Bites Rites

You can probably blame Monty Python for this one.... Just as King Arthur and his knights discovered the hard way toward the end of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, so too Portland, Oregon's deceptively named Rabbits are anything but the cute and cuddly creatures you may understandably confuse them for. Rather, they are utterly rabid and ravenous mutations thereof, thirsty for the blood and guts of any listeners/victims courageous enough to take on the sludgy noise metal spewed by the trio's 2012 assault, Bites Rites. Sometimes savagely abrupt (see "Lame in Vain," "Move Her Body"), sometimes tortuously deliberate ("Fight Right," "Meth Valley 99"), these tunes in fact have nothing tuneful about them, drawing as they do from influences like the Melvins, Unsane, and even Butthole Surfers for added, mentally unhinged shits and giggles. The resulting sensory bludgeoning is not only remorseless, it's downright perverse, and not even limited to Rabbits' own compositions. Indeed, just watch as the band subjects Spacemen 3's "2:35" and, to a lesser degree, Hüsker Dü's stubbornly musical "What's Going On" to a vicious musical mauling, first eviscerating their carcasses and then picking their skeletons clean, to understand the extent of the group's ruthless misanthropic art. In short, be sure you brace for some serious sonic abuse when entering these Rabbits' lair -- one way or another, there'll be no going back to what you knew before. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia