Batillus – Concrete Sustain
Review + More

New York’s Batillus first came to my attention when I got hold of a copy of their excellent split with the one man project of Ryan Scott Fairfield, Hallowed Butchery (check it out on bandcamp immediately). Soon followed the full length, Furnace, copious amounts of touring and more doom than you ever thought possible. Batillus are now on the brink of Concrete Sustain which is due for release on March 19th via Seventh Rule Recordings, and damn, it’s magnificent.

Harsh rolls of feedback introduce the album and first track “Concrete” feel electric in it’s atmosphere – the military beat of Geoff Summers drums pounds with intensity that’s soon matched by the vocals of the splendidly named Fade Kainer, his voice holding a raspy beauty that echoes at times over the martial tones of the music beneath and brings forth images of dying cities and ruin. There’s a distinct “coldness” that permeates the record and that martial industrial sound continues into “Cast” with Kainer ramping up the sampling on his own voice and giving it a deeply affecting push into ever more dirty and underground territory. Synthesised moments of gloom fall into the cavernous cracks of the Batillus sound and the band constantly push for something unexpected.

The slowly meandering “Beset” writhes with a filthy disdain and screams upon screams are layered over crunching bass lines and hazy drum beats and a truly gorgeous guitar line that soars with sadness and regret. Batillus never tread the obvious route with their unique style of doom and it’s this experimental nature that caught my attention all those years ago.

Concrete Sustain is the sound of modern doom, and each track here holds dear to its heart the essence and core of the doom genre, yet Batillus twist it and turn it onto something new and different and a marvel to experience.

The mechanical landscape of “Rust” beats with furious tempo and a slightly off-kilter rhythm that personifies Batillus and their somewhat bleak outlook and this bleeds into the final track, “Thorns” with a deadly and infectious cadence. Kainer’s voice here is absolutely phenomenal and there’s a baleful danger hidden within where his voice is overlaid with another that’s gravelly and noxious and menacing and beautifully heartbreaking all at once. Overwhelming seems like an understatement, but this track is a bewitching highlight.

Concrete Sustain is not to be missed.

Batillus – Beset from (((unartig))) on Vimeo.

2/28 Chicago, IL
3/1 Madison, WI
3/2 Minneapolis, MN
3/3 Billings, MT
3/4 Walla Walla, WA
3/5 Portland, OR
3/6 Seattle, WA
3/8 Oakland, CA
3/9 Los Angeles, CA
3/10 Phoenix, AZ
3/12–3/16 SXSW
3/17 Baton Rouge, LA
3/18 Lafayette, LA
3/20 Tallahassee, FL
3/22 Chapel Hill, NC
3/23 Richmond, VA
Keep up with Batillus and definitely bookmark Seventh Rule, you won’t want to miss
this.

(Photo Credit goes to Tommy Kearns)