Description
Artist Name: Freight Train Rabbit Killer
Album Name: The Ten Year
Record Label: Haymaker Records
Release Date: June 6, 2025
Catalog No.: HAY024-LP
Formats: 12-Inch Vinyl / Digital Download
Freight Train Rabbit Killer is a duo made up of Kris Bruders (Freight Train) and Mark Smeltzer (Rabbit Killer). Described as a heavy doom blues American Roots opera, they have been performing since the group formed around Halloween 2013 in Kansas City, Missouri. Since then, they have been able to play shows and festivals in more than twenty U.S. states, two tours of Europe, a residency with the Kansas City Art Institute, two fashion shows featuring their own hand-created clothing designs, the release of a comic book, and the completion of three full-length albums and four 7-Inch singles.
The new album The Ten Year is a compendium of recordings originally conceived as a celebration of the ten-year existence of the band. The pandemic and other working-class struggles turned The Ten Year into more of a Twelve Year, but the intention and goals remain the same. The A-Side features four songs from two different recording sessions. Common Thorns and Mule to Plow were recorded in June 2023 at B-24 Studios in Kansas City. Mule to Plow is a dirty little blues number written for Smeltzer’s first wife. The more somber Common Thorns is about the manipulation of people through conspiracy theories and how common they have become. Kris Bruders says, “It’s caused immense suffering in my family and the song was written as a way of healing”. The other two songs were originally recorded during the 2019 Hammer of Judgment album recording sessions at GFM Modern Recording in Blue Springs, Missouri. Unable to fit on the album, they are only now surfacing. Death Don’t Have No Mercy is a timeless classic by bluesman Blind Gary Davis that Bruders has played solo for years, but never performed as a band. Ain’t Nobody Give Me No Ride is the oldest song on the album, originally written by Smeltzer decades before when he was only 19 years old. The autobiographical song has been part of his catalog for years, but never recorded until the Hammer of Judgment sessions. The entire B-Side is the 20-minute soundscape Forest of Whispers. Originally released as a CD companion to the now out-of-print 2016 Freight Train Rabbit Killer comic book, it is back by popular demand on vinyl for the first time. The piece is meant as a conversation between Freight Train and Rabbit Killer and puts the doom in the doom blues. The band has been play-testing the recording for years as a mood setter at special events. The Ten Year is a unique collection of songs, exposing a broad swath of moods and sounds.
Pressed in three colored vinyl variants (red, blue, and yellow), the album is available for pre-order now.
Side A
1) Common Thorns (3:56)
2) Mule to Plow (5:22)
3) Death Don’t Have No Mercy (4:34)
4) Ain’t Nobody Give Me No Ride (4:41)
Side B
1) Forest of Whispers (20:19)
