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Artist: RAT KING
Album: Larva
Year: 2009
India's most famous (?!) industrial metal band Rat King are definitely not time wasters. Having pleassured our ears only one year ago with their debut full-lenght called 'The Plague of Hamelin', this duo already released the follow up as we speak. 'Larva' is, just as 'The Plague of Hamelin', a concept album that hides influences from out of many different corners. It comes with nine tracks full of wicked and dark surprises.
'Egg' is a one and a half minute short intro, including ambient touches and oriental drumming, to be followed by 'Hour of the Wolf'. It's a track that's showing two different faces, first some ambient/noise with a gentle accoustic guitar and then it slowly moves to brutal industrial black metal tunes. 'The Duel' is a very atmospheric track, consisting of a dark ambient spine enforced by experimental guitarpicks, drumming and noisy samples. 'The Wake' opens with a wall of noise containing atmospheric keylines, welladded sampling and riffing and bashing programming - to continue with more gentle tunes coming with powerful downtempo programming, nice interaction between the accoustic and electric guitars and essential keylines. 'Spiracle' is built on a spine of ambient sounds and dark orchestral keylines, to get followed by 'For Absent Gods'. It's maybe the best track on the release, coming with elements from ambient, noise, industrial, electro and even a little wave - bringing in a noticeable amount of variation within the dark atmosphere, as well a certain form of accessibility (specially in the part around the guitarpicks). 'Tranquility Lane' is again an atmospheric track, coming with dark ambient and cold orchestral keylines - resulting in a haunting ending. 'Smorgasbord' comes with a more hopeful sounding atmosphere, bringing essential keylines, an industrial metal part and ambient touches together very well. The release ends with 'Vapour'. It comes with powerful programming, wellplaced accoustic guitars and keylines and a haunting intro.
It's always a bit tricky to create concept albums without lyrical support. The fact that this fact only came up to me after I listened to this release several times underlines the quality of 'Larva' already. Not only are the ambient tunes dark and accessable, they don't get boring at any point. As well the use of accoustic guitars - sometimes even getting close to a folkish touch ! - is an essential part of this release. 'Larva' grabs your hand and guides you through a journey of darkness, melancholy, haunted places and surprisingly bright skies - without giving you a single chance to escape. Definitely worth it to be given a chance by anyone who loves dark atmospheres and experimental song approaches.
Vote: 90 / 100
Review by: Gerardo
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1. Egg
2. Hour of the Wolf
3. The Duel
4. The Wake
5. Spiracle
6. For Absent Gods
7. Tranquility Lane
8. Smorgasbord
9. Vapour
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