When I first heard there was a band called “Rabbits” I was not surprised. I assumed we’d have a semi-acoustic post-twee outfit broadcasting from a converted Bushwick Loft somewhere, or perhaps some bearded near-Seattlite soft-rockers playing up the beautiful nature that reportedly exists outside Kirkland’s upscale strip malls. Which is fine, but neither thing particularly piques my interest these days. I held out small hope that Rabbits might be a noise-art project inspired by David Lynch’s project of the same name but figured that was just wishful thinking. And it was.
But out of all that, there was one thing I got right, sort of, that being the Pacific Northwest origins, this band being from the ever-zeitgeisty Portland. I’ll cop to not knowing a ton about the band, but I can tell you that Rabbits play a feisty, aggressive and thoroughly modern take on heavy music. If you’re familiar with Karp (r.i.p.) you’ll know the direction they’re taking things; you could also invoke Big Business or a less groove-oriented, more abrasive Torche. To call it “stoner rock” would if the vocals weren’t quite so shredded. With the exception of the occasional big wah-overdub Rabbits also avoid most of the outright 70s worship that characterizes most Stoner Rock bands.
Can we also agree that that was probably an unfortunate name for a subgenre of music? These guys are dark and heavy but likewise really only skirt the edges of what’s considered “metal” and are probably a bit too Hard Rock for a “punk/postpunk” designation. (Coming soon from Graham: why Postpunk is Not a Thing. I haven’t forgotten.) Anyways, I could go on for a while about the crushingness of the riffs here, or the urgency of the vocals on tracks like “Duck, The Pigs” with it’s chant of “They’re coming to take! They’re coming to take you away!” but they’ve made it easy on all of us by posting their whole album here: http://lowerforms.info/
So you don’t have to take my word for it, you can check it out for yourself and just thank your lucky stars that expectations are sometimes exceeded.
Literally face-melting.
