Zero Rat – A Fate Worse Than Death. "Zero Rat owes the scene a full-length of this d-beat madness, and soon." By Mark J.

 

Zero Rat – A Fate Worse Than Death

-crustpunk/dbeat/synth brilliance- Ontario,Canada.

Three tracks, no fat, no mercy. A Fate Worse Than Death is the kind of record that hits your ears and immediately makes you want to put a shoulder through drywall — raw d-beat, buried under distortion so thick it practically has texture, hammering forward with zero interest in subtlety. "Earwigs At Your Feet" and "Housing For All" aren't concerned with your comfort, and that's the whole point.

Closer is the title track that is like early DC hardcore that is amphetaminely channelled via Japan and several blown-up speakers with a cheesy, sublime synth section of divinity.

The twist is the synths — gloriously cheap-sounding, gloriously dated, dropped into the mix like a middle finger to purism. It's the kind of move that could sink a lesser band, but here it just adds to the chaos, pulling the same trick Melbourne's synth-grind underground (aka ESP MAYHEM) has always leaned on: aggression plus absurdity equals something genuinely disorienting in the best way. The song structures are smarter than the runtime suggests, packing tempo shifts and turnarounds into songs that never stop feeling like they're two seconds from falling apart. Three tracks isn't enough. Whoever's behind Zero Rat owes the scene a full-length of this d-beat madness, and soon.

Buy and support these demigods:

https://zerorat.bandcamp.com/album/a-fate-worse-than-death