Midwest grind unit Cloud Rat are preparing to strike with new album Pollinator next month, but before that happens, Decibel has an exclusive stream of new track “Seven Heads.” In and out in under two minutes, “Seven Heads” is a burly grindcore rager, quickly increasing in speed from the 30-second mark.
Vocalist Madison Marshall presides over the controlled chaos, giving an absolutely blistering vocal performance. Each shriek is ferocious but measured, striking the balance between brutality and intelligibility. As always, Cloud Rat remain one of the tightest bands in their genre, turning on a dime with each change.
“‘Seven Heads’ is probably the closest thing to the title track of Pollinator,” explains guitarist Rorik Brooks, “As the artwork our friend Renata made for the album was initially based off a lyric from this song: ‘A paradise of delusion. Rotten. Hush-hush.’ And the lyrics also contain the seed which sprung forth the concept of the title Pollinator. Madison was thinking of the Cronenberg film The Brood, took that kind of surreal body-horror vibe and married it to modern delusional terror, i.e. social media, where every day our brains are pollinated constantly by different emotions, ideologies and identity delusions. The original visual concept featured a two-faced monster, but then the title ‘Seven Heads’ kinda jumped in and stuck, because Hail the Beast 666, am I right?
“Musically, the song marks a shift in the album after the opening two tracks, with a notable tempo and time signature change, and where you start to feel the subtle dream-like vibe that is present at times throughout the record. Musical inspirations on this one ranged somewhere between Coffins, Morbid Angel, Discordance Axis and Deftones. Also Ray Bradbury.”
