The final release from game-changing independent label Richter Collective was always going to be met with heavy hearts, but there’s good news for those still mourning the spiritual home of bands like The Redneck Manifesto, ASIWYFA and Adebisi Shank: Richter are going out with a bang. Scratch that, they’re going out with the bang.
“It opens with the birth of the universe and it closes with the end of the universe,” BATS guitarist and lead vocalist Rupert Morris said of The Sleep Of Reason last month. There’s certainly a lot of ground covered in this ferocious 11-tracker, the follow-up to 2009’s rhythmic outburst Red In Tooth & Claw, but whether the Dublin fivesome are discussing stem cells, light-bearing aether or ozone-depleting chemist Thomas Midgley, Jr., it never feels like a tiresome history lesson.
Picking up where their science and maths-referencing debut left off, BATS present a highly ambitious lyrical feast, featuring thoughtful musings on such perplexing phenomena as heat death, religious catacombs and the mysterious honeybee apocalypse of 2011.
“The world does not revolve around you!” Morris angrily heaves on ‘Astronomy Astrology’, and it might well be the record’s catchphrase. Sure, the subject matter is heavy, but to hear a band actually reaching beyond their own existence for lyrical inspiration is really rather refreshing, given that most popular music is based on the premise of, ‘Let me tell you about my feelings…’
Of course, not all music-lovers will be taken in by the eggheaded curiosities on The Sleep Of Reason; a great deal of listeners will be drawn in by the tenacious riffs, throat-busting vocals and thundering refrains.
Top and tailed with alarming instrumental opener ‘Emergent Properties’ and the anarchic ‘Terrible Lizards’, the hour-long headbanger features edgy post-rock of the highest quality, made all the more accessible by some singalong hooks that frequently border on poppy.
The charging ‘Wolfwrangler’ is a clear standout, along with the album’s repetitive title track and explosive slow-burner ‘Creature Collecting’. Meanwhile, there’s plenty of room for experimentation: the melodic ‘Luminiferous Aether’ is positively pretty, while the intoxicating guitarplay on ‘Thomas Midgley Jr.’ gives way to a full-on freak-out around the four-minute mark.
Universal acclaim and Taylor Swift collaborations look unlikely for these cerebral risk-takers, but there’s no denying the aural and poetic power of The Sleep Of Reason: it’s a must-hear for those who like their rhythms brutal, their lyrics hard-hitting and sappy love songs as far away as possible.
Celina Murphy