Batillus - Concrete Sustain

Batillus

Concrete Sustain

by Spyros Stasis at 07 March 2013, 3:41 PM

WARNING!! The effect of listening to “Concrete Sustain” is equal to being hit with a shovel straight to your forehead. BATILLUS return two years after the release of their debut album, “Furnace” with their second offering which sounds like tons of blackened Doom Metal fall from the skies.  The band from New York has managed to produce their finest piece of work so far with this release.

Try to imagine a base that is comprised of mostly Doom and Sludge riffs, with a much darker atmosphere (can be described as being almost black), add to that an industrial, with an early GODFLESH-like vibe and then some experimentations with synths and keys on top. You will also find a variety of vocals, the most used ones in this album are closer to the Black Metal type of vocals but you will also get deeper growls (like in “Cast” and in “Beset”) and even some clean vocals on “Thorns”.

What is the show stealer here though is the cold industrial like atmosphere of the album, seems to have jumped out of some dystopian themed book of Cormac McCarthy or something like that. It works really great against the heavy music, as well as the more aggressive and almost chaotic parts. The mechanical like riffing is tracks like “Cast” adds even more to the concept of the album, as does the use of synths in parts, like in the intro of “Mirrors”. Sanford Parker (of Minsk, has produced a variety of bands, for instance NACTMYSTIUM, LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR, UNEARTHLY TRANCE and much more) did the recording and mixing of the album, so also from this aspect the album is flawless.

An extreme Doom album, with influences from Black and Industrial Metal with a great groove, heavy as fuck (listen to the bass line on “Rust”, it is fucking impressive) and with an unusual atmosphere making the music feel cold and menacing. My only issue is that the duration was not as long as I would like it to be (less than 40 minutes), but I guess even if it was going for an hour and a half I would still want more, as is the case with every great album…