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SPITER
Bathe The Babe In Bats’ Blood

Hells Headbangers (2022)
Rating: 6.5/10

It’s hard to look beyond the front cover and album title with this one, but then again that’s the appeal as this Philadelphia, Pennsylvanian-based creepy band unleashes its debut full-length outing.

This ghoulish entourage – a trio – go by the names Richard Spider (vocals and guitar, Shitfucker), Bat (bass, Devil Master) and Snake (drums), and they are dressed up like some forgotten bunch of Death SS worshippers.

What you get with this ten-track offering is heaps of atmosphere, but more importantly a blend of raw black metal and punkiness. And for just under 36 minutes you’ll be raked and raped by barbaric hymns such as the bestial thrashing of ‘Suicidal Blood Fucker’, the whiplash frenzy of ‘Phantoms’, and the grotesque, deathrock punk of ‘Tortured Soul’.

It’s a shame the band didn’t throw in more film samples or creepy organ groans as quite quickly it becomes generic in spite of the promo information for this stating how each track is “memorable”. Well, that’s not the case because the band just exists to perform relentless black thrash fuelled by spiteful vocal whips and gnarly drum wildness, but the familiar blackened roll that many acts have flirted with.

‘Transylvanian Night’ is a hefty galloper bolstered by its bony percussion and oily, greaseball guitar sound, and ‘Foreshadow’ follows suit with extra melody in its guitar, channelling the Misfits and that sort of Goth / punk urgency before resorting to type.

Sure, it’s all quite spitefully delivered, and I love the engaging chug of ‘Living Nightmare’ and the initial metallic clomp then speeding fury of ‘Spider Biter’. However, so many tracks just drift by with no real effect. ‘Full Satanic Power’ is probably the most diverse slab on offer with its deathrock beginning and theatrical hammering, and it’s also wonderfully cheesy. But by the time ‘Cursed Eternal’ or closer ‘Debauchery’ has wafted under your nose like black soot on the wind, you may not have the immediate urge to replay it all.

Bathe The Babe In Bats’ Blood is a wiry, thorny hardcore-punk blitzkrieg for those with short attention spans and leathery wingspans. Spiter are bloodthirsty black metal punks drunk on bats piss but losing their effect after its initial satanic sting.

Neil Arnold

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