THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “That flawless moment when this small, sweating microcosm of the world explodes in perfect synchronicity … the beat hits, the riff breaks, the frontman leaps, the lights blaze, the alcohol ignites in your brain and the pit erupts as one. For a fraction of a second it seems to freeze, coalesce into an immaculate, momentary memory that will stay with you forever — and then chaos reigns; glorious, joyous, violent chaos. The volume is staggering and nothing exists beyond the human walls that encircle you and the wild mass of flailing limbs. Strangers bonded in catharsis, united in oblivion!
Portugal’s Bas Rotten invoke that special madness of the pit over and over again, throughout the whirlwind duration of their exhilarating debut album, Surge. Grindcore, primal death metal, energised thrash, punk and hardcore charge as one and detonate in a white-hot eruption of adrenaline and emotion. From the wild, electric fury of The Blow through the insane seizures of Dissociation, the exhilarating force of Violence and shuddering, machine gun madness of Follow, onwards at full pelt to the one-two knockout blows of Thrive and Machine there is no moment of respite, no time to take a breath until you finally collapse, shocked and broken, into the silence of the album’s end. Bas Rotten have been honing their skills on the stages of Europe since 2016, just getting faster, heavier and more dangerously deranged with each hi-octane show. Playing alongside the likes of Disturbance Project, Nashgul, The Arson Project and crust-punk legends Extinction Of Mankind has only pushed them to take things ever further into the realms of the extreme. Somehow they have captured every drop of blood and sweat, every screaming decibel of overdriven volume on Surge and the results are dangerous!
If ever we needed an album like Surge, it’s now. This year has been a dirge of loss and frustration, poverty and sickness, anger and depression and Bas Rotten are the perfect reaction. They can’t cure the ills of the world, but with Surge they can blast them out of your brain for a little while; unshackle your rage and pulverise your grief. They can take you back to that perfect memory, when the beat hit, the riff broke, the front man leapt, the lights blazed and everything exploded, just as you needed it to do. There’s no time to wait — 21 minutes, 17 songs and no looking back — let’s do this!”
