Bat – Axestasy
Release Date: April 26, 2019
Bat is a band featuring Municipal Waste guitarist Ryan Waste on bass/vocals, Nick Poulos on guitar, and Felix Griffin on drums. Being that I’m a huge Municipal Waste of course I had to follow the members other projects. I’ve been a fan of MW vocalist Tony Foresta’s Iron Reagan project for a long time but for some reason, Ryan Waste’s BAT just seemed to fall through the cracks. Well, this all changed with the release of their fourth offering with Axestasy.
Like with any great band that’s been around, the first question you ask yourself is, “How did I miss this?” BAT is definitely classic metal that seems to combine elements of the early sounds of Venom with early-era Metallica and even Exodus. The opening song “Wild Fever” is a skull-crushing track that is melodic, heavy, fast, but not sloppy and chaotic. It’s a tight song with lots of feel. “Long Live the Lewd” continues on the same path only to go right into “Ice.” With the longest song coming in at 3:09 seconds, Axestasy hits and destroys you before you even figure out what the fuck is going on.
One of the first things that many people may say when they hear this album is that Ryan’s vocals sound very reminiscent to Cronos from black metal legends Venom. Well, in my opinion, I think he does sound like Cronos a bit only instead of playing the crappy music he’s making these days, he’s playing with a good fucking band who can actually play and structure songs. The shift from thrash to speed to groove is something that definitely is a signature sound of Municipal Waste but BAT has figured out how to do it while creating their own sound.
Nothing about BAT is contrived or trying too hard. BAT is the real fucking deal and Axestasy is one of my favorite albums of 2019. It’s a quick, no-nonsense blow to the dome that will leave you disoriented but wanting more. I easily had to listen to this album three times just catch the things that I missed the first two times around. Axestasy is definitely going to go down as one of the best metal releases of 2019 but I can only hope that it won’t go unnoticed by the masses.
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