Ballista’s newest release, C.O.T.C, available now on all platforms

Without further ado, let’s cut to the meat and potatoes of this review, or as vocalist River would say, “trim the fat”. First and foremost, there’s a noticeable growth, sonically, in this record. The band’s viciousness still holds strong and it doesn’t cease to let up, at all. What’s different about C.O.T.C is it contains other elements of heaviness as opposed to mainly deathcore; groovy metal with a dash of death metal and metalcore. It made sense when River expressed one of the main influences in making C.O.T.C was older Machine Head records. I can only assume that’s where the maturer sound stemmed from. As a fan of older metal myself. I throughly enjoy the musical direction Ballista went towards as the ep progresses.

The lyrical content remains ferocious and a tad more introspective; the first song Stone Thrower gives listeners a bit of insight of the rage filtered by being a transgender woman of color living in today’s harsh and critical society. What I gathered from my favorite song off of this project, Drowning in Vain, was the painful feeling of uselessness seeping into consciousness while accepting the fate that comes with it. Prey Drive featuring Chloe Hoffman is a pretty tough track, in my point of view, as it starts off thrashy &. ends with a lengthy, double vocal breakdown. FUN FACT, you can catch the single, “Law of the jungle on the Knotfest playlist by clicking here

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