The Dead Rabbitt’s latest release manages to simultaneously be both bland and entertaining – but for all the wrong reasons. Despite some killer riffs and great, engaging instrumentation, ‘Shapeshifter’ is blighted by awful vocals, hilariously terrible lyrics and repetitive, clichéd themes.
‘Shapeshifter’ as a whole has three lyrical topics: love, hate and sanity being pressed – you can tell which theme will be in which song as they all have simple, obvious titles such as’My Only Regret’, ‘The Air I Breathe is You’ and ‘Edge of Reality’.
It’s bad enough that they chose to invite the singer from now-deceased drudge fest Attack! Attack! to do a guest vocal spot, but shamefully Caleb Shomo manages to out-scream main vocalist Craig Mabbitt – confirming that Craig certainly isn’t the strongest vocalist. The track ‘Make Me Believe It’ has everything that makes metalcore terrible including a cheesy piano intro and soft vocal lyrics that should have been screamed to cover up the fact that it contains non-sensical rubbish such as “delight me with your beauty, enchant me with your brilliant ways”.
Mabbitt certainly isn’t a strong lyricist, and songs such as “Ghosts in My Bedroom” are unintentionally hilarious. With lyrics that literally paint a picture of ghosts in the bedroom (“There’s ghosts in my bedroom, watching as I fall asleep, holding me as I dream”) and clumsy writing such as “I cannot fucking breathe, my lips are frozen shut, I’m dying just to speak but I’m having no luck” killing any emotive impact the song could have held.
As well as this it seems that the clean vocal parts were written first, and then electronic effects (of which there are plenty) and breakdowns are slotted in wherever they may potentially fit. Final track ‘Edge of Reality’ has a beatdown with a solidly cringe-inducing line preceding it, “Until my time comes to rest, I’ll be here banging my fucking head”, which is a shame as otherwise it’s one of the stronger tracks on the album.
It’s depressing that there is still a market for this kind of bland metalcore, and while this isn’t the worst band Craig Mabbitt has been in, that isn’t much of a consolation.
JAY SULLIVAN