La Rabbia, whose name means “the rage” and is taken their name from a 1963 Italian documentary, are a Jerusalem quartet not to be confused with the London anarcho punk outfit who take their name from the same source. Jerusalem’s La Rabbia sound so very metal, but not in any sort of way that I can describe adequately; imagine the mutated spawn from a union of grinding thug metal and late-’90s alternative radio bands. This record has some of the most interesting riffs I’ve heard in ages, but I got bored and lost my hold on those riffs when the songs went two or three times as long as I can normally invest myself in something like this—smaller doses would have worked much better for me. Most of the songs are sung in Hebrew, or so I presume (in which tongue most of the titles and credits are also written), so I can’t nail down any specifics about their lyrical content. According to their Bandcamp page, however, they rage against the social, economic, and political injustices in their native Israel. Shall we think of La Rabbia as Israeli political prog-metal? I think so. –The Lord Kveldulfr (Benchmark)