DEAD RABBITS – Sin Eater

The underground lives: Overit Records is a new label from New York, and Dead Rabbits is hot off their presses. The promo sheet provided by the label says Hard Rock with Blues influences. When you hear that, don’t you think of Glenn Hughes? Maybe Tony Martin solo stuff? Clean music with a somehow anonymous production? That could not be further from the truth. You get a raw sound, ripping guitars, and an authentic production, which fits the music like a glove! The song “Neurotic Fanatic” roughly fits the Hard Rock with Blues description if you add raw and played in a garage to it, but the rest is much more Metal: Heavy Rock with Doom and Stoner influences.

This album breathes fire and sweats Rock ’n’ Roll. It is so old school and untrendy that one just has to love it. The gang of four who supposedly named their band after a New York street gang from the mid-19th century did learn their BS well (oh, come on, BS stands for Black Sabbath! What else could it be – this a Metal page!), and perform it with devotion. On a few tracks, those similarities are quite easy to find (“Once Upon A Cross” and “Sleep,” where some of the guitar licks sound suspiciously like “War Pigs”), but other tracks put Kyuss or Trouble into one’s mind. Changes between fast-paced rockers like “Open Season” and “Till I Die,” and Doomy tracks like “Miles Away” and “Once Upon A Cross,” straight songs like “Away From The Sun,” and “Trust,” and tricky stuff with several breaks like “Day By Day” make the album great fun to listen to; and then there is still “Fly On,” which has such a great melodic chorus that it was almost mainstream would it not be for the scratchy guitars and the solo with its slide guitar and Southern Rock-influenced sound. Here the vocals by Mike Maney or Jason Sunkes are the best on the album, although overall they do an excellent job. Ozzy is the Prince of Darkness, and he rules, but this sometimes sounds like an old Sabbath album with a singer who could actually sing!

The album contains no less than 17 tracks, of which 16 are songs. The 13-minute “Dead Rabbit Space“ is 13 minutes of nothing, and as that is not so new it fails to amuse. But, since the rest seem to be considered bonus tracks, the only bother is to skip track 14 on your CD player to come to the album encore. Those three songs, along with the other cover version already among the 13 regular songs, show where these Rabbits’ roots lie: Two Jimi Hendrix tunes, one of his classics, “Manic Frustrations,” and one from his Bluesy side, “Little Wing;” the Creedence Clearwater Revival evergreen “Fortunate Son;” and Acid Bath’s “Paegan Love Song” – the latter being an interesting but very fitting choice – help define Dead Rabbits.

The music of Sin Eater calls for being enjoyed live, ’cause this is the real thing: pure, heavy, honest, raw. These guys belong in small underground clubs and may be one of the best experiences you may have in your Metal existence. If Overit Records can keep that level of quality, they are to be reckoned with. In the meantime, enjoy Dead Rabbits!