It’s Friday, which means two things: giving the week the finger and new music! Tune in every Friday for The Pit’s round-up of new releases, from singalong hard rock to pus-drenched underground death metal. Keep those ears bleeding!
Deftones, White Pony X Black Stallion (Reprise Records)
For fans of: Deftones’ White Pony. but also The Cure
Standout track: “Digital Bath (DJ Shadow Remix)”
Not content to simply release one of the most critically-acclaimed albums of 2020, Deftones also had to remix the critically-acclaimed album they released 20 years ago. The White Pony X Black Stallion album follows in the footsteps of White Zombie and Fear Factory’s remix records, featuring the band’s original songs revamped and slightly toned down as electronic tracks. That said, White Pony marks where Deftones began their true descent into artsy, shoegazy material, so it’s not as though these remixes are too different from their originals.
Boris with Merzbow, 2R0I2P0 (Relapse Records)
For fans of: Existential dread, malfunctioning speakers, ghosts communicating through computers
Standout track: The one with all the whirring
Anyone who knows Japanese shoegaze crew Boris and weirdo multi-instrumentalist Merzbow should have a solid idea of what they’re in for with 2R0I2P0, a remix album of Boris’ 2019 record LOVE & EVOL. If you’re looking for melody or traditional song structure, turn back now; instead, this little slice of Limbo offers an unrelenting barrage of fuzz, noise, half-heard singing, feedback, and all manner of strange industrial sounds. For the average listener, this might be, well, unlistenable, but experimental music fans will have a field day with this record.
Perdition Sect, End Times (Seeing Red Records)
For fans of: Discharge, All Pigs Must Die, Exhumed
Standout track: “Social Media Leprosy”
When members of Ringworm, Keelhaul, and Incantation get together to record an album of Discharge worship, you know you’re going to have a good time. End Times is 10 short, sharp shocks that’ll have fans of thrash, old-school death metal, and D-beat slapping their hand against their thighs and sneering along. Between its raging sound, its title, and its snotty topical themes, Perdition Sect’s debut feels like a fitting gravestone to this bitch-hog of a year. Fuck ‘em all.
Heads For The Dead, Into The Red (Transcending Obscurity Records)
For fans of: Bloodbath, Revel In Flesh, Temple of Void
Standout track: “Multi Morbid Maniac”
International death metal juggernaut Heads For The Dead came out of nowhere for some of us, but an album like Into The Red is certainly a good way to make a first impression. Fast, atmospheric, dripping with gore and obsessed with horror, this is the kind of record that reminds you why you love death metal in the first place. That said, it’s not too burrowed into one genre or the other, as the utterly fantastic cover of Darkthrone’s “Transilvanian Hunger” suggests. Definitely worth a spin for twisted minds across the metal landscape.
Other crushers:
- Toxikull, Cursed and Punished (Dying Victims)
- Speedkiller, Midnight Vampire (Edged Circle Productions)
- Cardinal Wyrm, Devotionals (Independent)
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Words by Chris Krovatin
