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Artist: RAT KING
Album: The Plague of Hamelin
Year: 2008
Industrial metal is everywhere. For the people who, after exploring this webpage, still have their doubts about this; let me introduce to you - Rat King all the way from India! This young duo says to be influenced by bands such as Type O Negative, Godflesh, Ministry, Opeth and Pink Floyd, as well by people such as David Lynch, Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky and Stanley Kubrick. 'The Plague of Hamelin' is the freshly released debut album, about which I quote from their MySpace: "A concept album based on a morbidly distorted version of the Grimm Brothers' classic "Pied Piper of Hamelin"."
The release opens with 'The Plague of Hamelin'. It's a downtempo, very theatrical song, with Oliver Twist-sounding keylines and a heavy protounding bassline. Overall, the song hides many ambient influences. 'Into the Lair of Vermin' continues walking the ambient path. It's a dark atmospheric track, with a bit of a threatning atmosphere to it, leading to the next song called 'Metamorphosis pt.1'. It's leading from experimental ambient passages to quiet and piano-based intermezzo's, describing part of the concept. 'Metamorphosis pt.2' slides from ambient passages into heavy sounding industrial metal, blessed with an experimental and old school touch. 'In Blood and Feculence We Unite' comes up next. It's again a more ambient influenced track, with theatrical sampling parts and schizophrenic vocal samples, to be followed by 'Lord Piper'. This song sounds rather Goblin influenced, with a more theatrical "Oliver Twist"-approach in the intro. Near the end, the song evolves into uptempo industrial metal. '26061284' opens with dark ambient tunes, followed by midtempo industrial and symphonic black metal tunes. 'And Then There Were None' is a seven and a half minute opus hiding many different elements; from ambient and dark electro to theatrical soundtrack tunes and Blue Man Group-likely passages. Near the end of the track, we hear some midtempo ancient metal parts. 'Hamelin Harvested' is the final track of the record; an over 9 minutes chapter hiding ambient influences, old school gothic metal influences and melancholic approaches.
Overall, this album contains much less metal than most releases on this page. Therefore, the more close minded metal fans might have a problem with this release. If you consider yourself a more open minded person, then this release shows enough selling points for you to check it out. For a band all the way from India, this release has a surprisingly good production. As well, the concept approach is rather unique, as well due to the fact that the concept isn't described by the lyrics (since there aren't any, the only way was the musical way). This band says to be currently looking for a label, and if they continue to play like this - that shouldn't be a problem at all despite the fact that they're all the way from India! A perfect soundtrack for your dark and cold winter days.
Vote: 90 / 100
Review by: Gerardo
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1. The Plague of Hamelin
2. Into the Lair of Vermin
3. Metamorphosis pt.1
4. Metamorphosis pt.2
5. In Blood and Feculence We Unite
6. Lord Piper
7. 26061284
8. And Then There Were None
9. Hamelin Harvested
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