Album Review: Rat King – Vicious Inhumanity (Within The Mind Records)

Seattle’s Rat King return with new album Vicious Inhumanity. Formed in 2014, the band has released an EP 1564 (2014), Split 7” Rat King/Warhead (2015) and full-length album Garbage Island (2016).

Vicious Inhumanity, the follow-up to Garbage Island, sees the band moving away from the Experimental Sludge sound of their previous work into a chaotic realm of Death and Grind Experimentation. The band will release the new album under their own label, Within The Mind Records, on January 17th 2020 on CD/Cassette/Digital.

Regardless of what genre Rat King sit in, there is no denying that what they do is make a hell of a racket. As Matanaza builds up it gets faster, heavier and more intense until it’s nothing but death-infused grind raging and raging away. It’s messy and chaotic but fascinating provided you have a taste for this kind of noise.

The grind is just as severe on Borratanico and Rat King continue their insane ferocity into Chaleco De Billetes. This is a band with very little chill but no-one is asking for one. The buzzing of the riffs, flies over roadkill, the destructive beat of the percussion, like metal rivets being driven into the brain, and vocals that can strip flesh from bone, it’s something else.

Then we get a tempo shift for Soledad where the fire and fury is taken back just a bit to allow the guitars, in particular the bass, to breathe. In Quiet Sleep forces its feedback laden lower tone down throats as it gets down right doomy near the end.

Then Zero and Chanchito sees Rat King return to their death metal and grind styles respectively. The former built on humongous riffs while the latter is as savage as a wolf that hasn’t eaten in a week.

Keeping things tight, Stranded is the penultimate track and builds on the strength of the extreme metal laid down already. Before Rotting From Inside finishes up with an angry grimace and no kind words. It’s a crushing and crunching closer, the heaviest of the heavy on an album where Rat King make a bit of a mockery of what that actually means.

Rat King – Vicious Inhumanity Full Track Listing:

1. Matanza
2. Borratanico
3. Chaleco De Billetes
4. Soledad
5. In Quiet Sleep
6. Zero
7. Chanchito
8. Stranded
9. Rotting From Inside

Links

Bandcamp | Facebook | Within the Mind Records