Audio By Carbonatix
Reader support matters more than ever
We're in the final stretch of our summer campaign. Our goal is to raise $25,000 by August 9 to support the journalism our community relies on. Reader support is helping shape the future of local news.
For fifteen years, King Rat has held down its own small, smelly corner of Denver’s punk scene. That kind of longevity alone is commendable — especially considering the volatile, at times self-destructive nature of King Rat’s music, a crackling blitzkrieg of hard rock, ’80s hardcore and Mike Ness-style confessionals. On its sixth full-length, Everything Burns, the band taps into a deeper source: itself. Frontman Luke Schmaltz has always played and sang from the gut, but here he’s yanking shit out of his bones; maniacally focused, scathingly cathartic and surprisingly catchy, the album sports everything from kiss-offs to shout-alongs, often in the same breath. It’s Schmaltz’s brutal candor and way with a witty phrase, though, that drives home this batch of ass-kicking, razor-etched anthems. It isn’t young, polite or easy on the eyes (or ears). But it feels damn good.
