Self-released – 01 Jun 2020
Hardcore metal/punks make a departure from their gritty punk roots into a cleaner, more produced, metal sound.
The “Intro” to Rat Race shows the listener exactly what Radioactive Rats are bringing on their first full length album. Heavy chugging guitars take you by the hand and throw you into the turnbuckle while the drums are waiting on the ropes to drop the elbow of blast beats right onto your head. You get a couple seconds to lie there blinking before the double bass brings you right back in for “Heads of Nations”.
Radioactive Rat’s drive to a more metal sound is mostly due to lineup changes. Ewa on lead vocals and Stemp on guitar are the only remaining members from the 2016 EP. Nigdy się nie damy! (Polish for We Will Never Give Up!). The member changes were an exchange of punks for metal heads on drums and bass. The members of the band refined their DIY living room recording process during lockdowns across the UK. In doing so, they shed the grittiness on their earlier recordings and got a much cleaner sound. These two changes play very well together as the clean recording lets you appreciate all of the intricacies that come with blast beats and metal guitar work.
Despite being located in Nottingham, the current (as well as former) members of Radioactive Rats are all originally from Poland or Czechia. In 2013 the band was releasing music under the name Potłuczony Kaloryfer with songs written and performed in Polish. The English speaking Nottingham punk scene was having trouble understanding the lyrics and were unable to pronounce the band’s name. The band then changed their name to Radioactive Rats and began writing more Nottingham friendly songs in English. Because members of the band are not native English speakers, they don’t have a great grasp of the language in terms of lyric writing. What they lack in nuanced writing, they make up for with attitude and heart. In the end, isn’t that what punk is all about?
Rat Race packs a whole lot of England Easter eggs into its 26 minutes and 47 seconds run time. Track 5 is titled “1984” and all the lyrics are taken straight from English novelist George Orwell’s work of the same name. “War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength.” Radioactive Rats also pay homage to original England punkers, The Clash, with a really cool take on “Guns of Brixton”. They make it their own by playing around with the double bass on drums and utilizing the fuzzy guitar sound that is a constant throughout the album.
Rat Race is instrumentally sound and has great recording quality. I was surprised to learn that it was recorded in the living room of members Ewa and Stemp. While it is smart of this band to play to the crowd and change their lyric writing from Polish to English, I hope that they continue to write and release songs in Polish or Czech. I feel some of their prior recordings held more energy in spite of the language barrier. I feel this album would have benefited from a song or two in Polish. Rat Race Is more than good enough for me. It’s heavy and clean at the same time, clocks in at a little under half an hour, and has the punk attitude I crave from an album.
