Rabbits - Lower Forms

I, personally am a grind and hardcore kind of guy. I love all types of metal, but these genres tend to stand out to me. It isn't very often that I stumble on something outside of said genres that I really enjoy.

Rabbits debut album, "Lower Forms", is a dirty, thundering, dooming beast with a lot of different layers mixed in. This mixture creates an extremely atmospheric, distorted vibe. From the album opener, "Burn, Sun, Burn", the band introduces the droning sound that, for the most part defines the album as a whole. The song is very well executed with cryptic riffing and very technical drumming. The vocalist is terrific with his sharp, searing screams. There are songs on this album that stand out as polar to the album opener. A song like "Noise To Share", which incorporates a lot of hardcore punk elements into the dooming sound. This track is sped to a near grinding speed. This goes to show that this band has a lot of potential and doesn't have to stick to a single defined genre.

All together, this band really surprised me and blew me away. Rabbits have changed my views on other styles of metal and make me really want to look into similar bands. I loved this album and I am confident in saying that I think you will also. (9/10)

Ross Gnarly

Band info: www.myspace.com/rabbitusmaximus

Label info: www.relapse.com

For fans of: early Mastodon, haarp, Monkeypriest

Full review at: American Aftermath