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The Special Page

On this month's Special Page:

Bat$hit!crazy is a "horror" rock band

IN THE "SPECIAL PAGE" ARCHIVES:

Ellen Datlow
Brent Monahan
Owen King
Dacre Stoker
Piers Anthony

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“Pop-Punk-Hardcore-Horror-Rock N’ Roll”

That is what I call the new music I am making with my band Bat$hit!crazy.

by Chuck Dietrich

I know, I know…who in the hell would call their band that? And what kind of ridiculous style of music is that? Well if you were thinking of both those questions then you kind of answered it yourself. To play that kind of music you must be Batshit Crazy. And that is exactly why I named the band that. Let’s take a look at the sum of the parts:

1. Pop – By definition something that is popular in music standards that usually includes a catchy chorus something that holds a melody and something to sing a long too.

2. Punk – Edgy, do what you want, when you want, how you want and don’t give a shit what other people think about it. A style of music as well as a mentality.

3. Hardcore – More aggressive than punk when talking about music, something that is over the top and at times almost too over the top.

4. Horror – Our favorite film genre, so many classic films from the mainstream to independents have garnered worldwide attention.

5. Rock N’ Roll – Something that makes your toe tap, you head bob, your foot stomp. From Chuck Berry to Metallica, it’s all Rock N’ Roll!

Now I have been in the music industry for almost 20 years, and I’m always looking for ways to do things that haven’t been done. (See Bullet Treatment, the band I started with rotating members in the late 90’s, and now it’s almost commonplace). So with this I took all my favorite hobbies and compiled them into a musical venture.

So let me go back to the beginning, and I mean the very beginning. When I was little, the very first “horror” movie I ever saw was the original “Amityville Horror”. It scared the living crap out of me, I think I watched most of that movie between my ring and middle finger on my right hand while my other was grasped to my seat. But it was that movie that set it in motion, the adrenaline rush from being scared was something new to me and I wanted to find that again. Enter John Carpenter and the movie “Escape From New York”. While not considered a horror movie, it was still horrific to a little kid. His film making grabbed me with the characters, landscape of destruction and smart dialogue that kept you on the edge of your seat, it was really the first time I felt like I was rooting for the bad guy (even though Snake, I guess, was considered good). After that movie it was on…that set me out on a mission to find more and more movies like these.

Back then, when you went to the video store, you rented movies a lot of times based on what the box cover looked like. So I grabbed the likes of “Halloween”; hey, that’s the same guy that made the “New York” movie, also “Jaws”, (my dad said it was cool) and “Phantasm”. Holy shit!!! Phantasm…that movie had everything! I can watch that movie today and it is still as great as ever.

In fact, when I first talked to Richy about singing for this band, I told him I wanted a song about that movie. He being a few years younger had actually never watched it. So he went home, download it, and around midnight I get a text: “Holy Shit!”, "Phantasm "is F*cking amazing.”

He loved the movie so much, he actually went and starting looking into the rest of the series which led him to telling me about the final film “Ravager”. I had no idea they made another film in 2016 (which ended up being Angus “The Tall Man” Scrimm’s last movie). That led to the song we wrote called “Ravager” which will be released on our 2 ep. (it came out in October).

Jump through the next few decades and hundreds of horror, slasher and zombie films along with thousands of albums I have collected and you have the makings of this band.

Now, I know there are many horror-related bands out there, most notably the Misfits. But they tended to write more about the Golden Age of Horror movies. I wanted people to sing along to the films we love. How rad is it for a kid to sing along to a song about “Phantasm” or “Nightmare On Elm Street”.

The one thing I wanted to do musically was to try and have the feel of the songs be like a horror movie. Certain tracks have that build into sheer excitement, while other are more catchy and happy (like the scene before the girl in the shower gets slashed). Essentially listening to our releases should have the same characteristics of a good horror movie.

Now, I could go on for days talking about a genre of film that is so liked and a genre of music that is also so liked. I had no idea when I first found the Ramones & Amityville Horror that it would lead all these years later to one of my favorite projects I have ever been a part of. But Bat$hit!crazy. may just be the funniest thing I’ve ever been a part of.

-Chuck D.

Bat$hit!crazy. is:
Richy V. - Vocals
Chuck D. - Guitar
Jason V. - Bass
Mike M – Drums

And check out our first ep on iTunes, Amazone, Spotify, etc.
Instagram.com/batshit_crazy_band

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About Bat$hit!crazy

Richy V. - Vocals
Chuck D. - Guitar
Jason V. - Bass
Mike M – Drums

See and listen to Bat$hit!crazy HERE and HERE and learn more HERE

See Bullet Treatment HERE

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About the band

by Chuck

Bat$hit!crazy started in early 2017 as I had taken some time off from writing and working on my Hardcore band Bullet Treatment (BT, for those in the know). BT has always been a grueling job for myself as I am the only permanent member. I have different people from other bands (The Bronx, Rise Against, Social Distortion, etc.) help contribute to the performances on the albums but everything behind the scenes is a one-man show.

With that said, the last release from BT “Bloodshot Chapters 1 & 2” were both very well received and garnered the band even more attention. So what did I decide to do? Give it a rest for awhile…start something new…work with other bands and continue producing, engineering, doing label relations, etc.

Nope, I wanted to start a different band, one that would have permanent members and one that would be all my guilty pleasures rolled into on. A Pop-Punk-Hardcore-horror-Rock N’ Roll band, hence the name Bat$hit!crazy.

From the get-go, I knew where I wanted to take the direction of the band, I wanted music that would fit on a record like different scenes from a movie, some intense others gleeful and so on. I wanted to write about my favorite movies like “Phantasm”, “They Live”, “Nightmare on Elm Street”, “Phantoms”, etc. They would be dark themes with exciting color schemes, i.e. everything that made sense in my head but doesn’t make sense on paper. After finding the perfect pieces for the band, including a singer who can both sing and scream, we started recording.

The final product will be released as 4 ep.’s Titled “ep.1”, “ep.2”, “ep.3” & “ep.4”. After which we will compile the ep’s with a couple additional tracks for a full length compilation release. Each ep will feature a corner (1/4) over the final cover art.

So when you put all the corners together, you will see the final image. It’s things like this that I want to continue to stretch the boundries of traditional punk rock. Even the eventual cd release will feature something that I do not believe has ever been done, and just like a great horror movie, you’re not going to expect what’s coming.