Nasty Ratz - First Bite

Nasty Ratz First Bite cover
Nasty Ratz
First Bite
Sleaszy Rider
2015
4.5
Well not the very first band to use rodent parallelisms on its title this Czech quartet is trying hard to appeal to fans of the 80s LA strip sound of Yore, be it early-mid era Motley, Ratt, Poison etc… their promoter makes a big deal about a guy from Belgian black metallers Belphegor having engineered some of the bass tracks, but I dunno why the #$#% that’s important. Production and mix wise they certainly are on a pretty decent level and overall they aren’t all that bad, but their singer/guitarist is a bit of a letdown with his whiney, nassal voice that on occasion can get annoying, especially when he tries to go high.
 
“Angel in Me” for the most part is an OK track and “I Don’t Wanna Care” could be too, if some effort was done on the vocals that sound way too catatonic and unimpressive.
 
“If You Really Love Me” is a whole lot better, but that little flasetto in there, a big no.
 
“I’ll Cut You Off” tries to replicate the nastiness of Ratt and the sleaze of LA Guns, but it sounds like a poor relative.
 
“Love at First Fight” apart from “lifting” its bass rumble from a Mottley song, it is for the most part boring…
 
“Made of Steel” is wimpy power metal, where the band’s singer goes for some weak falsettos and predictably sounds quite bad. And that video, damn I can’t unseen it … I’d stay hidden behind the boxing girls really…
 
The band is out of their collective depths trying to do something like “Morning Dreams Come True” a semi-ballad which ends up being quite the trainwreck in a multitude of ways.
 
“N.A.S.T.Y” is probably the best song on the album, short, to the point, with the band in constant motion in the video and the vocals not “spoiling” things all that much…
 
“Sharise” is another attempt at a ballad, this time an acoustic one and it fares a little better, but still I’d avoid slower songs… that expose the weaknesses of vocalists… I’m also a little confuse if the way in which the name is pronounced is even correct, but whatever. The solo isn’t too bad, if not a little basic.
 
“Snort Me” tries to tease that these guys are bad boys of rock ‘n roll, but it fails both musically and from an image standpoint… it’s also tweaked production wise and it’s not much to talk about, despite a promising intro…
 
The band could potentially become serious provided they hire a new vocalist. Not terrible, but patchy debut that their singer seriously brings down.