Bat – the band featuring Municipal Waste guitarists Ryan Waste and Nick Poulos alongside drummer Chris Marshall – will release their second full-length album Under The Crooked Claw via Nuclear Blast Records on May 17. Bat is now streaming "Rite For Exorcism" alongside a music video by Norman Cabrera, produced by Maya Kay, and cinematography by Rob Lucas at Wolfpack Studios.
"This record came together during dark times and its aggression is surely a reflection of that," said Ryan Waste. "Nick, Chris, and I hammered out song after song in a grimy, mold-ridden warehouse, turning our anger at the state of the world into what became 'Under the Crooked Claw'. To set the tone for the album, I called upon legendary Italian horror maestro Fabio Frizzi to compose an intro, just before Bat's raw force assaults your ears.
"While simultaneously working on a heavy metal horror script with Norman Cabrera, I shared some of the new Bat songs with him. With our shared taste in film and vision, we devised two video concepts for the upcoming record based on my lyrics. The first offering is our twist on a tale of an exorcism gone awry, that Norman completely nailed to the cross."
Under The Crooked Claw was recorded by Arthur Rizk and Yavé Rust, mixed by Rizk, and mastered by Joel Grind. The artwork for the album was inked by Brandon Holt and colored by Margaret Rolicki. Pre-orders are available here.
