Review: Black Rabbit – Warren of Necrosis

The city of Apeldoorn in The Netherlands had a lack of metal bands, at least that was what guitarists Jelle Brekelmans and Hidde Hofland thought in 2014 and so they formed one. They named it Black Rabbit and, after a few changes in the line-up, Black Rabbit was complemented by drummer Max Hendriks and vocalist/bass player Pieter Beemsterboer, the four of them being Black Rabbit’s current line-up. With the line-up complete they went to work on their debut. That debut has become an EP, titled Warren of Necrosis, which was released earlier this year, on January the 9th.

Opener La Bestia’s intro feels quite Slayerian and works very energy-building, while Black Rabbit gets to full-throttle soon after. Black Rabbit certainly brings quite a lot of rhythm-changes, altogether as well as each member on its own, in the four tracks of this EP, but that for sure doesn’t decrease the amount of energy that’s coming off of their music, the amount of energy coming off of Warren of Necrosis is huge. That mainly is due to the tight riffs, the very chuggy guitar sound and the constantly pummeling drums, but it’s especially due to the very well executed combination of those guitars and drums, strengthened even more by the nicely humming bass, which becomes even more clearly audible on some moments such as in the second half of La Bestia, the start of Internal Death and towards the end of EP closer A Path Profound.

While that amount of energy is huge, there for sure are some extra-energy boosting moments, such as the earlier mentioned intro of La Bestia, the intro of Internal Death, with deep sounding drums, a nicely humming bass and a mysterious-sounding guitar, as well as the part halfway into this track. Two other examples can both be heard in the track that has the same name as the band, Black Rabbit. The first one being the intro of this track starting with marching-like drums and tight riffs, again that same well-executed combination, building up energy concluding in a very intense bass-moment, to go full-throttle in a very chuggy way after that. The second one being the furiously raging part halfway into this track, including some industrial-like drum sounds, which sounds ideal for a moshpit or a wall of death. A bit later we’ll hear a very nicely roaring guitar solo, such as also can be heard in La Bestia and Internal Death.

Besides those tight chugging thrashy riffs and roaring solos, guitarists Jelle and Hidde also implemented some more melodic guitars on some moments, such as in La Bestia and Internal Death. Those deep drums such as in the intro of Internal Death, as I mentioned above, are also very nicely returning in Black Rabbit and A Path Profound, which also adds a bit spaciness to these raging thrash-sounds.

The only thing I didn’t mentioned are Pieter’s screams. While the instrumental part of Black Rabbit’s music surely feels influenced by Slayer, as mentioned before, their music also sounds like it has been influenced by Kreator quite a lot. Pieter’s screams strengthens this Kreator-vibe a lot. His very raw, intense screams nicely fit in Black Rabbit’s music, while a bit more variety in his sound might possibly have made these even more nice and intense. In Black Rabbit and A Path Profound, we’ll also hear an echoing effect in those screams, this already is the case a bit more compared to La Bestia and Internal Death, but it’s still not very much. Of course, it’s not that that’s a bad thing at all, certainly not when speaking about a debut, but more like something that can be deepened out more in the future.

Are you a thrasher? Then be sure to check out Black Rabbit’s thrashing debut titled Warren of Necrosis!

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