Setting the tone with panning whirs and static, Wisconsin rising band RAT BATH open their freshman LP Rat From Hell with the lyrics, “Renny told me not to trust the yellow skies, your sharpie smile or your crossed out eyes, I watch sneak across the floor, hunched down behind the kitchen door, I swing my first, my body slam, who the fuck you think I am?”
The opening track The Tale of Dead Ol’ Fred cements the message and energy from the band with, ‘You wont get me, you wont get my mind, oh no!”. The LP tells the unique and intriguing story of a “witch whose powers are rendered useless when a demon appears in their home having been paid to capture them”.
Asserting independence and freedom, the refined output from RAT BATH is textured, nostalgic yet futuristic. We are obsessed with the emotive vocal delivery fused with the psychedelic production that is brought to life throughout the album. The band takes the emo influence of My Chemical Romance and “blends hardcore punk and outlaw country to create a truly unique sound”.
Song names are ingenious and include quirky offerings such as Bone Eater, Coke Dealer, Spit//Swallow, Ragdoll and Sweet Puppet. Sexual innuendo, LGBTQ+ activism, rebellion and repetitive mantras, which define the groups freedom and individualism, are key themes throughout the record.
They sing, “you dabbed in on a tampon and shoved it up your ass” and flex vocals whilst epic guitar solos prevail on Coke Dealer. The alluring Eat Me Alive features the lyrics, “come and make me out, don’t it feel good, I’d let you eat me alive”, and on the more threatening Meat Poppet, “if you touch me again I will take your fucking hands”.
We adore the chord choices and delivery from the all queer, all trans country-core band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Speaking on the narrative of the record, the band says that “throughout the album the main character fights, is captured by, nearly falls in love with, escapes from, and ultimately defeats the demon by resolving past trauma caused by a previous abuser who had paid the demon.”
The demon, described to have crosses for eyes and a scribbled-on smile on the album opener, is “the personification of trauma and all the different ways it can manifest in one’s life”.
The album is written by Fred Kenyon and Cora Bequeaith and performed by the duo plus Róisín Shields, Emmett Roehr, Phoenix Lehner, who is also featured on bass and vocals.
Our favourite lyrics from the album which we found really empowering can be discovered on Ragdoll, “I may never change the world, but at least I’m not afraid to die.”
You can stream the album in full now, and a couple of songs are featured on our New Music Spotlight playlist too!