SATANIC BAT

Band: drummer-singer Sven Sobeck (ex-Incommunicado, Forced Under); guitarist J.D. Howell; guitarist Dave Warren (ex Negative Theory, Mergedown, Gasoline Dion); bassist Jon Milliren (ex Blasting Caps, Mother McCree's Garden).

Are they Satanists?: No.

Sounds like: Can't beat the description on the band's myspace page: "Their sound crushes up horsepills of Southern rock, '70s psychedelia, blues, doom, and even boogie jazz in a heavy metal mortar & pestle and passes it around the party."

OK, that's not what you expect from the name: "It was a joke that kind of stuck and now were stuck with the name," says Howell. "People make assumptions because of that name. People assume we're black metal along the lines of King Diamond. We get inquiries from black metal bands -- guys that dress up in corpse paint -- asking to play gigs. I don't know if they don't turn the sound up on our myspace page, or what."

Bat beginnings: Central Pennsylvania natives Howell and Sobeck ("he's obsessed with Vikings and anything Nordic," Howell says) formed the band as a two-piece with the idea of being like "Melvins meets Death From Above 1979, that kind of stuff." They jammed for a year and then added Warren and Milliren. Influences also included Sabbath, Hawkwind, Motorhead, Cream.

Where does the Southern rock come from?: "I was personally never a fan of that music," Howell says. "It just kind of came from playing together and we followed that direction. Initially, our stuff was more disjointed metal. The songs that stuck around were the ones that we jammed on and had that Southern feel."

They make noise, too: Along with Southern metal thing, Satanic Bat just might venture into seven minutes of experimental noise, as on "A Generation of Digital Grooves vs. Jazzbot 6000." "That comes from having a bass player and guitar player who like to experiment with pedals and synths," Howell says. "When you listen to the record, the last track goes out into a long noisy improvised thing we did. It was a one-take-in-the-studio kind of song. We never planned on using it, but decided that would work at the end."

What is this release he's talking about?: The band's debut, "Tales From the Southland," is the first project from the Pittsburgh-based Oppressive Sound System Releases and includes such crushing tracks as "Skull Bong Rock" and "Dead Dixie Driver" -- heavy stoner rock that might even keep the black metal kids in the room.

What room? The release show is 10 p.m. Saturday at the Smiling Moose, South Side, with Lo Pan and Rebreather. For details, go to www.myspace.com/satanicbat.