With songs as seductively venomous as its name suggests, Snake Rattle Rattle Snake began in October 2008 when veterans of the underground music scene in Denver decided to pursue a mutual interest in darkly atmospheric music with a grounding in dance rhythms. Since its debut performance on Valentine’s Day 2009, the band has played numerous shows including sharing the stage with the likes of Amazing Baby, Pink Mountaintops, Wovenhand and The Entance Band. With severe yet ethereal guitars chiming over the top of tribal percussion, shot through with singer Hayley Helmericks’ caustic lyrics, Snake sounds like a vital combination of spooky surf band, haunted carnival rock and Siouxsie Sioux fronting a pre-synth-driven New Order. The sense of menace and haunted introspection heard in the act’s music ultimately transforms in the end into the kind of catharsis born of vanquishing personal demons with a joyfully cinematic flair. One of this band’s secret weapons is the interlocking rhythmic structure created by dual percussionists Andrew Warner and Kit Peltzel. The rich percussive textures allow the seething whirl of guitar interplay between Doug Spencer and Wilson Helmericks to ride on the waves of James Yardley’s driving bass lines. The resultant harrowing aesthetic is one shared with the early releases of The Rapture and Goblin’s soundtrack work for Dario Argento. Always an inspiringly compelling live act, Snake Rattle Rattle Snake is poised to strike out of the insular Denver rock scene and into wider pastures. -Tom Murphy Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.