Dirty Little Rabbits

Album Review

In his spare time, Slipknot’s Shawn Crahan puts away his macabre mask and custom trash-can percussion in favor of a more conventional drum set for his side project, Dirty Little Rabbits. The band's self-titled, full-length debut is a departure from Crahan’s day job in almost every possible way. From the dramatic female vocals to the smoothed-out organs, Dirty Little Rabbits comes from a completely different creative direction, showing no signs that its pedigree lies with one of the biggest names in alt-metal. While the Slipknot veteran is far and away the biggest name in the band, his drumming takes a back seat to the talents of singer Stella Katsoudas and organist Michael Pfaff. The combination of Katsoudas' dramatic voice and Pfaff’s down-home church organ creates a kind of tent revival-meets-goth rock vibe. “Professional Hit” feels like a glimpse into an alternate universe where a black-clad Clutch replaced Neil Fallon with the manic Katsoudas. The sound travels to stranger destinations on “I Love You,” which finds the band channeling the super-smooth studio sound of yacht rock, sanding the edges off of their sound in favor of an easy listening melody. While the bulk of the album is new, fans of the band might be a bit disappointed to find that a few of the tracks are from the Dirty Little Rabbits’ 2009 EP Simon. Old or new, Dirty Little Rabbits is a debut that’s sometimes rough, often enigmatic, and almost always fun.