Album Review :: Acid Fast :: Rabid Moon

Written by: Andrea Janov, CC2K Music Editor

Acid Fast :: Rabid Moon ::  Protagonist Music 

https://www.facebook.com/ProtagonistMusic

It seems like it has taken me forever and a million listens to write this review. I never seemed to be able to find the right words to even try to capture how this album sounds or makes me feel or why is it so damned good. Okay. I fucking adore this Rabid Moon. It has the perfect amount of melody, distortion, and heart.

So, Rabid Moon starts off with this slow brooding music that seeps into your chest. You start to wonder of there will be vocals, but are cool if there aren’t. Well, there are, and it just gets fucking better. They are kinda catchy, kinda manic, and totally awesome. The second track, Shred Forever builds on the first track, it has these super cool down beats and a dash of chaos. Track three is just as awesome as the first two, Old Ideas, has female lead vocals that are layered, distorted, gritty yet melodic. There is this really cool metallic element to the  track that feels like what could have been created if early Nirvana (Bleach era) collaborated with The Raincoats. Also, I am a sucker for some killer lyric, like “listen to old tapes to get a hint of inspiration”. I was not so into New Paradigm Mind Reading the first time I heard it, but it is so catchy and so raw that now I cannot get enough of it. It has a unique ebb and flow and will have you singing along, immediately. Enough Already has a great chaotic sing-songy hooky crescendo that is so fucking awesome. It 100% engulfs you and stirs you up in its frenzy.

Rabid Moon has an album feel to it, you know, it is not one that you pick and choose tracks, you listen to the whole fucking album. It is full and heavy without being oppressive, and there is never a dip in the engery or intensity. I know that I hinted at this when I brought up Nirvana and The Raincoats, but one of the super interesting elements to this album is that it has a timeless feel to it, it could just as easily have been made in the 80s or 90s and had the same remarkable effect on listeners.

There is something totally raw and unselfconscious about this whole album, these songs exist, for what they are. The layered vocals create a really cool chaotic vibe to the tracks. This music will get you moving, it will infect you, it will settle deep inside your bones.