Off Shelf reviews Toilet Rats’ Black Cats

Thanks to Jim Testa of Off Shelf’s Punk Rock Scouting Report column for reviewing Toilet Rats' Black Cats:

The backstory here reads like a late-night public access fever dream: Tommy Ratz, holed up in some Minneapolis bunker circa 1985–86, surviving on sewer-soaked magazines and degraded VHS tapes while cranking out this record in total isolation. Sure. Back on Earth 1, Toilet Rats is the brainchild of Thomas Rehbein, who may not actually live underground but clearly isn’t operating on the same wavelength as the rest of us. Black Cats sounds like what happens when someone feeds a pile of vintage synths, drum machines, and guitars through a maze of effects pedals and just lets it all run wild. There are moments that nod toward Pretty Hate Machine-era Trent Reznor, but where Nine Inch Nails went all-in on gloom and self-seriousness, Toilet Rats keep one foot in the gutter and the other on a banana peel. It’s goth-industrial with a sense of humor—unsettling, but not above cracking a grin. The songs hit hard and stick fast. There’s a dense, mechanical throb underneath everything, like you’re trapped inside a factory that’s somehow learned how to write hooks. Over that, Rehbein delivers vocals that wobble somewhere between unhinged and oddly charming, recalling early Devo if they’d spent more time watching horror movies than art films. It’s weird, it’s noisy, it’s occasionally ridiculous… and it’s a lot more fun than it has any right to be.