When we came up with the idea of doing a Mix Tape idea for the Iron Fist website there were three people we knew we needed to ask. Jason Decay and Ian Chains from Cauldron were a given, at least one of them were bound to put Bleak House on there, and the other was Ryan Waste. Now the latter has a brand new album out for his snotty speed metal punks BAT, we knew the time was right to hit him up. Ryan has spent the summer driving a taxi (seriously, read the latest Livin’ Fast column in Iron Fist #17) and on the tarmac in Europe with his thrash comrades Municipal Waste so we know his ear is gonna be trained to the right songs for the right road so we asked him to gather together some of the songs that inspired BAT’s latest album, ‘Wings Of Chains‘. It was through MW that we first met Ryan and got to know just how vast, and how perfect for the party, his music taste is. Buckle up and hit play!

SIDE A:

SLANDER ‘Lonely Nights’
Let’s set the mood here. I feed off the sound of desperation in music, so what better way to kick it off than spending the night alone making a mix for a magazine that I love?

WARFARE ‘New Age Of Total Warfare’
This feature is supposed to be about what influenced the new BAT album, so I must stay on task. This is how it’s done… filthy, dirty, metal punk perfection.

H-BOMB ‘Dans Les Griffes D’Atilla’
This list could easily stay in the UK, but let’s take it to France in the claws of H-Bomb. Although it’s a more hung-back tune for them, it builds riff after riff making it one of my favourite song structures, especially the turnaround at 3:07.

ACID ‘No Time’
Onward to Belgium, since we were in the neighbourhood, to visit my favourite female-fronted speed metallers. No time to take acid though, we gotta keep cruising…

RANDY ‘Victim Of The Night’
This Danish power-trio has the chops alright, not mutton chops, although they all have excellent mustaches. This is one of my top slower-paced songs because it’s still driving, yet moves so smoothly. Check the transition at the two minute mark and you’ll hear what I mean.

LOU MIAMI ‘Ghosts’
I’m throwing a Lou-p in the mix to take out side A to show you that it’s not all heavy metal in the BAT camp. One of two great songs this US goth/punker made. The other being ‘Dance With Death’ (check out the video here: it’s wild)

SIDE B:

MILLENIUM ‘Magic Mirror’
Classy later-era NWOBHM at it’s finest. They went on to get thrashier, but this stuff is the cream of the crop. Our guitarist Nick and myself can’t get enough, so much that he painted their logo on the back of his denims.

KILLER (BEL) ‘Kleptomania’
A catchy tune from these maniacs who had some of the best names in the biz: Spooky, Shorty and Double Bear. Shorty is still killin’ it on the axe and vox to this day!

ENGLISH DOGS ‘Survival Of The Fittest’
I almost put the whole EP ‘To The Ends Of The Earth’ on here as one track, that’s how important that record is to me. They struck gold with that one and it hasn’t been touched since.

WITCHFYNDE ‘Somewhere To Hide’
After those last two bangers, lets take it down a notch with some ol’ chaps from the early daze of the NWOBHM. This cut calms me down and is a regular on my DJ rotation.

BLOOD MONEY ‘Stormer’
No rest for the wicked though, since we’re still talking BAT influences. I’ll never be able to sing like this, but we have definitely fallen into that backwards-British-boot-beat displayed in this whirlwind of a song.

SACRILEGE ‘The Closing Irony’
Well we’ve reached the end of the tape as you hear the death bell toll in this mid-pace rocker. Our drummer Felix keeps saying we need to cover this one and I can’t argue ‘cuz it would be a major vocal rester. Tam takes her sweet time coming in, but when she does, she takes no prisoners.

BAT’s new album ‘Wings Of Chains’ is out now on Hells Headbangers