To The Rats And Wolves – Cheap Love


If you are after a deep and introspective album that’ll make you ponder about the world’s mysteries, Cheap Love (Arising Empires) by To The Rats and Wolves isn’t the album for you. That’s because Cheap Love is the album you want to be playing halfway through the night at your local alternative club. With just enough heaviness and to get away with fitting under an alt-label and the right amount of infectious hooks and beats per minute.

This eleven-track release will keep you partying til the early hours of the morning!

In a world where bands take themselves and their art way too seriously, the German sextet are the antithesis of this. Go back to the beginning of this decade and imagine Attila at the prime of their career creating party hits, packed to the brim with Metalcore breakdowns and all of the other essential elements that made the subgenre back then. Now slap this together with the electronic dance sounds of Pendulum and you have a loose idea of what TTRAW sound like.

A clear example of this popping up in the stand-out song ‘Look What You Made Us Do’ which offers up an addictive chorus, before ending with a parody of the similarly titled ‘Look What You Made Me Do’s voice message before launching into one of the heaviest breakdowns across the album.

No, To The Rats and Wolves aren’t the bands you’re going show your parents, and Cheap Love isn’t the album you’re going to listen to in detail next to your record player. The band is very aware of who they are and what music they are making, and they do it better than most other groups out there. If you want a soundtrack to your best night out, or an album to get you pumped before you got out on the town, look no further than To The Rats And Wolves and their third release, Cheap Love.

7 / 10

CHARLIE HILL