Batpiss – Rest in Piss (Album Review)

Batpiss – Rest in Piss
Released: 14th July, 2017 

Batpiss Line Up –

Thomy Sloane // Bass & Vocals
Pauly Portal // Guitars & Vocals
Marty Baker // Drums 

Batpiss Online –

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There’s always something so special — so rewarding about listening to a band that’s unapologetically Australian. They have different ways of doing things and it seems a different way of thinking, because what Batpiss have created is simultaneously the most Australian rock album of the year, as well as numbering among one of the best overall.

 

Rest in Piss is melancholy personified; the opening drum line of ‘Black Paint’ sounds like a march that can only inevitably lead to one’s death and demise, but instead leads to the upbeat sounding, but lyrically cutting ’Paralyzed’. Marty Baker’s work keeps these songs moving with direct, fast drumming, injecting a taste of hard punk into the mix like heroin into the veins of a Scottish youth. ‘You and Me’ and ‘Rui’s Lament’ is more of the same brilliant drumming skills, but they add an addictive  taste of how discordant and odd the guitar lines are going to get.

‘Tell Them My Name is X’ begins with a sound that can only be likened to that of a bending guitar, bringing a dissonance that only adds to the awe inspiring avalanche of praise in my head. Slow and doomy, this song sounds a lot like Young Widows more recent work, but is by no means as janky. Batpiss have the unique ability to add unique flourishes of awkward guitars and have them fit perfectly and melodiously into their music like a jigsaw puzzle consisting solely of broken beer bottles. Pauly Portal constructs a pastiche of disturbing and uncomfortable noises in every song that allow for the grittiness and anguish of the lyrics to shine through.

 

Thomy Sloane has the perfect voice for this music; dreamy and low, but so grungy that it cuts through the gloom of your consciousness and imparts the emotional pain straight into your damn brainflesh. I can think of no other person that could so comfortably fit with the scratchy grinding of ‘Golden Handshake’ or deliver such a poignant a message amidst the droning turbulence of ‘Weatherboard Man.’ It is clear that Batpiss have created something that needs to be played loud to appreciate every nuanced turn of phrase or weird compelling vibratos that make up the bulk of this album.

 Batpiss have truly found their identity with Rest in Piss. As a whole, the album oozes a sadness that I can’t describe, but offers a catharsis so complete you can’t help but go back and listen to it again.  It is iconic, it is masterfully crafted, and it is quickly becoming a compulsive habit of mine.

Batpiss – Rest in Piss tracklisting –

1. Black Paint
2. Paralyzed
3. You and Me
4. Tell Them My Name is X
5. Rui’s Lament
6. WW3
7. Golden Handshake
8. N.U.M.N.
9. Bells for the Victorian
10. Weatherboard Man

Rating: 4/5
Rest in Piss is out 14th June 2017 via Poison City Records. Pre-Order here
Review by Dylonov Tomasivich