Review by Shadowdoom9 (Andi) for Botch - American Nervoso (1998)
What's there for me to say about Botch that fans of the band don't know yet? Their name has been engraved as one of the early developers of metalcore and the inventors of mathcore alongside Converge and The Dillinger Escape Plan. Sadly, this band didn't live even close to as long as the other two pioneers. Fortunately, Botch has been granted a rare legacy out of their heavy innovative brilliance. Their debut American Nervoso came out in 1998 (a year before I was born), and that album is still a relevant ground-breaking album for many metalcore/mathcore fans to remember, though not as superior as the other album We are the Romans.
American Nervoso is pure chaos! It is packed with relentless complex progressions, thrashy guitar screeches, pulsating bass noises, inconsistent drum beats, and devoted towering screams. Botch is the kind of band who would scatter thick raw noise without any restrain while putting the anarchy in counterbalance with mild groove breaks. You're gonna find a good amount of songs with that technique...
The fantastic opening highlight, "Hutton’s Great Heat Engine" has great chaotic moves including the guitar dive-bombing into a sludgy riff breakdown. Guitarist Dave Knudson has such extraordinary talent. He performs so naturally and helps the band gain its sense of individuality. "John Woo" has prime usage of the heavy-mild technique. The song starts with maximized mathcore noise that would fit well in a demolition derby, but eventually starts weaving back and forth between an easy guitar groove and a technical riff. Then there's a simple breakdown before a chaotic ending. That song pretty much proves the unrestrained hysteria of this album in intelligent progress and unique contrast. Track #3 "Dali’s Praying Mantis" continues the mathcore logic while having vocals that are comical but still tasteful.
Opening "Dead For A Minute" is a set of eerie bass notes that is a clean warning before restarting the great pandemonium. Eventually, vocalist Dave Verellen gets tired out from all that screaming, just repeatedly muttering "they fade" to establish a proper context. After slowing the machine a bit, the song bursts back into frenzied discord, the band now having rejuvenated energy to finish the chaos for that song. After that formula finishes dominating the first half, the middle song "Oma" has it perfectly culminated. The vocals have echoes of paranoia, passion, and perfection, before it gets dissolved halfway through by a piano section of demented beauty. There's still some atmospheric guitar howling behind the piano melody. Unfortunately, instead of having some more mathcore triumph, it fades into the soundtrack of a funeral procession and march. Still a great highlight despite losing its potential at the end.
"Thank God for Worker Bees" starts with a compelling industrial intro with Verellen's screams that might've inspired the heavy side of late Linkin Park vocalist Chester Bennington. I think that intro is the basis for that hidden remix at the end of We are the Romans. Here, the early frenzy comes in but sounds less inspired. "Rejection Spoken Softly" also has that repetitive problem, and it's definitely not spoken softly. In the next track, "Spitting Black", that first line "It won't happen again, not for the hundredth time" seems fitting because this song's uniqueness makes sure nothing gets repeated for the hundredth time. The uniqueness is helped out by Knudson's guitar versatility going all over the place and constantly changing like when you're repeatedly switching weapons in your arsenal in one of those shooting video games like DOOM. "Hives" is a killer closer to this good album of mathcore madness, but I wish it would have a more interesting ending like a much better piano melody than the one in "Oma" after the rest of the instrumentation fades, but that didn't happen. Oh well...
It's sad that there would never be another offering from Botch after their sole two albums. I'm fascinated by the fact that this album American Nervoso came out 22 years ago and has proven the band's greater ability than other bands. American Nervoso is an amazing debut, but it's their next album that marks a historical metal milestone....
Favorites: "Hutton's Great Heat Engine", "John Woo", "Oma", "Spitting Black", "Hives"