Rat's Arse: Singles Review!

So, here's another of my requested reviews, from another band I hadn't heard of until I was asked very kindly by their vocalist himself, Christopher 'grim' Button. Having checked out their page beforehand, they are very clearly a good ol' English punk band. I'm a big fan of the old school punk scene like Anti Nowhere League and Discharge, so I'm excited to hear this!

The band are relatively new, having only formed in April of last year. Because of this they have only released four singles so far, not a full album. So, because of this, I'm going to do all four in chronological order!

Their first release, the aptly titled Kick The Shit, goes straight into it with the bouncy, fun, punk. A great, chord-led riff is used as the intro and the verse, and straight away the production stands out as great for a smaller release. It sounds modern and everything can be heard clearly, but it still has that grittiness that the 70s punk scene was all about. Multi-tracked vocals works so well with this sort of style, too, giving off a real mob-mentality vibe to it all, the very unity that Punk is all about. The chorus is basic but easy to sing along with live, chanting 'kick the shit' back to them doesn't half sound like a lot of fun! An awesome solo in the middle seems ever so slightly lost in the mix, but that feels like it's intentional as it blends so well with everything else. It had a lot of feel and heart to it and added so much. A simple song that felt like it encompassed everything great about punk in just two and a half minutes. Awesome!

Statues starts with a sick baseline which then gets added to even more by the awesome drumbeat kicking in. The guitars are again simple but oh so effective behind some really great lyrics. Any song that brings up Maggie Thatcher is punk as fuck. My only wish for this song is that they'd kept the mult-tracked vocals. It sounded so so good in the previous track and I kinda miss it here, although it's more a personal preference thing, it still sounds awesome! It also may have benefitted a little from a chorus with vocals, it left the song slightly less catchy than the other, but if I'm honest the solo was that good it almost made up for it. Another great track!

A drum opener for this song, these guys are at least creative enough to mix it all up! Promises Promises does feel like the weakest of the three I've heard so far but by no means does it mean it's bad. It has a chorus, but it's not quite as memorable and catchy as the one from Kick the Shit. The distortion on the vocals during the verses were a nice touch, though, just another way of changing up the music between songs which is really appreciated since, after all, you should all know by now about my relatively short attention span. What also helps a lot with these songs is that they never overstay their welcome, they get in, rock out and leave all in under 3 minutes, it's really quite impressive. Some more awesome lyrics are the real highlight of the song, and really of the whole album, it just makes me feel like I need to listen to punk more often as no other bands really have this much attitude and vocal disdain nowadays!

Go Jack opens on an amazing guitar riff, building in the rest of the band in quick succession as they launch into an almost Motörhead-esque speed. This song is balls to the wall from start to finish, never letting up and slowing down during it's little over two minutes. There isn't much in the way of parts to sing along to live but damn does this song rock hard. Even the solo feels something 'Fast' Eddie Clark would come up with. This was the best of the songs in my opinion (though that might just be because of my undying love of Motörhead) and immediately made it onto my playlist.

Overall, I'm so damn glad the singer introduced me to his band, as they are really great and some of the best new punk I've heard in years. Every song made me want to get up and mosh around, which is one of the many things punk is all about. A lot of the lyrics were incredible and the guitarist's solos were another huge plus for this band. Given how recent they are I am hoping for and expecting big things in the future from them!

Overall: 7.5/10