Rat Poison is a metallic hardcore band based out of South Carolina, and unlike some other examples No Echo can think of, its members actually like each other. "Three of us have played music together forever, toured the country and love each other," guitarist Paul Glover tell us. "We've been in and out of a bunch of bands but always seem to gravitate back toward playing together."
The group just released a 4-track EP, Hypnotized in the '90s, viruses be damned. So, how does Paul break down the Rat Poison sound? "A hardcore band with some metal and thrash elements that had a fuckin' chain link fence onstage. We wrote a bunch of riffs, and demoed those on GarageBand. Then, we enlisted the help of a couple young bucks we met on hardcore Tinder in upstate South Carolina to help us on drums and bass to round it out.
"We've all had some varying influences, but it usually comes down to some combination of NYHC, Alice In Chains, Megadeth, pretty much the entire Last Action Hero soundtrack and maybe a little Integrity."
"As for how the new EP was written, there's always a riff first thats most likely inspired by some big bad villains song in a movie and then we then build the rest of the song around that," says the guitarist. "The lyrical theme of the record is about how the culture of the '90s was created to hypnotize our generation and now the current generation is getting an updated programming, mainly to sculpt our opinions and lifestyles."
No Echo asks Paul, outside of Rat Poison, what else is happening in the South Carolina hardcore scene, from his eyes: "South Carolina's hardcore scene locally has always gone up and down but it's had its moments. I feel like it's just been trending upward again lately but now we have the virus shit. Hopefully, lack of an outlet for all of these weirdos will reinvigorate the love for going out to a show and moshing and singing along. Speaking of weirdos, we're at the top of the list. That's why there's few bands we feel a kinship with.
"But, there's been a select number throughout the years. Die Young from Texas comes to mind. Around here there's WVRM, Riot Stares, Florida Man, Circle Back, Fire & Flood. All those dudes don't seem to be totally sick of us. Yet."
Rat Poison on social media: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Bandcamp
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