Polly - "Death Drive"
Polly is a garage psych trio from Berlin whose drummer you might know from the stoner rock group Thunderdope (a band that I've covered a few times). Polly is a relatively new band, releasing a handful of singles beginning in February 2024. In spite of this, the group has already been making the rounds in the German heavy underground scene, sharing the stage with the likes of High Desert Queen, TVOD, Black Market Karma, and Spoon Benders. Now, the band is introducing themselves in a big way with Death Drive: a collection of five tracks of raw and unfettered garage rock energy that hypnotically float through dense haze.
Death Drive was independently released by Polly on September 22, 2025.
Polly - Death Drive
1.) Dark
Dark begins with trippy, acid rock and a hint of western spirit before morphing into dreamy but melancholic indie. There's another notable transition around the 4:30 mark where Dark steps slowly but surely into the light, gaining traction on sunnier tones sprinkled into the guitar work and ultimately taking flight on a triumphant groove.
2.) Daze
Daze is all about contrast as it peeks from behind dense and fuzzy walls of sound to venture into open and airy verses or instrumental interludes before suddenly dashing back to take cover behind their reliable solidity. Smashing Pumpkins-esque dream pop tones abound insides a Pixies-style loud/quiet framework, resulting in a delicious cycle of trance-inducing reverie and jarring energy.
3.) Death Drive
The title track of the album will take you on an eight-minute-long mental journey that's both engaging and mind-bending. This song gets its initial footing with a kiss of acidic doom as it makes a hazy crawl into a rollicking psychedelic garage groove and back again.
Fans of psych-heavy doom, a la Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, will dig this one as much as the garage rock fans.
4.) Sleep
Sleep rolls in on trepidatious bass and eerie distortion, abruptly brining Polly's ultra-trippy psychedelic inclinations back into focus. The phantasmagoric, haunting tones of the song are strongly reminiscent of that delirious feeling you get during the apex of a sleepless night, pockets of time during which the sufferer is unsure as to whether they're experiencing reality, a nightmare, or a delusional semi-conscious state. The paranoid spiral of Sleep will definitely keep you guessing.
5.) PDS
PDS is rich with distortion and is impressively fuzzed-out, tethered by the buoyant, snakelike flow of the bass. It's just as hallucinogenic as Sleep, but this time in a very groovy way. Moody as garage music tends to be, PDS maintains a vein of darkness that wrestles with a vibrant energy that often breaks free with colorful blooms of sound. This is also the "jammiest" song on the album, and it does a brilliant job of highlighting each musician in a very organic manner.
Final Thoughts
Death Drive, in short, is like experiencing a fever dream that I don't want to wake up from, its flow moving very naturally between loud and quiet, darkness and light, reality and illusion, and hope and despondence.
The album also brings a surprising amount of variety in spite of containing only five tracks. While Polly's sound is certainly flavored with a healthy dash of trippy psychedelia and acid rock, their garage rock base almost instinctively conjures up an equal amount of indie rock, dream pop, and surf rock influences. Of course, this brings to mind bands like the aforementioned Pixies and The Smashing Pumpkins, as well as Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine, all personal favorites for yours truly.
Polly, however, creates much more density with their tone by keeping their fuzz factor steadily cranked up. They also keep things interesting and constantly moving by implementing frequent style and pace changeups, using contrast to deftly alter the mood. However, it's those creeping tendrils of psychedelic and acid rock that really add another layer to Polly's sound, working with the unpredictability and energy of garage rock to create an incredibly vivid and hallucinatory sound. If you're anything like me and you're a big fan of garage rock, alternative rock, and psychedelic rock, you're going to love it when Polly brings them all together in a spellbinding trifecta.
More About Polly
You can follow Polly and listen to their music at the following links:
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