Labels: Quiet Records
Review by: Andy Malcolm
I first heard these guys some time ago on a comp tape, and was very keen to hear them a bit more. For some reason, it’s taken me ages to do so, but it has proven to be worth the wait. The Rabbit Theory are a Swiss emo band (Swissmo), with a sound that makes nice uses of elements of that you’ll hear in bands such as Yaphet Kotto and Off Minor, without being perhaps quite as harsh as that might suggest. The tuneage is mostly melodic, and the vocals, whilst desperate, are not your full on screams and wails that you might normally associate with the genre, tending more to be urgently spoken and hoarsely shouted. The dual guitars twist their way around each other, sometimes jazzy and sometimes finding groove. Again if they were harsher or more intense in these respects you might be able to compare it to something such as Republic of Freedom Fighters, but the Rabbit Theory ease off some of the wilder aspects of this kind of sound. None of that is a bad thing at all, it’s nice to hear a band getting all worked up without getting too in your face. The production is perhaps a little thin, which maybe contributes to the less frenzied feel I get from the music.
Overall this is a really good album and the best emo record from continental Europe since the Brito LP. Definitely check them out, and hopefully they’ll make it over to the UK for some gigs later this year.