Many would normally not associate the likes of Glasgow Blackened Crossover outfit Doppelganger with hardcore. However (much as to the likes of Gaslight, which turned into Mind Invasion) the infamous Scottish quintent have been getting closer and closer to our scene, showing a distinct interest in it. I was lucky enough to receive a DM from Brandon getting this single early to report on (massive shoutout for that) and I must say: this shit is heavy.
A lot of Doppelganger's pre-existing material has a tasteful amount of metal "hell yeah" energy, with additional hardcore parts. They're a crossover band, no doubt, but so far their balance has mainly been shifted towards metal. Rattus, though, both shifts this and keeps it the same. This single have the band leaning into their "blackened" and hardcore influences much more, with a sound that reminds me of GHC bands such as Bathed in Sin and NYC legends the likes of Darkside rather than their previous songs which remind me of bands such as Municipal Waste, Suicidal Tendencies and Dead Kennedies. However, they're no strangers to variation in their work; their single-based formula for releasing music has so far allowed them to capture a lot of different styles but, in my opinion, Rattus is probably the boldest and most unique song they've released yet.
Whilst
I could've gone for a push pit with
"Drinking and Gambling" or their
undisputed masterpiece "I Killed A Family Of 7 In A Red Ford Focus
(Allegedly)", there's something about Rattus that screams side to side
and windmills.
Of course, this is my view on the single after having listened to it about 3 times and it's a lot of really complicated explanation the band is better off explaining. Given the opportunity, I was able to pitch the following question:
Aiden: “I think as a band we’ve always “planned” to be crossover, our own playing and influence comes from all over the place, which is kind of how we landed on the tag “blackened - crossover”. There are absolutely draws from hardcore especially being involved with the scene and in my own hardcore band (Canny See, shameless plug) but at least some of us have been going to near every metal or hardcore show in Glasgow for the past however many years so we’ve always been active in seeing a broad cast of bands. Each song we’ve wrote stands on its own with its own draws and influence, I mean we’ve got some very tongue-in-cheek stuff but we’ve constantly dipped into influence from every corner of aggressive music.”
