rder Of The Bat is the third full length album from one of Melbourne, Australias busiest horrorpunk/dark rock bands Coffin Carousel. Originally starting out as a side project for frontman Howard Von Noise in 2012 they became a fully fledged band in 2015 when they brought out their first EP Fiend (2013). Previous releases from the quartet include their debut album Between Death And Dead (2017) released through Eclipse Records in the US. Their second full length album the brilliantly titled Face Melting Chunky Stuff(2019) not to mention 3 EP's Fiend, Breathe (2018) and Horror Business (2020) plus a further 3 live albums have been released on Von Noise's own independent label Noise Inc Records.
Order Of The Bat kicks off with a piano led haunting spoken word intro in the form of The Void then you are abruptly smacked in the face by the steadily paced but totally thumping Law Of One. Following on from that is our former Song Of The Day, the reason why it took me so long to finish this album and my current obsession, March Of The Dead. I still really love this track it's combination of heavy riffs and impressive vocals totally grab you by the guts. Title track Order Of The Bat is next with an incredibly catchy riff and sing along chorus. This album is 18 tracks of great creeping heavy horror themed good times and by the time you reach the halfway mark in the album musically it starts to shift a bit. Gothug Inc starts with a whistle and has a very quirky fast paced verse taking it back to a darker place for the chorus and keeping the whistle for dramatic effect. Whilst Gothug Inc riffs almost in the realms of rap in places The Blacklist is heavy as hell and I am definitely detecting a bit of a Devin Townsend influence here. Rising out of the darkness the last part of the album goes all out horrorpunk with the catchy Scream Queen, instrumental horror movie inspired soundtrack Ghost Rider and my other favourite track Drain The Swamp. This goes back to the deliberate pounding beats and dark foreboding feel that is blackly heavy, I adore the main riff and the three word chorus is super dirty. Following another cool narrative track the album ends with Coffin Carousels bass driven cover of The Zombies track She's Not There (1964) which is absolutely brilliant!
This incredibly talented 4 piece conceived by vocalist, guitarist and keyboard player Howard Von Noise and his fellow ghouls Sir Mouldy Hobo - Guitar, Mark Dan Buried - bass and The Dog Scotsman on drums meld some great influences into their sound with everything from melodic metal, thrash, rock and punk. When I hear Howards unique vocals I am instantly reminded of goth rockers Creature Feature and even a bit of Ozzy but not so much as to imitate them. Musically they cannot be faulted either, essentially they are horrorpunk but they lean on the heavier side of the genre and I get a great mix of influences here also from the technical riffery of bands like Mastodon to the experimental weirdness of the great Dog Fashion Disco/Polkadot Cadaver family. They have a very busy sound that crosses over into sheer brutality, their inclusion of piano, whistles and spoken word is ridiculously effective.
I don't want to dissect all 18 tracks here, no one needs to know my opinion on every single track I just want to be able tell you enough about it to make you want to go out and get hold of Order Of The Bat. Believe me you will not be sorry that you did.
Order Of The Bat is available worldwide digitally through Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify and all digital music stores. It is also available in a CD and digital limited edition, gloss 6 panel gate fold case with a double sided poster, exclusive artwork and photos.
