Stream the Crushing New Split from Cloud Rat and Disrotted

New Cloud Rat is always cause for celebration, but the band’s new split with Disrotted is especially noteworthy: while the Michigan grindcore outfit usually keeps it short n’ sweet, their contribution to this split, “Holding the Picture” is eighteen minutes long, and contains only scant traces of grind. By way of contrast, note that their last full-length, 2015’s Qliphoth, squeezed seventeen songs into forty minutes. So “Holding the Picture,” which is really a doom track, is to Cloud Rat as Arc was to Agoraphobic Nosebleed. And like Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Cloud Rat have totally pulled it off; “Holding the Picture” is great.

This may be due at least in part to the fact that the song represents the realization of a longstanding ambition. “Cloud Rat had been toying around with the idea of writing a grind epic for a few years,” the band tells Invisible Oranges, further revealing that “Qliphoth started as one long song… but the idea wasn’t coherent enough so we scratched it.” Good thing they didn’t try to force it… “Picture” feels totally organic. Like I said, they very much stuck the landing here, so their patience paid off.

The split isn’t embeddable, but you can check out both halves at Invisible Oranges. (I find the Disrotted half, “Dissipate,” to be pretty boring, but hopefully that’s just me). If you dig it, the split comes out June 2 on Halo of Flies Records and Dry Cough Records.