Finally it's time for music to once again become the true essence of a band's existence. In a time when music has been brushed aside for a demand for woeful stories of childhood abuse, broken homes and sheer hatred for the world, one band is ready to show the world that music can be strong enough to do the talking. And that band's name - Rabies Caste. So sit back, read the story, take note, listen to the CD and discover the true essence of this new musical phenomenon.

When Russian born trio Dale, Russ and Dave left their communist native-land in 1990 to live in Jerusalem little did their parents realise just what important part of history they were about to create. With the sole aim of improving the quality of life for their offspring, and with no possibility of moving to America, Israel was the logical option. What no-one would have anticipated, however was the trio's dreams of making music.
In 1995, aside from playing in classical orchestras, Dale and Dave formed a hardcore band called Cradlenoise - a low-key affair, but one that would eventually transform itself into the sludge-core phenomenon that is Rabies Caste.
But turning their dreams into reality has proved to be a struggle which has seen the trio pushing past every conceivable obstacle lying in their path. Despite speaking Hebrew, even at school, the trio were easily distinguishable in their new homeland. Rabies Caste are most definitely outsiders.
"All the time we knew were different because we came from Russia and  were different to Israelis," says Dave.  "As kids, it was difficult as we were always getting beaten up! We spoke Hebrew, but that didn't matter because we just didn't look like everyone else. But at the same time when we started the band it was fun not to look like everybody else, to be separate."
Living in Jerusalem also caused severe problems for the band's future as the threat of the country's compulsory three years National Service, nearly halted the band's progress.
"We had to say we were insane to get out of joining the army," reveals Dave, "I actually went to a psychiatrist for a year or so. Russ claimed he'd kill himself if he joined, obviously he didn't mean it but it got him out of recruitment and as for Dale  .....  well, they released him straight away!"
Soldiering on, the band set about playing live and in 1995 Rabies Caste played their first gig, or they would have if it hadn't been cancelled.
"We had our first show November 1995 - but it was cancelled because the Prime Minster of Israel was killed a week before hand and the country was in mourning!" recalls Russ with a smile.
In nearby streets to the band's home city of Tel Aviv, while the media report scenes of on-street carnage, Rabies Caste have spent their time writing and discovering real music. And while in other countries, musicians have a large music scene to latch onto, Rabies Caste were left entirely out on a limb for musical inspiration.
"In Israel it's not like you go to a show and see a band, you have to go and find for yourself what you like and search really hard," explains Russ.
Deeply inspired by US alterno-noise cult crew the Melvins ("Dale saw a Melvins video on Beavis And Butthead and about a year later he found "Houdini" and that album just changed our lives," recalls Russ with fondness), Rabies Caste have become unique in their outlook and musical vision.
"It's sometimes difficult being on our own, but maybe it helped us a lot, being the only band ... it made us who we are. We didn't have any other band to compare ourselves to or some competition between bands, we just did what we felt like and nobody told us 'you're cool' or whatever because hard music in Israel is not cool anyway," reasons Russ.
A demo entitled "Self Portrait Of The Madness" was recorded live onto D.A.T. on American Independence Day in 1996 and a year later the band recorded another demo entitled "Children Can Fall Into Bucket And Drown". A short-lived affair with a second guitarist followed and Rabies Caste recorded "For The Vomiting Tractor Drivers" in a mere two weeks. An initial print run of 230 copies were pressed by the band themselves - including individually packaged sleeves - and Rabies Caste quickly won themselves fans in the American underground noise/hardcore scene, including praise from the mighty Coalesce.
The songs were soon  officially released on  CD on U.S. label Infernal Racket Records in 1999, and a year later Rabies Caste landed in the UK to play their debut shows with Liverpool grind merchants dBh. Six months later they left Jerusalem again to tour  the UK with hardcore bruisers Freebase, and in may 2001  the band  toured with UK noise crew Charger, before heading into Southern Studios in London to record their most challenging record to date - "Let The Soul Out And Cut The Vein".
Recorded with Harvey Birrell (Therapy?) at the helm, "Let The Soul Out And Cut The Vein" is as brutal as you'd expect from a band signed to the legendary purveyors of quality extreme music, Earache Records.
It's an album that blends the intensity of Unsane with the power of Neurosis, the preciseness of Shellac, the nastiness of Today Is The Day, and the darkness of Godflesh in a way that no other contemporary metal band can.
"As usual the title came to us in the studio," explains Dave, "Each word is from a different song. "let the soul" has meanings of freeing your mind, and accepting other things, while "and cut the vein" has an association with death, but to us implies that the music will speak for itself ."
Now, with the sole focus of hitting the road anywhere and everywhere - "Six months in a van in the middle of winter in the UK is better than six months in a van in the middle of Israel!" laughs Dave - the future of brutal music has arrived. The story has been told and now it's time for Rabies Caste's music to do the talking and leave the wannabes to hide behind their facades.
"We don't want to be an Israeli band - we want to be the band from nowhere," spits Dale. "Israel or Russia gave us nothing musically. We spent half our lives in Russia and half in Israel, we're just people from nowhere in particular, that's not what is important. Our pasts aren't important to us, our music is the only thing that is important in the future."