Brat Barracuda Single Review

Considering I’ve been playing in bands the bulk of my life; I’ve always admired when bands cover other artist’s songs. I really appreciate when band’s take a song and make it their own as opposed to just playing it safe. Today’s topic falls into the making it their own category – The NOLA band, Brat has released their latest single, a cover of the Heart classic “Barracuda”. 
 
This cover is so far out there that I could hardly recognize the intro riff. Different tunings and sludge drenched guitar tones flip the song on its head. If this were a cover of a song by any other band other than Heart this would’ve been an instant homerun, but since we’re talking a classic like this, it’s hard to measure up to Ann Wilson’s vocals. Vocally, the band does feature female vocals but it’s nothing at all like you’d expect… The vocals here are straight out of the power violence playbook, I’m instantly reminded of the band, Light This City and Arch Enemy – legitimate violence and brutality. While I’ve enjoyed these bands through the years, this kind of music isn’t something I care much for these days. However, this is a Heart classic, so I could ill afford to not listen and vibe on the track and give it a proper go and share some thoughts. This isn’t a bad cover, it’s quite good all things considered, and I really appreciate the guts it took to tackle something like this because you know the puritans will rip this and the band to shreds. As a bonus, the band enlists the help of Sammy Duet of Goatwhore/Acid Bath on this track, I dig that – Sammy lending his talent to the up-and-coming youngsters. Admittedly, it’s not my thing vocal wise, but I dig the musical approach.

Whilst checking out this single I did listen to the band’s debut album “Social Grace” and it’s just as gnarly and violent as this cover if not even more brutal. It’s not my thing at all, I should’ve gone outside and practiced falling down beforehand. Brat are about to head out on a tour with Napalm Death, Crowbar and Full Of Hell. If you get the chance, don’t miss Brat’s set, their so-called brand of Bimbo Violence and Barbiegrind, might just become your new favorite, if not you’ll at least have a good time in the Pit getting your shit kicked in!

~Black Angel