{"id":76391,"date":"2019-02-21T16:00:27","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T16:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?p=76391"},"modified":"2023-04-07T14:25:08","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T13:25:08","slug":"review-to-the-rats-and-wolves-cheap-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-to-the-rats-and-wolves-cheap-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: To the Rats and Wolves \u2013 Cheap Love"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-76392 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/To-The-Rats-And-Wolves-Cheap-Love-Artwork-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/To-The-Rats-And-Wolves-Cheap-Love-Artwork-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/To-The-Rats-And-Wolves-Cheap-Love-Artwork-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/To-The-Rats-And-Wolves-Cheap-Love-Artwork-600x600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/To-The-Rats-And-Wolves-Cheap-Love-Artwork-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/To-The-Rats-And-Wolves-Cheap-Love-Artwork-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/To-The-Rats-And-Wolves-Cheap-Love-Artwork-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/To-The-Rats-And-Wolves-Cheap-Love-Artwork-30x30.jpg 30w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/To-The-Rats-And-Wolves-Cheap-Love-Artwork-465x465.jpg 465w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/To-The-Rats-And-Wolves-Cheap-Love-Artwork-500x500.jpg 500w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/To-The-Rats-And-Wolves-Cheap-Love-Artwork.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>It is now almost laughable to claim that any merging of metalcore with pop elements is in any way original. After all, bands like Bring Me The Horizon have now completed wholesale transformations from their roots towards the latter.<\/p>\n<p>But for\u00a0<strong>To the Rats and Wolves<\/strong>, the concept isn&#8217;t so much about originality as it is about unapologetic \u2013 take any snippets from their material and it could genuinely be chart music, and done well at that. On &#8216;<em>Cheap Love&#8217;\u00a0<\/em>the contemporaneous post-hardcore ingredients almost provide a platform for the pop and electronic influences, not the other way about.<\/p>\n<p>On &#8216;<em>Friendz&#8217;,<\/em> it&#8217;s nothing short of a thrilling balance; a synthesised and addictive riff igniting what would otherwise be unremarkable sing-along\/jump-along fare. However,\u00a0<em>&#8216;Look What You Made Us Do&#8217;<\/em>\u00a0has less legs, and it&#8217;s not helped by a bewildering and uncalled-for Taylor Swift parody towards its end.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"TO THE RATS AND WOLVES - Cheap Love (OFFICIAL VIDEO)\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WJ5Nrwz6mOQ?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The title track and opener is a much better example of the hyperactive impact the record has at its best, which includes utilising Dixi Wu&#8217;s particularly violent throat to layer the melodies. To that point, those melodies have a high hit rate, with no better example than the excellent\u00a0<em>&#8216;Cure&#8217;, <\/em>Nico Sallach&#8217;s\u00a0breathy delivery aided by Our Last Night&#8217;s Trevor Wentworth and an abundance of vocal effects.<\/p>\n<p>By the time\u00a0<em>&#8216;B.I.C.&#8217;<\/em> and\u00a0<em>&#8216;Down&#8217;<\/em> come round, the pace and formula have become ever-so-slightly tiresome, and a slower, or all-out onslaught number wouldn&#8217;t have gone amiss. But there is the sense that the group from Essen, Germany had an uncompromising vision for the record, and by and large, it does work \u2013 in a faintly mad, over-the-top way.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t come to <em>&#8216;<\/em><em>Cheap Love&#8217;<\/em> expecting subtlety, but don&#8217;t come expecting to be bored either.\u00a0<strong>To the Rats and Wolves\u00a0<\/strong>do what they do with defiance, and just like everyone who heard them first on the German underground scene, they want you to have a good time. It&#8217;s impossible not to.<\/p>\n<p>3.5\/5<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8216;Cheap<\/em> <em>Love&#8217;<\/em> by\u00a0<strong>To the Rats and Wolves\u00a0<\/strong>is released on 22nd February on\u00a0<strong>Arising Empire<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>To The Rats and Wolves<\/strong> links: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.totheratsandwolves.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Website<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/totheratsandwolves\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ttrawofficial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.instagram.com\/totheratsandwolves\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Peter Stewart (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PeteStew_\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@PeteStew_<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t come to &#8216;Cheap Love&#8217; expecting subtlety\u2026 To the Rats and Wolves\u00a0do what they do with defiance&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":76392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[5879,993,16614,15030,16613],"class_list":["post-76391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-album-reviews","tag-arising-empire","tag-cheap-love","tag-peter-stewart","tag-to-the-rats-and-wolves"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - 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