| "Bat Country" | ||||||||
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| Single by Avenged Sevenfold | ||||||||
| from the album City of Evil | ||||||||
| Released | September 26, 2005 | |||||||
| Format | Compact Disc, 7" vinyl | |||||||
| Genre | Hard rock | |||||||
| Length | 5:13 4:11 (radio edit) |
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| Label | Warner Bros. | |||||||
| Writer(s) | M. Shadows, The Rev | |||||||
| Producer | Andrew Murdock Avenged Sevenfold |
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| Avenged Sevenfold singles chronology | ||||||||
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"Bat Country" is a song by American rock band Avenged Sevenfold. The song was released as the second single from their third album, City of Evil. Avenged Sevenfold won 'Best New Artist' at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards for "Bat Country" and on October 1, 2009, the single was certified gold by the RIAA.
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The song's main influence comes from Hunter S. Thompson's 1971 novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and the title itself also comes from a line from the book in which Raoul Duke, the alter-ego pseudonym of Thompson himself, is on his way to Las Vegas while being affected by various drugs, and thus hallucinates, seeing huge bats and manta rays in the sky. With this, he gasps to his companion and attorney, Dr. Gonzo, "We can't stop here. This is bat country."
The following quote, also included at the beginning of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, is referred twice throughout the song (at the beginning and the bridge before the last chorus) and is shown at the beginning of the music video.
"He who makes a beast of himself, gets rid of the pain of being a man." - Dr. Johnson
Also referenced in the song, is a lyric derived from the final words spoken about Dr. Gonzo at the end of the film adaptation. The lyric is used at the end of the second breakdown of the song, as the final lyric of the song.
"There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die." - Raoul Duke
The song has been used in several video games including EA Sports' NHL 06, Madden NFL 06, SSX on Tour, Saints Row 2, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, as downloadable content for Rock Band and Rock Band 2, the iPhone application Tap Tap Revenge 3 and on the newer version Tap Tap Revenge 4. The song is featured on the soundtrack to the extreme mountain bike film New World Disorder 7: Flying High Again.
The song appeared on an episode of the FOX TV series Bones entitled "The Superhero in the Alley". It is also appeared briefly in the film comedy Big Momma's House 2.
The music video resembles parts of the movie Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas. The video for this song shows various symbolic images and references to the above-mentioned Thompson book. The song centers around the band performing in a hotel room. There are also cuts to a scene in which the band is driving down a barren highway in a bat-winged Cadillac convertible, surrounded by a cloud of bats (who are being swatted by Zacky and The Rev). While in the car they see Johnny Christ on the side of the road trying to get a ride, and they pick him up. During the "soft" section, the band appears at a strip club, surrounded by snake-tongued strippers. Also, it's implied that the video is partially a hallucination.
If one were to examine closely, the words on M. Shadows' shirt appear to change between "Why Disneyland" and "If you have Amsterdam". The shirt actually says "Why Disneyland if you have Amsterdam?" at one point in the song. It changes back afterward. During Synyster Gates' and Zacky Vengeance's guitar solo/duo, the bats that fly into the sky are sometimes not there. The regular people sometimes appear to have a disfigured face. During the video's commentary by Avenged Sevenfold on their All Excess DVD, the band says that the bats hallucination was actually due to a lack of funds. However, whether or not they were being serious or joking is not clarified.
The music video, which was filmed around Las Vegas, still receives considerable airplay on many channels. As Shadows says, the band members live close to Las Vegas. Synyster Gates commented[1] at 2:47, 'You put all of us in the car, and that's basically what you have.'
Also, the line "My hand is on the trigger, I'm ready to ignite" is partially censored; the word "trigger" is replaced with a tire screech.
| Chart (2005) | Peak position |
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| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 60 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks | 2 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks | 6 |
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