BATO – ROT EP (NFTW Records)

ROT is the latest 7” record of Virginia Beach’s powerful hardcore punk mongers BATO. ROT is an abbreviation and it stands for Ravages In Time, so the abbreviation also gives the ending result of the entire title. BATO is pretty much active since its initial demo recordings which have been published in 2016, but the band has also published another demo recording in 2018. On this 7” recording, BATO delivers eight mindblowing hardcore punk numbers, plus two cover songs. Their sound can be best described as vigorous bone-crushing hardcore punk that appears as a thoughtfully constructed chaos. First of all, the band doesn’t waste any time, their songs are fast, short, on point and the arrangements are quite impressive. The drummer is putting a lot of effort to assemble the highly energetic segments, mainly focused on the ultrafast rhythms that are the principal base for these compositions. The impressive drumming has been covered by the gracious layer of generously distorted basslines that are giving the massiveness to the BATO’s sound. Guitars are bursting powerful riffages all around with such precision and the tone is compatible with the sound of the bass guitar. These elements are thoughtfully combined into a giant slab of noise, so all the instruments are equally hearable on the entire recording. Besides the eight magnificent hardcore punk anthems, BATO has also decided to cover Lifestyles by Poison Idea and Out For Blood by YDI. These covers are also nicely done and performed with such precision as they were performed by their respective owners. This brilliant record has been accompanied by a magnificent artwork that depicts a giant skull, a pile of eyes and a bunch of flies, while all the titles are located at the other portion of the cover art. ROT has been published by NSFW Records in a total of 500 copies, but you can also stream the entire 7” on BATO’s Bandcamp page.