Lower Forms, the loathed/loved debut LP from Portland's sludge-punk weirdos RABBITS confused and polarized the punters at the get-go. Let's take a trip back to late winter 2011, when Relapse Records dropped this one-off from an unknown underground band on an unsuspecting world... immediate reactions from press were immediate and bold, either confusingly praising or hating the album to fucking death. Fast-forward to 2013, and Eolian Empire -- the outsider label run by RABBITS themselves -- re-released this beast cut from the original masters through a kind arrangement with their friends at Relapse. The initial pressing, now long out-of-print, was limited to 300 and RABBITS basically sold most of the pressing to local hordes. One of the rawest hi-fi albums you're likely to hear, Lower Forms was recorded and mixed in six days with four amps, three men, two guitars, and one drum set tortured together in one room, live, straight to tape, all first or second takes, with just a few fixes and flourishes here and there—“old school” some might say. So get dug deep into the dirt with this sprawling ten-song sludge-punk cycle, a heavy meditation on man's struggle against—and inevitable crushing by—nature, a masterpiece of misanthropy and menace. 180-gram black vinyl, color two-sided insert w/ lyrics and photos. [Eolian Empire]