{"id":16045,"date":"2013-11-22T00:00:33","date_gmt":"2013-11-22T00:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=16045"},"modified":"2014-01-02T22:15:52","modified_gmt":"2014-01-02T22:15:52","slug":"ep-review-bat-primitive-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/ep-review-bat-primitive-age\/","title":{"rendered":"BAT – Primitive Age EP (2013) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

BAT
Primitive Age EP<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nTankcrimes (2013)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s been said you can never go home again, and in some ways that\u2019s true. There are a lot of musical projects that intend to recapture the spirit of glory days of the players involved. If that was the intention of the guys in Bat, they not only hit the mark, but excel beyond, bringing the best of the members\u2019 past endeavours with a new fury.<\/p>\n

Bat is comprised of Municipal Waste\u2019s Ryan Waste on bass \/ vocals, former DRI drummer Felix Griffin and Volture guitarist Nick Poulos. There\u2019s a lot of punk and metal credibility in this line-up, not to mention a fair amount of history. The result is an album that mixes punk and metal into a frenzy of noise that\u2019s an instant classic. <\/p>\n

Fans of old school hardcore will immediately recognize the influence of bands like DRI on the Bat formula. The title track on Primitive Age<\/em> could easily be a DRI outtake. Opening track \u2018BAT\u2019 bears a distinct resemblance to hardcore\u2019s masters of rebellion as well. Straightforward punk riffing is interlaced with metal moments that are reminiscent of some of the masters of doom. More than a little Pentagram can be heard in this mix, especially during the breakdown during \u2018BAT\u2019. The guitar tone is pure, sludgy doom in the vein of Saint Vitus. Despite the doom sound, the band never slows below a hardcore rhythm. The result is somewhat like Orange Goblin making a punk record. It\u2019s aggressive, and bears the imprint of punk furor and Black Sabbath<\/a> groove. <\/p>\n

Bat\u2019s strength is in the appeal of mixing punk and metal. Much like early speed metal bands, Bat takes the most vicious of both genres and combines them to create a menacing sound. \u2018Code Rude\u2019 has the attack and groove of Mot\u00f6rhead, and the take no prisoners attitude of the Cro-Mags. The result gives songs like \u2018Rule Of The Beast\u2019 classic sounds that catch the flavour of early punk and metal without sounding like a clone of any band in those genres. Poulos pulls out some impressive guitar skills, offering rhythms that bring to mind Venom and leads that are surprisingly complex for a punk record. The formula Bat has employed for their debut release is simple, effective and uncompromising. <\/p>\n

When a band full of such seasoned veterans releases a record there is always the concern that the new music either won\u2019t live up to their legacy, or will just be a rehash of old ideas (I\u2019m talking to you, Black Sabbath). Bat not only lives up to the expectations fans would have of its individual components, but adds something new to bring in fans. While the production is not stellar, it fits perfectly with the sound of the old school punk and metal bands that influenced these songs. Primitive Age<\/em> is an aggressive release that will take the listener back to when they first heard Mot\u00f6rhead\u2019s \u2018Ace Of Spades\u2019 (1980), then whip them back into the present. <\/p>\n

Jim McDonald<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BATPrimitive Age EP Tankcrimes (2013)Rating: 8\/10 It\u2019s been said you can never go home again, and in some ways that\u2019s true. There are a lot of musical projects that intend to recapture the spirit of glory days of the players involved. If that was the intention of the guys in Bat, they not only hit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,864],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-bat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16045"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16054,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16045\/revisions\/16054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}