BATS, Red In Tooth And Claw

Posted on 7th Sep 09 by Nine White Lines | 7

Defn. A reference to the sometimes violent natural world, in which predatory animals unsentimentally cover their teeth and claws with the blood of their prey as they kill and devour them.

Anger is so much better when it’s directed. Outward-focused frustration is productive when there is a target – a concerted attack on that which needs to be attacked for the pure progression of art to a greater level. Though that may sound pretentious, it shouldn’t. The very notion that it does is proof itself that music today is a landscape flattened by conformity, sculpted by fear, mined by ‘indie’ and, oh yeah, populated by shit.

Bats, Red in Tooth & Claw

Nothing is applauded for being original nor for failing, even admirably. BATS have long threatened to make an album that satisfies both outcomes. The targets here are banality, ignorance and (most probably by association) some of your favourite bands.

There is a fine line between educating the listener and lauding superior intelligence over them, especially with such obscure, pinpoint subject matter as heard on this record. It’s particularly hard to make an intellectual remark and simultaneously trying not to come away sounding like Morrissey. Thankfully, BATS are very much in the former half, chucking stones at those on the other side. This album is all about raising the bar for modern music. Are you ready to get angry? Good.

Red In Tooth And Claw launches with a building-then-seizing African rhythm on Higgs-Boson Particle, swirling and rising with a hypnotic choral vocal line that nicely sets the precedent for the rest of what is to come. From then on, the album does not let up at any point – it is completely uncompromising and unrelenting. Variation is not the record’s specialty, with two or three tracks sounding somewhat similar, yet each one is full of dynamism and little hooks that keep the record interesting.

To investigate all the deeper meanings of the album here would be to spoil its many small surprises. Instead, the record encourages you to go forth and find out for yourself

Credulous! Credulous! gives the best single synopsis of the album’s capabilities: heavy, technical, vicious, exciting and catchy; consecutively and concurrently. It remains one of the three mainstays of the album along with The Cruel Sea and Vermithrax Pejorative, each expressing charm and guile enough to truly impress and entice repeat plays. These are the three standout tracks, if not necessarily the most radio-accessible. Then again, you get the feeling that isn’t much of a concern for BATS.

References to science, history and culture run deep. Don’t know what the Higgs-Boson particle is? Take a look at the work of CERN. Who was Lord Blakeney? See for yourself. What the good goddamn is a Vermithrax Pejorative? Actually, I wasn’t quite nerdy enough to know that one off hand either. To investigate all the deeper meanings of the album here would be to spoil its many small surprises. Instead, the record encourages you to go forth and find out for yourself. To discover every small meaning is in itself as rewarding as finishing Portal in a single sitting.

Converge’s Kurt Ballou is responsible for the recordings. The guitar sound achieved aims for that of At The Drive-In and hits that of Sparta, giving a more epic, less white-hot effect than what may have elevated the album to a fuller, more electrifying state. Lyrically, it can slip into silliness (Higgs-Boson Particle, BATS Spelled Backwards Is STAB), but retains full entertainment value. There are minor imperfections dotted throughout, no doubt owing to the fact that recording was restricted to only five days, but silver lining comes in the form of an intensity not heard on the previous Cruel Sea Scientist EP. Cobain wanted In Utero completed in two weeks for this very reason. The result: a record sounding somewhere between The Blood Brothers on a leash and I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness strapped with carbon nanotubes to the underside of an SR-71 Blackbird.

A fine album, then. Not a masterpiece, but as fine as any Irish band can boast over the last two decades, certainly, whether scrutinised by determination, technicality, melody, ambition or all of the above. Just as you were kicking against the walls of your room as a teenager listening to Rage Against The Machine, you will sit in your living room, nodding your head and gritting your teeth, seething to this.

Are you angry yet? Get ready to be.

Drop-D Rating: 8/10

BATS

BATS Myspace

Tags: At The Drive-In, BATS, CERN, Higgs-Boson, I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness, In Utero, Kurt Cobain, Portal, Rage Against The Machine, red in tooth and claw, Righter Collevtive, Sparta, The Blood Brothers, Vermithrax Pejorative