DEAF RAT "Ban the Light"

DEAF RAT

“Ban the Light”

The PR sheet writer sure earned his pay for this one.  We learn from him that Sweden’s DEAF RAT are the latest link in the chain that contains BLACK SABBATH, LED ZEPPELIN, GUNS N ROSES and PANTERA and they have elements of all those bands. That sounds a lot better than what we actually get, which is a band sounding a lot more like SHINEDOWN, BUCKCHERRY and any one of the legion of typical 21st century radio rock bands you can find on your local corporate “rock station that really rocks”.

There are tons of bands like this out there. Shined up, smoothed out and ready for Dad when he gets off work. There’s a fair amount of energy here and DEAF RAT can play...but this is true of many bands. To be perfectly honest, there are also many “underground” bands that sound cookie cutter as well. A couple of songs, “Tying You Down” and “Say You Love Me” are snappy and high energy enough to hold your interest. The rest fall into the well worn groove of the modern hard rock band trying hard to latch onto what made bands of the 70’s and 80’s great but not having the grittiness or authenticity to do it.

Not much more to say about this, except don’t expect anything vaguely resembling SABBATH or PANTERA despite what the PR wants you to believe. This is what you’d see down at the pub on Friday night.

AFM RECORDS

DEAFRAT