Reissue "American Nervoso" Today on Hydra Head!
“Some of the most impressive heavy music from the past 10 years. It’s been four years since they called it quits, and still, no one has come close to topping their dedication, adventurousness or personality. Botch were dead serious about one thing: fucking ruling.” - Decibel
“One of the most revered hardcore bands of the last decade, Botch pioneered the mathmetal school of rock with song structures so complex and musicianship so virtuosic the Seattle quartet might as well have played classical music.” – Revolver
“If you’re a fan of metal, hardcore or any of either category’s attendant subgenres and still aren’t worshiping the ground Botch stomped on, we don’t have any hope for you.” – Alternative Press
“Disturbingly bipolar, with mercurial guitar parts reverting from frighteningly chaotic to tautly controlled within a breath.” - CMJ
“Seattle, WA’s Botch [was] at the forefront of a near revolution in sound in heavy music. A virulent strain of progressive, underground, and sometimes violent heavy metal-infused guitar histrionics steeped deeply in hardcore punk scene aesthetics and the much touted D.I.Y. ethic.” – All Music Guide
Recorded in March 1998 at Stone Gossard’s Studio Litho in Seattle, American Nervoso was Botch’s full-length debut and first release on Hydra Head. The white-hot guitar action, scathing vocals, sweet bass moves, and torrential drums within smashed the existing precepts of “hardcore” and redefined both the word and the music for a generation of matinee kids and grizzled vets alike. And let’s not forget drummer Tim Latona’s immortal piano coda at the end of “Oma,” a convention-defying slice of musicality that most hardcore bands couldn’t conceive of, much less actually pull off. Yeah, this is the one that put Botch in the full-length game: American Nervoso was a regular coming-out party for a whole new way of thinking (and rocking); a funeral rite for mindless floor-punching and youth-crew Hitlerism. Here it is, nearly a decade later—remixed, re-mastered and reissued with five bonus tracks for your listening pleasure and that occasional trip down memory lane. Thank god for worker bees, but thank Botch for American Nervoso.
After the reissue of Unifying Themes Redux (which featured a bevy of early, rare, and unreleased material) comes the re-release of Botch’s first absolute milestone: American Nervoso. Rife with totally singular rhythms and guitar work, it’s the sort of musical leap forward that a soul expected from the hardcore scene at the time. And if you were around when this platter came out, you know your jaw hit the floor when you first popped it on. Hydra Head is now reissuing the record with amazing sounds and a throng of bonus tracks.
We’ve said it before: they’re owed major props for single handedly reinventing hardcore. Well, this past year actually DID see a lot of bands vocalizing their love for Botch. And a slew of awesome features popped up in all sorts of magazines, from Decibel, to AP, to Rock Sound. Their hometown paper the Stranger put it best: “Botch still slay any of today’s MTV2 and MySpace also-rans.”
These days, the former Botch players forge ahead in These Arms Are Snakes, Minus the Bear, and Roy. And with those guys at the helm, each of those bands is perpetually infused with originality.
"American Nervoso" Tracklisting
1.Hutton’s Great Heat Engine
2.John Woo
3.Dali’s Praying Mantis
4.Dead for a Minute
5.Oma
6.Thank God For Worker Bees
7.Rejection Spoken Softly
8.Spitting Black
9.Hives
Bonus Tracks:
10.Stupid Me
11.Spitting Black (Extended Version)
12.Hutton’s Great Heat Engine (Demo)
13.Rejection Spoken Softly (Demo)
14.John Woo (Demo)
For more information, visit:
www.myspace.com/botch
www.hydrahead.com
www.hydraheadlines.blogspot.com
