Burnt and chared metallic paints are seared with a smouldering aggression. Blisters and welts and new lines of rust form a thick felt of still seething sounds. It’s the sound of acute paranoia; with caustic wire grinds of industrialised noise set to an organic EDM heartbeat.

‘Elizabeth‘ is a high pressured pleasure, with a DIY grit wrapped in harmonised howls and a panic that pulsates throughout. Kill Your Boyfriend might sound like an emo pet project but this is distilled paranoia.

We can look back to post punk, to an Alec Empire soundtrack, or trace lines from Suicide to Sunn O))). Throw in an urgency pressed and compacted and there’s barely a hint of escape.

There’s a wonderfully, shamelessly, nu-romantic touch to the vocals that switch between question and screech. When the voice starts to break in the weight of its strain, it gets worn down to throat scratching static. And once we get used the onslaught of texture, we break down to the noise of that twisting sheet metal before lurching back in for the track’s final act.

A single note pulse-pushing bassline, an abrasive, persistent two note guitar squeal, it’s neo-psychedelic sub-gothic krautrock and it’s mean in its dark arthouse violence.  

The B-side remix might be neater and cleaner, with a deep polished cyberpunk sheen. But what it adds in production it might lose in angst, although it stands up on all its own merit. Consider this remix an alternative take, and either could make up the A-side.

It’s a soundtrack for anxious nocturnals, for displaced visitations and frantic sleepless nights… with a small twist of salt for the wound.  

Elizabeth is out now on download and vinyl, with a video due December 6th.

Find this track and others from Rats On The Run featured artists right here on ROTR Radio.