Botch

Seattle, WA's Botch stands among the leading forces reshaping heavy music through an aggressive blend of progressive structures, underground intensity, and occasionally ferocious guitar-driven passages rooted in hardcore punk's visual style and independent ethos, though free of the scene's more reductive, posturing attitudes. The approach most commonly falls under the noisecore heading. Comparable to fellow noisecore acts Converge and Isis, the quartet rejects standard hardcore boundaries by building intricate, mathematically precise arrangements executed with precision, nuance, and technical command. Promotional language once fittingly tagged them evil math rock. Singer Dave Verellen approaches his words with notable care, populating the group's releases with blunt imagery and frequently elaborate track names. The band originated in 1993 after Verellen connected with longtime high-school associates Tim Latona on drums, Brian Cook on bass, and guitarist David Knudson, a configuration that has remained intact despite the lineup instability common among similar groups. Two years later Botch issued a debut cassette demo and supported it with shows. In 1997 they aligned with Boston's Hydra Head Records, an outlet that has also housed noisecore touchstones such as Cave In and Drowning Man. That year brought the first full-length, American Nervoso, which highlighted Knudson's exceptional guitar work and soon earned him recognition as one of the underground's standout players. 1999 delivered We Are the Romans, an exceptionally dense, idea-driven, and precisely assembled thematic statement that expanded the band's visibility within the metal press and opened additional road opportunities, among them a second European trek backing like-minded allies Dillinger Escape Plan. Over the following two years the group maintained an active live schedule that included a slot at Krazy Fest 4 in Louisville, KY.