Battle Ave.

“…shimmering crescendos that will split the sky even as they split yr skull.” - TALLC Presents

“Shit, this album is exhausting… like when you finish that strenuous hour long shake-weight work-out. The burn is deep, but it feels so good.” - SYFFAL.com

"Samantha Niss: The Beat Behind Battle Ave." - Tom Tom Magazine

"Samantha Niss: The Beat Behind Battle Ave." - Tom Tom Magazine

"90's grunge… with an updated sound that is full of soaring guitars and sore-throated vocals." - No Country For New Nashville

"Visceral, thunderous indie rock that plays like a score from a motion picture." - Sirens of Decay

"#14: Battle Ave. - "War Paint" - A more indie-fied Titus Andronicus? Sign me up twice." - Independent Clauses

"Battle Ave. wears its heart on its sleeve, and you’ll want to roll yours up and pump your fist..." - Listen Before You Buy

"A huge record full of inventive, passionate rock songs…" - Gold Flake Paint

"...effortless lose-yourself-in-the-music quality..." - Dauphin

“…this is art.” - Independent Clauses

“…captivating instrumental passages…” - Crusher Magazine

“…crushing tidal waves of music… at once disarming and brilliant…” - Roll Magazine

Best new music 09.08.2011 - Dingus

There’s beauty in taking time. Battle Ave know this well, and they use it to wondrous effect on their sophomore album, Year Of Nod. They cherish the slow, epic buildup. It’s a little bit like life in that way — how we are the sum of our experiences, not just a fleeting moment of joy or anger or sadness. It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey. For both the good and the bad. Year Of Nod is a patient record, made up of immense escalations and diminutive fadeouts and, for almost an hour, the upstate New York band explore a cloudy landscape of emotional peaks and valleys. All of this is pinned to Jesse Alexander’s wobbly, emotive voice that betrays enough vulnerability to make you feel at ease. He examines the hard truths — “How can something come from nothing?” he asks on “Solar Queen”; “Everybody knows that they’ve got problems, and everybody knows that they ain’t saints” on “Helen” — and makes you feel like everything will be OK. Battle Ave have made an album that you can wrap yourself up in when you’re hurting, and that’s the best kind. Listen to the whole thing below. - Stereogum

“I’m just a boy who needs attention,” Jesse Alexander warbles on “Solar Queen” before the song descends into an ominous groove that peacocks around for the next minute and a half, garnering him just that. Wispy brass appears out of nowhere, the drums move aggressively to the forefront, guitars that only simmered before waltz into the spotlight. It’s a beautiful grower of a coda to a quietly aching track, one of the most spectacular outros I’ve heard in 2015. Battle Ave hail from upstate New York, which means they’re familiar with punishing winters, remote wilderness, and the allure of an expansive, all-night city winking and glowing just hours away. Alexander draws on both the loneliness of a small town and the overwhelming rush of Manhattan on the latest Year Of Nod single, growing the phrase “I see a light” into a towering skyscraper, then bending it back to the size of a night light. Alexander’s voice wavers with papery conviction, buckling under the burden of emotion he shoves into the song. But he never breaks, and the ending suggests that all that pressure has created a diamond in the rough. Listen below. - Stereogum

Battle Ave emerge, rising with their new single “The Sun.” The song ebbs and flows like the tide, growing into a wonderful crescendo, then does it all over again. It’s a wonderful re-introduction to a band who has a big year ahead of them, their forthcoming split with Arkansas’s The Coasts being their first big move of the year. Recent years have seen the band hibernating, quietly assembling a new line-up and new songs. The band’s second album, Year of Nod, is due out this May via Seagreen Records. - Portals