Rabies Caste

Biography

Formed in 1994 from the bands To Kill Mother and Cradlenoise, Rabies Caste play a raw, noisy version of sludgecore similar in style to Will Haven by way of the Melvins. Based in Tel Aviv, Israel, the band comprises Dale Rabid (drums, vocals), Dave K. (guitar) and Russell Bear (bass). Their debut album "For The Vomiting Tractor Drivers" was recorded in 1998 and released worldwide in 1999, followed in 2001 by "Let The Soul Out And Cut The Vein". After a couple of years on tour, they went quietly o...

Formed in 1994 from the bands To Kill Mother and Cradlenoise, Rabies Caste play a raw, noisy version of sludgecore similar in style to Will Haven by way of the Melvins. Based in Tel Aviv, Israel, the band comprises Dale Rabid (drums, vocals), Dave K. (guitar) and Russell Bear (bass). Their debut album "For The Vomiting Tractor Drivers" was recorded in 1998 and released worldwide in 1999, followed in 2001 by "Let The Soul Out And Cut The Vein". After a couple of years on tour, they went quietly only to resurface again mid-2006 with a new self-titled album. The band has stated that this will be their final record, having effectively ceased to exist as Rabies Caste. Bass player Russell bear is still making music and plays Clarinet in the band 'Kruzenshtern i Parohod'.

RABIES CASTE: chronological chain of events 1995-2002

Late 1994: Noisecore duo TO KILL MOTHER and later CRADLENOISE was established by Dale Rabid on drums/vocals & Dave K on guitar, Russian immigrants in Tel-Aviv, Israel. Three tracks demo tape was recorded during the sessions at the 5 on 3 feet rehearsing room. Because of the numerous complaints about the noise playing was forbidden.

Fall 1995: Addition of Russell Bear on bass and converting into RABIES CASTE (Dave K-guitar/vocals, Russell Bear-bass, Dale Rabid-drums/vocals) . Starting off with the first song, Melvins inspired "I Love My Pig". First gig on the 11th of November got cancelled because of the Prime Minister murder.

June 1996: 10 tracks demo titled "Self Portrait Of The Madness" was taped live at studio in two hours on the 4th of July. Many copies were made and given away/sold at the several shows that followed the recording. The 45 minutes long "album" displays heavy-as-fuck hardcore/grunge roots of the band.

September 1996: Entered the studio to record one new song "Mouthwash", which was supposed to coincide with a video. The shootings did take place but were never edited, the guy who did it dissapeared but luckily wasn't payed. The recording still remained and it's quite unique. The band has moved forward and began working on a new material, which was now more metallic and somewhat slower.

Summer 1997: "Children Can Fall Into Bucket And Drown" 6 songs EP was recorded in the basement on 4 tracks in the intensive heat during that summer. Dale Rabid doesn't do vocals anymore because he's "busy enough drumming". With songs such as "Neon", "Goddamn" and the 10 minutes wall of noise "Inch" this was the record to start touring with but the decision was not to release it. The EP was sold on tapes at couple of shows and went back home on a shelve. Despite most of the songs were well known to the regular crowd the record has never been airplayed or put to digital download.

Early 1998: Moving on...RABIES CASTE is busy writing material for their first full lenght album which they intend to self release. A lot of new songs were written and 6 chosen to be on the most interesting recording up to that day. The sessions were sqeduled for June in the same studio where "Children Can Fall.." was done and two weeks before the actual recording Pigface Kazzz joins in on second guitar. (He used to be in another hardcore band Ausweis, who have toured with RABIES CASTE a lot around that time and split up early 1998. Dave K used to play in Ausweis on second guitar as well and even contributed to the Ausweis record "Commintern.com" on several tracks late '97.) Pigface Kazzz is playing on the new record on 5 songs, except for "Astronaut/Alien". The first mix was lost on the computer, second didn't sound right and third has taken a month to get to. "For The Vomiting Tractor Drivers" session took two weeks and was mastered and pressed in late August 1998. Self release of 260 copies were sold and sent away to magazines and labels. Pigface Kazzz leaves RABIES CASTE in Fall '98 after shows as a four piece. He cannot fully commit himself to the band and moves away. Replacement didn't follow.

