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Lay Down Rotten

Reconquering The Pit

Written by: PP on 28/01/2008 03:01:00

As you could probably imagine from the title, \"Lay Down Rotten\"\'s new album \"Reconquering The Pit\" is fucking brutal. With titles like \"Sound Of Breaking Bones\" and \"All Of This Pain\" they\'re sure to send waves of destruction through your skull with a serpentine death metal assault the like of which would rather send you off a cliff on a hangover day than to have a one minute listening session.

But with tracks carrying such titles, that\'s what you were probably expecting anyway. The title track \"Reconquering The Pit\" describes it the best: it is lighting speed, there\'s a boat load of shredding involved, the constant double-pedal kickdrums hammer against your head, and the guttural vocalist growls some of the most brutal sounds you\'ll have heard since the last Decapitated album. Danish fans think Illdisposed here. Probably not the first record you\'d put on given unlimited choice, eh?

Nevertheless, Lay Down Rotten is entirely tolerable and even enjoyable, even if you usually feel like your ears are bleeding at the very mention of guttural growls, and here\'s why: the album is packed with some of the best instrumental work you\'ll come across in brutal death metal. It\'s tight and intense, one one hand relentless and the next moment insanely well structured, and the solos will send truckloads of cold chills down your back without a doubt. The breakneck-speed shreds are a brilliant example of how to integrate melody into music while keeping it in a form that sounds like a freight train approaching. Hell, there are even some twin-guitar harmonies as you\'ll find on \"Bitter Thoughts\".

So it seems that the band was right. With songs as jam-packed with fantastic instrumentation as these, the band genuinely reconquers the pit. The record is a shining example that it\'s no problem sounding like a large number of your genre colleagues, as long as you do it better than them. And that\'s precisely what Lay Down Rotten does.

Download: Reconquering The Pit, Bitter Thoughts
For the fans of: Severe Torture, Decapitated, Illdisposed
Listen: Myspace
Buy: iTunes

Release date 05.11.2007
Metal Blade
Provided by Target ApS