Before we begin today’s round-up, I wanted to take a moment to say so long and good luck to Cat Jones, The Pit’s Editorial Director since 2019. The Pit wouldn’t be here without Cat’s guidance — Last Words wouldn’t exist, and I certainly wouldn’t work here. She now moves on to a new job at Rhino Records, and we’re stoked to see what she does there. Cheers, Cat!
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Now, back to our regularly scheduled program…
Monster Magnet, A Better Dystopia (Napalm Records)
For fans of: Rob Zombie, Pentagram, Kyuss
Standout track: “Solid Gold Hell”
Fuck, look at THAT! Monster Magnet’s new record is a ‘70s covers album, and if you don’t know how that’s going to sound like, we can’t help you. This, a metal site on a screen, is also not the way to experience this album. You need go outside and drive your car very fast through a devastated neighborhood. You need to nip an off-brand soda and smoke a cigarette. Scare the man who runs the place where you buy them. Feel the wind in your hair. Did you know there’s a strain of weed called Cat Piss? Good talk.
Weeping, Ethereal Suffering In The Light of God (Birds Heaven Distro)
For fans of: Stomach Earth, Inferi, Pissgrave
Standout track: “Blood Matter Blade”
If you ever decided to barbecue a human, Ethereal Suffering In The Light of God would be good music to do it to. Weeping play death metal, if you want to call it that; it has death metal rhythms, but the music itself sounds like a cancerous stoma trying to sing. There is a specific type of sick individual out there who will hear this album and finally feel like someone understands them. We support that. Of course these guys come from New Jersey.
Yautja, The Lurch (Relapse Records)
For fans of: Every Time I Die, Sumac, Trap Them
Standout track: “Tethered”
Fuck, this album is a lot of fun! It’s also incredibly ambitious and catchy sludge-metal, but by and large this is music to party to — you just have to like your parties a little desperate and fucked up! Yautja have made a name for themselves as a terrifying force to be reckoned with in the underground, but even fans of mainstream stoner-ish acts like Mastodon or Kylesa will dig this one (at least if they can hang with the more venomous bits). Definitely worth a spin, though if you start with one, you might do two or three in one sitting.
Various Artists, Metal Massacre XV (Metal Blade Records)
For fans of: Fuckin’, black leather boots, beer from a cooler
Standout track: Fuming Mouth, “Master of Extremity”
It’s good to live in a world where Metal Blade still puts out Metal Massacre records. The compilation series is what launched the careers of everyone from Metallica to Manowar, and now here it is giving bumps to Fuming Mouth and Temple of Void. This is just a cool-ass metal mix tape to blast around the house or while taking some long walk across town. We miss metal radio, but this’ll do in a pinch.
Other crushers:
- Destroyed In Seconds, Divide and Devour (Deep Six Records)
- Nahaya, Vital Alchemy (Rockshots Records)
- Revisionist, The Emptiness of Gravity (Self-released)
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Words by Chris Krovatin
