RAT KING "Vicious Inhumanity"

RAT KING

“Vicious Inhumanity”

“Vicious Inhumanity” is right, with the mind-blowing degeneration of public and political morality on display on a daily basis. Extreme metal bands have always been the best messengers to deliver the bad news of our decaying situation...this is the kind of atmosphere that grinders like Seattle’s RAT KING thrive in.

These guys have a very “live” sound, meaning there are very few overdubs here if any and the music sounds like it was delivered in one angry take. It’s grindcore but of the modern NAPALM DEATH variety mixed in with some experimental hardcore. So there’s a bit more to RAT KING than just doing REPULSION and TERRORIZER riffs (though you do get some of those, too).  There’s a heavy Latino presence as most of the titles here are in Spanish. The first three tracks lay the grinding death on pretty thick, with some dissonant tones thrown in. With track 4 “Soledad”, there’s some slower bulldozing stuff and then “In Quiet Sleep” and “Zero” are even more experimental. I’m not sure the experiments succeed...I prefer the more straightforward stuff.

Tracks are not too long and not too short and neither is the album as a whole. It’s a good kick in the teeth but as is more and more typical, nothing here is going to linger in the synapses too long.

WITHIN THE MIND RECORDS

RAT KING