EP Review

Rat Attack - Rat AttackRat Attack – Rat Attack

I first came across Rat Attack a few years ago when they released their debut EP ‘This Is Art’, the album was quite brutal sounding and reminded me of bands such as Gallows and Ghost Of A Thousand, now a few years on Rat Attack have gone through a slight line up change and are ready to take on the world with the release of their self titled EP which many people are claiming to be their debut EP which obviously is the case of the new line up.

The new EP is a solid listen it features 5 track and runs for just under 18 minutes and is the kind of EP that leaves you wanting to party like an animal, trash anything in your sight like the Tasmanian devil on speed or generally go bonkers to the fast paced hectic sounds of this talented four piece.

The EP opens with ‘A Bird In Hand’ and what an opener it is, it takes a good 40 seconds to get going but as soon as you hear those fast drum beats with heavy hitting guitar riffs following it up you just know that mayhem is about to happen and that is exactly what happens as front man Mike Hodges comes in with his ferocious vocals belting out “I’m not good for you!, I’m not good for you, my darling” whilst the whole band jam together in such an fast bouncy way.

‘Facehooked’ opens in a classic way sounding like an old Spectrum computer game loading up, now if you don’t remember the days of the Spectrum then you are missing out as waiting 10minutes for a computer game to load whilst watching whacky colour grace your computer screen as ear deafening sounds batter your ears and then finding out after 10minutes your game had crashed was the normal back in the 80’s/90’s. Anyway back to the song it is all about the current Facebook generation and how people have lost touch with the real world and life how it used to be and spend the majority of their time in cyberspace uploading pictures and posting comments in the hope of comments and praise, musically the song is yet another fast paced hard hitting song.

‘Look Back And Laugh’ see’s the band tone down their sound compared to the first two track but this time around the song is instrumentally immense sounding as this big groovy catchy bassline takes centre stage whilst Mike Hodges throws his hard hitting vocals around.

If you are a regular viewer on Kerrang or Scuzz TV then I am sure that you will have seen the video for ‘Heartbeat’ many times as it is currently on heavy rotation on both TV channels and it is the lead single to be taken from this EP and features special guest Liam Cromby from We Are The Ocean and my god the song is a big tub-thumper and is such a pleasure to hear Hodges and Cromby’s vocals going back and forth complimenting each other, instrumentally the song is strong sounding but at times you forget to fully take in the instrumental work as you are mesmerised with the epic duel vocals.

The EP closes with ‘Bad Catholic’ a song which see’s Rat Attack go down a more full on rock route yet when the chorus kicks in the punk quickly returns to the music of Rat Attack as they rock out one more time.

It is safe to say that Rat Attack have come a long way since the release of their debut EP ‘This Is Art’ as they are now a more mature, confident, energetic, ballsy four piece than ever before and they now have the backing of friends in high places, there are no downsides to the EP apart from the fact it has left me wanting to hear a full length Rat Attack album sooner rather than later.

5/5

Review by Trigger

 Band Members

Mike Hodges
Charlie Wesson
Dan Wilson
James Flavell
 Track Listing
1. A Bird In Hand
2. Facehooked
3. Look Back And Laugh
4. Heartbeat
5. Bad Catholic
 Band Related Links
Rat Attack Facebook
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?