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Posted in: Album Reviews, Reviews. Tagged: Cloud Rat, Dark Ambient, Deep Wound, Ghost Cult, Ghost Cult
Magazine, Goregrind, Grind, Grindcore, Halo Of Flies, IFB, John Peel, Napalm Death, Pornogrind, Qliphoth, Richie
HR, Siege, The Peel Sessions, thoughful.
ALBUM OF THE MONTH!
Clutch - Psychic Warfare
Grindcore is not a genre renowned for embracing diversity. Sure, there are degrees of complexity, RECENT POSTS
sub-sub genres (the much reviled Goregrind and unbelievably-somehow-even-worse Pornogrind
being tragic examples) and bands who’ve found their own sound, but the basic template laid down by Festival Preview: Desertfest Belgium,
Siege, Deep Wound and the original Napalm Death The Peel Sessions (Strange Fruit) is as Antwerp October 9th – 11th October 8,
relevant to the genre now as it ever was. 2015
Which makes Cloud Rat both extremely important and extremely difficult to describe, because their Incubate Festival Part II: Tilburg, NL
thoughtful, reflective Grind manages to capture musical territory that is both recognisably Grindcore October 8, 2015
and recognisably different. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how they accomplish this – they slow down
quite a lot, but that’s hardly a new thing; sure, they use spoken word sections and Dark Ambient Pentagram – Electric Citizen – Satan’s
elements, but again Grind’s involvement with Noise is hardly new. It’s more the way these elements Satyrs: Live at The Met October 8, 2015
are used, not to crush or destroy but to create a sense of distance and space, which is then
contrasted with the more genre-conventional violence and blasting to heighten the impact of both. Antimatter – The Judas Table October
“Contemplative” is not a word you might ever have expected to read in a Grindcore review, but for 8, 2015
Cloud Rat it honestly fits.
Vreid – Sólverv October 8, 2015
Their third full-length album (fifth if you count odds-and-sods collection Fever Dreams and Blind On The Road… with Three Days
River) since 2010, Qliphoth (all Halo of Flies/IFB) is a snapshot of a ferociously dedicated and Grace and Finger Eleven October 7,
hardworking band continuing to carve out their own unique sense of what Grindcore can be. It’s a 2015
varied collection, its songs as meandering and reflective as my raiding-the-thesaurus-for-words-that-
mean-thoughtful would have you expect, while still as savage and devastating as a Grind album Metal For Nepal Benefit
should be. Anyone just seeking wall-to-wall blast beats and mosh breakdowns will be disappointed, Compilation
but it’s not like those are exactly hard to find. Cloud Rat have offered something both more rare and
more interesting, and have made themselves genuinely the best new Grindcore band in years in the Metal For Nepal Benefit Compilation
process.
Desertfest Belgium
8.0/10
Cloud Rat on Bandcamp
RICHIE HR