LIKE RATS FROM A SINKING SHIP - SXY SXY GSW EP
When Refused released “The Shape of Punk to Come”, they weren’t fucking joking. It seemed to take a while to settle in, but over the past 10 years there’s a million bands take influence from that masterwork. This is no bad thing either, and Like Rats from a Sinking Ship are much more than “another Refused-influenced hardcore band”. Their beefy slab of noisy, shouty, progressive rock has song structures that are well crafted: building up and breaking down in unexpected places with irregular phrases and heavying out on rocky riffs in the right places.
After the aforementioned breakdowns however, I was always expecting the music to thwack me more full-on than it did; like a masochist boxer who’s just knocked down his opponent in the first round I was kind of left thinking “is that it?”. I wanted to be punched harder and beaten to a pulp with crunching guitars and heart thumping drums, but whether this was down to the mixing or playing, I was just left slightly dry - although the vocalist sounded as though his vocal chords were almost going to explode all over the walls, the guitars and bass were often too thin to complement this. Also, for a 4 track EP, including a seven-and-a-half minute track consisting predominantly of looped guitar bends, slow, gentle chords and other ambient sounds (Vulture Culture) felt like a bad choice as this all started when I was just getting into the EP and the energy totally dropped.
In the final track You Can’t Hug Your Children with Nuclear Arms, they begin to show the power they are capable of, including some crazy sequence drums, fatter guitar lines and a more mosh-friendly rhythmic base and even a touch of singing!
The faults and misjudgments of this CD are relatively minor however, because as a whole piece of art, this CD works quite well, feels original and is very accessible for music of this genre. I can see the potential of Like Rats from a Sinking Ship but next time I want to hear those moments that pummel me to within an inch of death, then I’m sure I’ll love them.
Written by
Nik Coley
http://www.punkscene.co.uk/?p=65
Back to press
|