Winter 1999: RABIES CASTE and Infernal Racket Records (PA,USA) agreed to officially release "For The Vomiting Tractor Drivers" worldwide. The release is sqeduled for Summer but has been delayed because the factory refused to press CDs due to their severe content (whatever the fuck it means). The press was run in Canada instead and the album was officially released in September 1999. The band is planning to tour but the opportunity only comes when RABIES CASTE are offered a support slot for Liverpool's "dBh" early 2000. At that time Dale Rabid was working on some project with some folks, to complete an album. It seems that the lead singer had damaged his vision in bizzare tractor accident two days before the sqeduled recording sessions, which never taken place.

1999-2000: 10 dates UK tour with dBh in April 2000 which was followed by another UK tour with Freebase in November. Meanwhile the band was writing new material for the next release and booked a studio in London for November 2000 with producer Harvey Birrell.

November 2000: 5 days in Southern studio London = 6 tracks "Let The Soul Out And Cut The Vein" advanced record. This album eventually found a home at Earache Records early 2001.

May 2001: RABIES CASTE signing a record deal with Earache Records and are heading back to UK to complete 10 tracks for the full lenght "Let The Soul Out And Cut The Vein" and a tour with sludge brothers Charger. The record is completed and remixed with Harvey Birrell again at the same studio.

August 2001: "Let The Soul Out And Cut The Vein" is sqeduled for European release on 28th of August and 2nd October for USA. Gore/snuff video for the song "Got It From Blake" is done and being banned everywhere including the Internet. Album rating: Terrorizer magazine 8/10, Metal Hammer 7/10, Kerrang 4/5, Rock Sound 4.5/5

Fall 2001-Summer 2002: RABIES CASTE are touring UK/Europe in support of the release with Dillinger Escape Plan, Biohazard, Nasum, Candiria and Earthtone9. In November 2001 the band also headlines first in two years Israeli show. Also, the band are forced to cancel the sqeduled appearances at New Jersey and Milwaukee Metalfests due to technical problems. Mid Summer 2002 Russ has temporary been away from the band. Ram_R from NYC grindcore duo bARBARA has filled in for a while. Russ was back to complete the forthcoming November dates.

November 2002: Heading off to the headline tour for the first time in UK/Scotland/Wales.

February 2003: 2 Middle East live dates, first time in few years RABIES CASTE are to play in Jerusalem. Both gigs were quite a success. Metal Hammer magazine came over from the UK to do a live review, but lied and never printed it.

October 2004: It's been 1.5 years of inactivity and there are finally some releases scheduled: split 7" with buddies in Sourvein and the new RABIES CASTE record. Both releases should be out early 2005. Meanwhile RABIES CASTE have made their mark in the history: "Sound Of The Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal" & "The Book Of Metal", two books by Ian Christe and Chris Ingham mention Rabies Caste on page 272 & 69. We've made our mark. "So if I die of O.D. soon, somebody will actually remember me?...." asked Dale Rabid.

"Rabies Caste are still broken up. After the album for Earache the band had recorded few more tracks in 2003 but never made it to be a new full length. In 2006 a split 7" w/ SourVein was released and it features a track called "Timeless", which was mastered by Billy Anderson especially for this release. After many difficulties we have released a third self-titled 7 tracks CD in August 2006. This release features 3 of those unreleased tracks recorded after the Earache release, one of them was on the SourVein split. Besides that there are 2 live tracks which were taken from the gig in Jerusalem on 2 February 2003. After that the band has actually played one more gig in May, which was the very last show. On the cd there are two more songs taken from the unreleased EP in 1997: a song called "Goddamn" and "How Low Can I get?". These two were recorded in basement studio where we have recorded "For The Vomiting..." album a year later. This album was released through DadaDrumming Records in Texas, USA. Meanwhile Dale Rabid has taken a drums position in garage black metal outfit Tangorodrim, and they are doing pretty well actually. In spring of 2007 the world will hear their totally killer new album on Southern Lord Records. You all should definitely check out these guys because they are really worth it. Sadly, but there are no shows at all planned for this band after the release of the record, but at least you can buy the cd and enjoy heavy and brutal as hell true black metal at it's best.
Thank you for being out there....... We'll probably be back again sometime >>> DAVE K, January 2007"
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