Brace yourself for a massive influx of gnawing, vicious rodents on a rampage as German Death Metal duo Rats Of Gomorrah unleash their savage debut album Infectious Vermin.
Rats Of Gomorrah – Infectious Vermin (Testimony Records)
Release Date: 31 January 2025
Words: Jools Green
The duo, guitarist and vocalist Daniel Stelling and Moritz Paulsen on drums, are more widely known for their previous band, Divide, who toured globally and released a couple of albums between 2009 and 2023.
With Rats Of Gomorrah unleashing the latest chapter of their music, the duo have determined not to deliver the same old regurgitated Death Metal many bands are content to deliver. They have worked hard to create something a little more exciting and inventive, resulting in a hugely engaging and exhilarating meld of Death Metal infused with Heavy and Speed Metal.
This is alongside crust punk riffs, with death vocals, both deep growls and higher shrieks, that cut through with menacing intent, all unleashed at a well-varied pace.
Lyrically, Rats Of Gomorrah weave environmental, social, and political issues cleverly into Lovecraftian horror themes, making Infectious Vermin an album that is guaranteed to fire you up, get your pulse racing and heart beating loudly, delivering thirteen tracks spanning forty-five minutes of hugely engaging brutality.
Infectious Vermin opens on the first of two singles released last year. Swarming Death, at the offset, delivers a blood-curdling scream and a torrent of catchy, thrashy repeat riffs that echo across the whole track. Growling vocals course over an unrelenting but well-varied drive, culminating in a generous swathe of leadwork in the second half. It is a track that packs an engaging punch you just cannot resist.
The next piece, Face No Consequence, is a dark chugger, slick in its direction and switches again hugely varied and engaging. The wall of drum work and rapid spoken element in the second half adds an extra edge.
Moving onto Tails Unknown, its eerie repeat and higher acidic vocals deliver a repeating chorus, offset by the deeper growls. A hugely engaging crusty Death Metal, mid-pace offering.
I love the next piece, Narcissus. It has got a slight Morbid Angel echo woven into its construct in both the riffs and vocals. Again, it’s well-varied. The direction shifts and pace changing are all slickly executed, while the overall sound is dark and crushing with a filthy, almost sleazy edge, and the subtle undercurrent of squealing guitar towards the close was not lost on me. It adds to that wonderfully sleazy mood.
The next piece, Rise From The Abyss, may only be a brief keyboard-led interlude, but I love it. It sounds like something from an ’80s splatter movie, which is a large part of its charm for me. It flows seamlessly straight into and is reflected across the duration of Rattenkönigin (Rat Queen), which was the second single released last year.
I think it’s a superb piece. Delivering a blackened sound, the repeat is engagingly hypnotic. The pace is often intense and driving, adding an even more sinister edge. Again, you get the twin vocals, and the clarity of the delivery of lyrical content of those harsh vocals builds on the atmosphere further.
Taking sinister to the next level is Night Orbit. The pace is slower and very deliberate, the drum beats precise and perfectly rhythmic, and the riffs dark and haunting. The vocal growls, accompanied at times by higher harsh vocals, permeate through to add an even more dark, sinister edge. This is a piece that sends a wonderful shiver down my spine.
Asleep On A Dagger is dark but has a catchy crusty death groove, equally catchy hooks, and superb intonation in the vocal delivery. There is a determined but well-varied drive that, at times, reaches an insane pace.
With its superb anthemic quality, Strychnos brings an immersive meld of brutal driving riffs and melodic swathes with the vocal growls delivered with impressive impact and conviction. It is followed by Towers, Ropes and Knives, which builds on an eerily sinister repeat, expanding into a driving beast with brutal pace drops and more of that eerie repeat.
The pace drops back to that of a groovy chugger for Judas Goat initially, melded with some insanely fast swathes overlaid with crazy leadwork whilst the growls punch their way through the melee. This is completed by a pounding pace drop in the second half and a spoken soundbite as the pace builds in speed and intensity towards the close.
Dark and sinister to open, Cosmicide develops an eerie and dark, crushing feel, which I love. It packs an engagingly brutal punch. The direction switching is impressively surprising and unpredictable, making a superbly all-encompassing and weighty piece.
Finally, Vat Of Acid delivers pounding drums and harbours a very faint echo of Morbid Angel and Dissection as well as their own slant on something far darker and more sinister. This track melds so many fascinating elements that it cannot fail to intrigue and engage the listener.
Infectious Vermin will be available as CD, vinyl and cassette, all limited editions or as a digital download.
