. But there's a paucity of energy, which makes the fact that there's nothing remotely approaching a melody (not necessarily a bad thing in this style) more noticeable than it would otherwise be. I count one discernible guitar riff, on ''Eddy.'' The other songs are very slow, very dark creations even fans of the genre might find trying. C+

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