Weeping Rat :"Tar"

Some post-punk that slipped through the cracks in 2014, my folks at Cvlt Nation wanted me to check this out for them since I am becoming there new go to goth guy, so here we go with a industrial tinged post-punk band from Australia that started off as a solo project and has become a trio in the past two years. There is a lazy drawl that harkens back to Jim Morrison in the vocal department. They float somewhere between shoegazed out punk and indie rock. the songwriting comes together on "Come to Consciousness".Satan's Bazaar finds them shuffling into the shadows some where between dark wave and the stark post-punk of some one like Joy Division. The bass player is really killing it, as they trickle out exotic scales as the static drum and the woobly waver of the guitar pour themselves over this like it's free form jazz from Transylvania. They don't allow themselves to be held in one place by their drum machine.

The echoed guitar of "Coil" slinks around the monotone narrative. The lush crystallized guitar puts them back into a more shoe-gaze glaze. The singer loosens up and starts singing an actual melody. There are some industrial flirtation, the beats tend to be the flimsier side of the spectrum. The bass gets meaty for"Leather Wrapped Rabbit Hole". The free form manner the singer spouts of opaque poetry is sometimes the only thing that holds the song together. The bass line gives a narcotic throb to the garden of dissonance taking root in "Transparency of Two."  some alluring sounds are captured amid the chaotic murk. The stream of consciousness flow to their song writing borders on psychedelic. They give the occasional punch to add more urgency to the dynamics.

One thing Weeping Rat has going for their often abstract ambiance is that is certainly dark enough to keep the painted frowns in the Bat Cave happy. The Cure like guitar dripping over the singers melodramatic ramblings certainly helps add to the dismal drone these songs carry. There are several moments where it sounds like they might break into "Fascination Street". With song titles like "Empty Hearse" this fact is not lost on them. There is a dream like laze to to the more shoe gaze portions of the albums third act ,which the band breezes in and out of from jangly indie rock. "Funereal Train" is a more angular take at the swirling cloud of dark shoegaze they continue to conjure. The chant of "bring me out of time" are the first lyrics that really cut through the din.

They rile the drum machine into something almost like a blast beat on "Deal With the Devil". Some of the sounds carry a similar feel as early Merchandise. The cleaner guitar pattering like rain drops over the distorted beats. The album closes on a similar note. The synths accent the pulse of the undercurrent running through the song. The singer maintains his moan, with the guitar becoming the real centerpieces.These guys might have elements of the whole Ian Curtis worshipping wave of post-punk, but paint blacker with this cavern of ghosts. I'll give this one an 8. There is a lot of promise here.