''Raised by Bats'' is the tenth studio album by

Cuban American Cuban Americans ( es, cubanoestadounidenses or ''cubanoamericanos'') are Americans who trace their cultural heritage to Cuba regardless of phenotype or ethnic origin. The word may refer to someone born in the United States of Cuban descent or t ...

dark cabaret singer

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—es ...

, released in 2014. The album's production was

crowdfunded Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

by Voltaire's fans all over the world via a successful Indiegogo campaign; it would reach

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

53,793, surpassing its originally intended goal of US$10,000. The album is a major departure of Voltaire's musical style; instead of his usual dark cabaret style, ''Raised by Bats'' is more

death rock Death rock (or deathrock) is a rock music subgenre incorporating horror elements and gothic theatrics. It emerged from punk rock on the West Coast of the United States in the early 1980s and overlaps with the gothic rock and horror punk genre ...

- and gothic rock-oriented. According to Voltaire in his official website:

In truth, it's a tour of all of the kinds of music I loved growing up. There are songs on this album that are goth rock, death rock, new wave, New Romantic,
dark wave Dark wave (also typeset as darkwave) is a music genre that emerged from the new wave and post-punk movement of the late 1970s. Dark wave compositions are largely based on minor key tonality and introspective lyrics and have been perceived as be ...
and dark folk. It's the album I've always wanted to make. Some of the songs were written as far back as 1984, when I was 17 years old!

''Raised by Bats'' is, thus far, the album by Voltaire that most features guest musicians: among them are Ray Toro of

My Chemical Romance My Chemical Romance (commonly abbreviated to MCR or My Chem) is an American rock band from Newark, New Jersey. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist Gerard Way, lead guitarist Ray Toro, rhythm guitarist Frank Iero, and bassist ...

fame, Craig Adams of The Mission and

The Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is an English rock band, formed in 1980 in Leeds. After achieving early underground fame there, the band had their commercial breakthrough in the mid-1980s and sustained it until the early 1990s, when they stopped releasi ...

Melora Creager Melora Creager (born March 25, 1966) is an American cello, cellist, singer-songwriter, performing artist and founder of the rock band Rasputina (band), Rasputina. Early life, beginnings and Rasputina Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, M ...

of Rasputina and much more.

Background

The track "The Night" was previously featured on Voltaire's 2000 album '' Almost Human''; he first wrote it in 1988. "The Conqueror Worm" takes its name and lyrics from

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...

's eponymous poem. "The Devil and Mr. Jones" is a tribute to American actor Doug Jones, famous for portraying

Abe Sapien Abraham Sapien, born Langdon Everett Caul, is a fictional character introduced in the comic book series ''Hellboy'', created by Mike Mignola. He takes his name from "''Ichthyo sapien''", the fanciful species designation chosen for him by his c ...

in Guillermo del Toro's ''

Hellboy Hellboy is a fictional superhero created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. The character first appeared in ''San Diego Comic-Con Comics'' #2 (August 1993), and has since appeared in various eponymous miniseries, one-shots and intercompany crossover ...

'' films (Del Toro is also mentioned on the song's lyrics). He also portrayed the

faun The faun (, grc, φαῦνος, ''phaunos'', ) is a half-human and half-goat mythological creature appearing in Greek and Roman mythology. Originally fauns of Roman mythology were spirits (genii) of rustic places, lesser versions of their c ...

in ''

Pan's Labyrinth ''Pan's Labyrinth'' ( es, El laberinto del fauno, lit=The Labyrinth of the Faun, links=no) is a 2006 dark fantasy horror film written, directed and co-produced by Guillermo del Toro. A Spanish-Mexican(78% Spanish production, 22% Mexican productio ...

''. "Sacrifice" was written in memory of one of Voltaire's friends, who killed herself when both were teenagers. "Captains All" is a tribute to one of Voltaire's idols,

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

musician

Adam Ant Stuart Leslie Goddard, better known as Adam Ant (born 3 November 1954), is an English singer, musician, and actor. He gained popularity as the lead singer of new wave group Adam and the Ants and later as a solo artist, scoring 10 UK top ten ...

, famous for being the frontman of now-deceased

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad music genre, genre of Punk Music, punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde s ...

/new wave band

Adam and the Ants Adam and the Ants were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. The group existed in two incarnations, both fronted by Adam Ant, over the period 1977 to 1982. The first, founded in May 1977 and known simply as The Ants until November of t ...

.Voltaire – News – March 20th, 2013 , Raised by Bats!
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Track listing

Personnel

— vocals * Julia Marcell — additional vocals (track 5) * Chibi (of

The Birthday Massacre The Birthday Massacre (abbreviated TBM) is a Canadian rock band , formed in 1999 in London, Ontario, and currently based in Toronto, Ontario. The current lineup consists of lead vocalist Sara 'Chibi' Taylor, rhythm guitarist Michael Rainbow, le ...

) — additional vocals (track 8) * Brian Viglione — drums * Ray Toro — guitars *

Knox Chandler Knox Chandler is an American musician known primarily as a guitarist, though he also plays cello, keyboards and other instruments. He has worked extensively as a session musician. In the early to mid-1970s, Chandler attended the Hammonasset Scho ...

— guitars * Craig Adams — bass *

— cello * Frank Morin — guitars * Emilio Zef China — bass, violin * Olya Viglione — organ * Chris Ianuzzi — keyboards *

Armen Ra Armen Ra is a Persian-Armenian artist, self-taught thereminist, production designer, director, and performer. Musical career Career (2010-2013) Ra began studying the theremin in 2001, debuting with the orchestral group Antony & the Johnsons in ...

— theremin *

Michael Komarck Michael Komarck is a fantasy artist. His work has been featured in many roleplaying games, board games, book covers, and collectible cards. Komarck produced the official art and calendars for George R.R. Martin's ''A Song of Ice and Fire''. Early ...

— cover art Marcell, Creager and Viglione collaborated with Voltaire previously. Guest vocals in "Oh, My Goth!" were provided by

The Crüxshadows The Crüxshadows is an American dark wave and dark synthpop band currently based in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. The band has an international following of fans and has toured North America, Europe, and Asia. History The band was o ...

Bella Morte Bella Morte is a gothic rock band that was formed in 1996 in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. They incorporate elements of metal, dark wave, deathrock, alternative and synthpop. The band's name means "beautiful death" in Italian. ...

, Ego Likeness (on their second collaboration with Voltaire since 2004's '' Then and Again''),

Zombina and the Skeletones Zombina and the Skeletones are an English rock band from Liverpool, formed in 1998 around the nucleus of vocalist Zombina and songwriter Doc Horror. , their last recording was a self-released EP in 2017, and their official website is disman ...

and

Angelspit Angelspit is an electronic music band originally from Sydney, Australia, Sydney, Australia, and currently based in Chicago, United States. The band was formed in 2004 by vocalists/Synthesizer, synthesists Destroyx (Amelia Tan) and ZooG (Karl Le ...

References

External links

Voltaire's official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raised By Bats 2014 albums Voltaire (musician) albums Death rock albums Indiegogo projects Crowdfunded albums