Album Review: Bat Flattery – Bat Flattery

Album Review: Bat Flattery – Bat Flattery

Reviewed by Patrick O’Reilly

Jangly guitars open the album before a thumping bass line joins in, closely followed by strained vocals full of emotion. Welcome to Bat Flattery, the self-titled album by this midlands band. 

Opening track ‘Year of the Glutton’ is a great introduction to the band and this genre of music, which in my opinion is emotional hardcore. This is not your niece or nephews’ ‘emo’ though, but something else entirely, real emotional intensity not just the sarcasm and apathy of youth, combined with complex guitar-based music steeped in both punk and hardcore. 

As ‘Year of the Glutton’ continues, we are treated to melody and intensity, before a clever slowed down outro that ends with a crescendo of screams and shouts. 

Track 2 ‘Piane’ is a more straightforward chugger, with a grunge like attitude and sound that again reaches a noisy and extreme climax 

‘Sweet Thomas’ is a stripped down and bare track that exposes a fragile aspect of the band though this becomes a fading memory as the beautifully named ‘Onibaba Mask’ comes roaring out next, an in-your-face assault that bristles with menace. 

‘DKE’ showcases the bands mastery of dynamics, with loud emotional sections jostling with quieter more pensive periods then it’s onto instrumental number ‘Year of the Ghost’ that combines a wonderful pulsing bass tone with those more complex guitars, still managing to evoke feeling and sensitivity despite its lack of vocals. 

The album continues in this vein without dropping the quality or intensity. Highlights of the rest of the album include the excellent track ‘Got Grace’ which ups the aggression levels and my personal favourite track ‘Otka’ which has a simple stop/start dynamic to its riffing which provides depth and warmth. 

Looking at it as a collective this album feels very personal to the band, a lot of emotion and thought has clearly been invested in these songs, this combined with excellent musicianship and passion makes for something that makes you want to listen, to feel something inside. 

My only criticism of the album would be that the tracks are very short, in fact the whole 16 track album comes in at just under half an hour. I felt like some of the songs had just started to get going and then they were finishing, but that again is obviously the dynamic the band wanted to go with. 

In summary, this is a truly well crafted, emotional album that delivers both sonically and cerebrally. If you like an album that gets your blood pumping but also makes you wistfully stop and think then this is the band for you. 

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