So I’ll just go ahead and assume that, if you’re reading this, it’s because you’re into heavy music, and that you haven’t been living in an isolated cave for the last 25 years or so (apologies to all cave-dwellers if any of you are out there), so you’re at least familiar with Botch. I typically reserve Band Of The Week features for lesser known, underground, new and/or up-and-coming bands, but come on, last week we got a new Botch song. I’ll repeat that and add some bold and italics all round too: we got a new Botch song. The first in twenty years! Ever since they released ‘An Anthology Of Dead Ends’, which was in itself a rather posthumous (actually released on the day of their final show, June 15th 2002) gathering of the last things they were working on. So first of all, here it is. It’s called ‘One Twenty Two’.
It’s amazing, isn’t it? It honestly feels like they never went away. The blunt, simple-sounding heaviness, the complexity that slowly unravels the more you listen to it, the hooky guitar melodies, Dave Verellen’s typical sledgehammer approach to vocals, it’s all there. I’m trying to not get too excited, because the band has repeatedly said they’re not reuniting - all the exciting Botch news you’ll get these days are the reissues Sargent House are putting out after acquiring the band’s full catalogue. But still, we never thought we’d get any new material, and yet here we are. Guitarist Dave Knudson has said the following about it:
”During Covid, I was writing my debut solo LP, and mentally, I was sick of everything in quarantine. Lots of frustration had set in at home, and I figured the best way to deal with it was to write something heavy. I had no intention of writing anything for Botch, but when I was thinking of a singer to collaborate with, I thought, ‘Hey, I know the best hardcore singer ever to do it,’ so I hit up Dave V. He was super excited and so it just kind of snowballed from there. There was never any intent or conversation about getting back together or writing. It just happened so naturally and was a great release for all of us to make it happen without any of the traditional pressure an “active” band faces.”
There weren’t any plans for it but it just happened. Who knows, maybe a year or so from now they’ll be saying the same thing about a new album. Hope springs eternal. Or maybe they won’t be heard from ever again. Who knows. For now, let’s just be happy with what we have, and then go back to spinning ‘We Are The Romans’ over and over. It’s being reissued in November and everything, so there’s your excuse.
So there, that’s it. You don’t need me to explain why Botch are important, and I’d just end up listing bands that wouldn’t exist without them, which you can easily get off Wikipedia or whatever. Here’s a promise - I’ll do a Discography Deep Dive on them when they have a new album out and I can include it there already. Now go listen to the new song again.
You can find Botch on Sargent House, Bandcamp, Facebook and Instagram.