Like Rats - Like Rats (2012)

My goal for Like Rats is to create music that could have existed in the evolving extreme metal scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Many of the bands that are ostensibly related in defining genre parameters don't really sound much like each other. Morbid Angel sounds way different than Suffocation sounds way different than Deicide etc.

I wanted to write with the same feelimg as early material from Incantation, Immolation, Darkthrone, and Asphyx without actually sounding too much like any of those bands. I also wanted to maintain the punkish d-beat feel of Celtic Frost and Sodom (who just very clearly loved Discharge and Motörhead). Finally, I wanted to stress the dark melodicism that defines early death metal as well as artists like Dead Can Dance, Prokofiev & Strauss. Speaking of Strauss, trying to touch what these people have done makes me feel like an ape encountering a monolith, but such is life.

Here is a track-by-track breakdown with all of the riffs I can remember purposefully stealing. Some are blatant rip-offs and others are a bit more abstracted. I've noticed other acts of thievery upon relistening to the album, but these are the ones that were definitely intentional. Click each link to be taken to a youtube video timestamped to the pilfered riff.

Red Dawn:
Celtic Frost - Innocence & Wrath
Morpheus Descends - Proclaimed Creator

Fire:
Slayer - Piece by Piece
Death Strike - Pervert

River Dread:
Immolation - Into Everlasting Fire
Morbid Angel - Chapel of Ghouls

Winter Sun:
Sergei Prokofiev - Piano Sonata No. 6
Unleashed - The Final Silence
Massacra - Apocalyptic Warrior

Dark Masks:
Krypts - Dormant of the Ancients
Darkthrone - Summer of the Diabolical Holocaust

Dusk:
Sepultura - Morbid Visions
Celtic Frost - Eternal Summer

Direction:
Gorgoroth - Drommer om Dod
Sodom - Nuctemeron

Bloodline:
Sergei Prokofiev - Piano Concerto No. 2
Celtic Frost - Procreation of the Wicked (probably the single most influential riff on Like Rats)

Russian Midnight:
Richard Strauss - Also Sprach Zarathustra
Incantation - Nocturnal Dominium

And of course, here are external links for purchasing and listening:
Full album stream via Decibel
Vinyl via A389 Recordings
Digital download via A389 or iTunes