WHAT STRANGE BEASTS
Cat's Paw
Renton, WA, United States
Psychedelic prog rock anyone? Oh good, I’m not the only one giddy with at prospect of discovering What Strange Beasts and their latest single, ‘Cat’s Paw’. The band hark to the glam times of old. Rush, Poison, ELO, Metallica. Their instrumental is beefy, full of guitar bass and drums that roll and punch. Their vocals are eclectic and harmonic. They layer and peel away like jet fighters on display, soaring high above normal song topics and instead opting for songs about the cosmos, and fantastical things. It's refreshing to see more bands developing this sound that could have been lost. What Strange Beats are up there with Shadow Academy, striding proudly into the future, brandishing sounds from the not-so-distant past.
The song begins from the deep black. Synths rise and swirl around one another, creating a plucky melody from the static. The drums add the pace, they smash cymbals at the top and pound low toms at the bottom of cresting melodic valleys in space. When the vocals are incorporated, the sound is whole, supported by the bass they sew lines of lyrical glee as the song moves as one entity through the stars, clicks into hyperdrive and blasts at light speed towards the chorus.
‘Cat’s Paw’ was the single I didn’t know I was waiting for this year, but now that it's here, nothing else lives up to its otherworldly sound.- FREDDIE MCKEE
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