Last year Decibel Magazine released a food-themed issue with Municipal Waste mean-mugging with a human brain entrée on the cover. So when we noticed a culinary parody group called At the Plates we started salivating. Formed by Tony Rouse (guitar, bass, drums) and inspired by his own health struggles, At the Plates combines food intake awareness with anthemic melodeath. After releasing the perfectly-titled Garden Salads of Grief EP in 2018, At the Plates followed it with the Starch Enemy LP a couple years later. Now they’re back with a third helping of pun-slinging riffage with Omnivore. Today we share the scale-smashing single “Punish My Waistline.”
I wouldn’t blame the band if the project was just a breezy outlet for growling food puns. But At the Plates play with conviction while delivering snappy, darkly melodic bangers (and mash). As fun as the pitch is, the band takes their songwriting and composition seriously. “Punish My Waistline” is an example of that, with a haunting intro that sounds mile away from a winking joke track. Lead guitarist Tyler McCarthy and vocalist Mario Alejandro combine for a mean pit-ready chorus that brings the (gastric) pain. With a killer central groove and a downcast aura, you would never guess the track’s bloated theme.
“”Punish My Waistline” tells the story of our unlucky protagonist, who suffers from sudden and uncontrollable weight gain,” Rouse says in a statement. “It’s something many of us can relate to; how overly self-conscious we can be about ourselves and our bodies, not to mention the frustration that comes along with trying to lose weight. It can feel like an uphill battle where you take one step forward and two steps back.”
The red in the sky is ketchup. Punish your waistline with At the Plates below.
Pre-order Omnivore on Bandcamp HERE
Follow At the Plates for news, updates, and wordplay HERE
The post Track Premiere: At the Plates – “Punish My Waistline” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.