Spectreview: Rabbitkeeper – Rabbitkeeper

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“Suddenly my pain is yours now”

Occasionally, if you’re lucky, a piece of music gets to hit you sideways and knock the breath out of you. Rabbitkeeper’s self-titled EP is such a work, a fine blend of several harder genres of rock that plays like an indie record but attacks with the force of a tsunami. The range on these songs is vast: mathcore’s shifting time signatures, black metal’s blast beats and guttural screams, post-punk’s elliptical guitar patterns and ersatz chord structures, even glam’s showmanship, are all strewn across the album brief six tracks. The largest credit goes to bassist Cameron Heck’s production, allowing each of the trio’s accomplished members to shine individually.  Josh Hart’s militaristic snare hits on standout track “Awful Marionettes” are matched by Alex Hickel’s razor-sharp strums and the colorful bass chords of Heck, who ululates like Avey Tare in the middle of an exorcism. The band skillfully controls tempo and space, blasting through the inebriated shudder of “Human Shield” and the tempestuous, winding “Pig in the Wig.” It’s a whiplash of a listen throughout, and at eighteen minutes the record flies by like a breeze, making it that much easier to queue up the first track and feel your hair blow back again.

Recommended if you’re sad-drunk and you’ve already broken all the furniture.