Dead Rabbits - Sin Eater
- Released: 2006
- Label: Overit Records
- Rating:
After reading about these guys in a review on another site, Dead Rabbits sounded like a band I needed to check out for myself. After several listens, I’m happy to say that outside of the production value (which is why this gets a 3 1/2), this record is right up my alley.
The vocals are certainly in the category of Monster Magnet in style. Musically, a number of stoner rock and doom metal bands come to mind. During the opener “Open Season”, you get a chorus right out of the Trouble songbook until the song cruises into speed metal territory at the end. The second song, “Trust”, also treads in Trouble terrain, with the verse riff being very much like what you would find from the Chicago doom legends. Elsewhere on this album, I hear nods to bands such as Crowbar, Corrosion of Conformity, and perhaps Clutch as well. No, “Once Upon a Cross” is not a Deicide cover, but instead is a solid slab of C.O.C. worship. Later on we have a song called “Sleep,” which is totally Sabbath. I won’t deny that some of the riffs found within this album venture a little too close to those of the bands they may be emulating, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy this album.
There are no less than four cover songs on here, including “Manic Depression” & “Little Wing” by Jimi Hendrix, “Fortunate Son” by CCR, and yes, “Paegan Love Song” by the awesome Acid Bath. As I mentioned before, the production isn’t the best, thus the lower rating. Perhaps these are actually demo quality recordings released on cd and the lower rating isn’t justified. However, all you have to do is walk over to your stereo and crank the thing up a little louder! One more thing for the curious…a “sin eater” is a man who, for his small gratuity, ate a piece of bread laid on the chest of a dead person, whereby he was supposed to have taken the sins of the dead person upon himself. I also found out that the “Dead Rabbits” were a gang in New York City in the 1850’s. [Editor’s note: Check out the 2002 Martin Scorsese flick Gangs of New York for more on this.] The name has Irish American roots, and when translated means “a man to be feared greatly”. Interesting stuff indeed. The album’s not too bad either.
http://www.deadrabbitsmusic.com
Metal Mark | 08/25/2006