As 2017—aka the Year of the Cloud Rat—marches on and the horrors all around us continue to intensify, aggressive, cathartic music remains one of the few things we can count on to provide an escape. The Midwestern grind sweethearts in Cloud Rat are well aware of the necessity of creation during the darkest of days, and have lined up a shit-hot bevy of releases for 2017—one of which we premiered recently, and another of which, a new split with Dutch/German powerviolence punks Crevasse, is streaming below.As a confirmed Cloud Rat superfan, I've really been enjoying the way the band has been toying with unexpected sounds and whole new genres on their recent releases, from the synth goth vibe of "Amber Flush" to the appearance of their surprisingly melodic, riot grrrl-tinged, clean sung cover of Electric Deads' number "Fish in a Pool" on this new split with Crevasse. Cloud Rat has never stuck to a singular sound, but it's still a delight to see them stretch their legs a bit and kick down a few new walls.Crevasse, on the other hand, are sworn to a particularly pummeling blend of hardcore, powerviolence, d-beat, and doom that treads heavily, and only takes two or three minutes to pack a serous wallop. The Dutch/German transnational quartet channel their fury into bite-sized chunks of metallic, filthy shrapnel that fit perfectly alongside Cloud Rat's grinding rat-a-tats resulting in wonderfully complementary and wholly uncompromising pairing. Listen to the whole split below:
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Cloud Rat told us, "These were the first songs that we wrote with Brandon on drums. We wanted to step back and revisit our more frantic side with these tracks. Lyrically, the songs touch upon love/loss/manipulation, and self-loathing; distractions while the war machine continues its march, foaming at the mouth for more despair with each step. We also did our first punk cover, 'Fish in a Pool' by Danish punks Electric Deads. We changed it a bit and probably fucked it up… sorry, super fun to do though. After playing with Crevasse a couple years back in the Netherlands, we knew right then that we wanted to do a release together. Incredible folks with such manic, exciting energy live."
Crevasse added, "We are thrilled to do this split with the always charming Cloud Rat. We met CR a while ago when we played together in Amsterdam. We are very fond of them; one day we will tour the US together. Or Europe. Things will happen. (Anyway, we are super happy that we can do this split with them, it couldn't be better.) We recorded 'Dead Body' and 'Infinite Regress' in a really small basement in Cologne, Germany. Our friend Chris from the amazing band Strafplanet came over to record us. (We urge you to check Strafplanet out. Do it. Now.) 'Dead Body' is one of the last songs we wrote. It is weird and grim—definitely the direction we wanna go musically from now on. Apart from all the dark stuff we do, we are actually really nice and social people that we think you might wanna hang out with after a show. Try us."The split will be available from Halo Of Flies (North America) and Contraszt! (EU) come April 20, but why not just preorder it now and save yourself some hassle? You know you won't want to miss out on this (lavender-colored!) gem.Kim Kelly is grinding away on Twitter.