I was admittedly late to the Bloody Rabbeat party, and it was by my own design. I found that the band’s overall sound is right in my wheel house of technical, tight, and aggressive death metal. Upon first listen I was sold, and I immediately devoured “Use Your Head” again. I was greeted by a band that seemed content making their own rules, traversing the slippery slope of sub genre alphabet soup and doing it with style. At times mind-numbingly complex, and at others focused on speed and aggression, they made metal that is forward thinking and diverse, while still being unapologetically heavy.
The more I listened to this record, the more I enjoyed the sounds coming out of it. Make no mistake, the record is a slab of crushing blackened death metal. Impeccably played and impeccably produced, it comes off as another notch on the rich scene. Sonically, the record is tight, fast and heavy with crunchy guitars that have heft and an overall crispness to the sound that allows the instruments to shine.
The riffs are heavy, there are odd time bridges, feel changes and tasty leads that fly by in abundance. In short all of the boxes are checked.
Although nominally not a prog band, these guys and gals are talented enough to do whatever they want. They have seemingly found a formula that is working for them for the time being, and only time will show where and how they deviate from it. I will be very curious to hear where they go with the next record, and whether or not they will stay this course they embarked upon.
So at the end of the day, “Use Your Head” is a solid outing from Bloody Rabbeat. As a fan of metal, I can appreciate what they have done here. I just hope that more of that original mentality creeps its way into their next release.
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