A little more than a week ago, I was at a neighborhood festival full of vendor booths for food, clothing, collectables, and political candidates. While perusing, I came across a booth unlike any of the others: a guy sitting on his own with a small box of records and an iPhone connected to a pair of headphones. I stopped to check it out, and discovered it was musician Tommy Ratz promoting his band, Toilet Rats. A handwritten sign declared it synth music for fans of bands like The Cure, New Order, and bands along those lines. We chatted, and I told him that I would check out his album for possible coverage. While the band might not be metal, there's a lot about the album Black Cats that makes it easy to recommend to BKOH readers. 

From the opening notes of the first track, "Darkness," post-punk fans will hear shades of New Order. This track has an energetic, singalong vibe, and many of the other tracks have a similar "belt it out loud in the car" feel. That said, there's a surprising variety to the sounds and moods on Black Cats. The album really clicks for me on the third track, "I Was a Teenage Exorcist," which sounds like a 1960s pop track run through a distortion pedal. That song is followed up by "Crystal Lake (I Don't Wanna Go To)," which sounds like an electroclash take on The Ramones. These two tracks have already earned permanent placement on my master Halloween playlist.

A couple tracks in the middle of the album veer a little too close to pop punk for my liking, but everything comes and goes quickly on Black Cats - only two of the 14 songs crack the three-minute mark. While anything that falls into the pop punk genre typically makes me hiss and shrink away like a vampire facing a cross, none of these tracks bother me too much, and some actually work for me - "Vampirella" recalls late-era Misfits in a way that works. Other tracks recall more genres reworked around fuzzy keyboards. "Nuclear Reaction Meltdown" sounds like if Reverend Horton Heat was in a car crash and had to be rebuilt as a cyborg. "Crash Out," which features Minneapolis mainstay Andrew Cahak of Unstable Shapes, has a manic, paranoid LCD Soundsystem feel. "Wolfie" closes the album with the most 80s-influenced keyboards, but also the album's heaviest riff. 

Black Cats by Toilet Rats is an album that came my way completely by chance, and I found myself really enjoying it. It is high-energy, diverse, and just a heck of a lot of fun. Since I don't write about a lot of "fun" albums on this site, Black Cats is a nice change of pace. Keep it on hand for your next Halloween dance party.

Toilet Rats' Black Cats released on June 26. Vinyl copies are available via Steadfast Records.