Pit Of Carnage - The Rise Of The Fallen King (2016)

Danish brutal deathers Pit Of Carnage have returned with their second full-length, just two years after 2014's The Beginning Of The End. The band are made up of just two guys, but GoreDrummer handles the drumming, guitars and vocals relatively well, while Peter Juelsgaard makes himself known in the bass department. He only plays the bass, but his licks are very much a part of the entire performance. Sometimes these guys break the forumal completely for some airy keyboard atmospheres, but I think that's part of the charm. They crush, but leave room for a little more, which is what I like. Even when I take a look at their compositions, I can see that there's quite a bit of technicality and groove as well as melody in some areas that you don't hear quite all the time in this kind of music. We also get some solos from time to time, which you may not ever hear in this genre, depending entirely on the act. There are more bands than I can count that give a stable performance (which almost always include the same song regurgitated in ten different ways) in the BDM genre, but Pit Of Carnage are standing out for doing their own damn thing.

Sometimes it sounds a bit Nu-Metal with the downtuning (which might upset people) and there are even some breakdowns here and there as well as some prog touches, but it's not a record that I feel has an absence of overall riff-matter or inspiration. When I mean “riff-matter” I mean that I can actually hear some riffs on the disc, not just an overload of bass and drums. Pit Of Carnage don't seem to be playing any kind of style beyond that of their own, which is something worth considering if you're looking for a record in this genre that goes out of it's way. It's not exactly perfect, but open-minded fans of technical death metal and brutal death should come together on this one. Just be sure to keep your ears peeled for the odd effect near the end of “Reflection Of Desire.” That's the kind of experimentation I'm all about. No doubt you'll hear several more of these little experiments incorporated in various places on the disc, so you'd better give it a listen if you're tired of bland bands.

(10 Tracks, 28:00)

8/10