Hunter Griller

Gallery of Skewered Swine was Pit Lord turning their musical horizons from mere novelty to something more earnest. Basically, taking their big, mouthwatering grooves and generating something closer to regular death metal, contrasting their meat mountain grooves with searing riffs. It’s likely they’re about to expand on that with their next full-length, but in the interim… is an EP in the style of their groovy brand of death metal that they had established in their earliest EPs in 2018.

Now, in retrospect, it always seemed like Pit Lord were subtly (and then not-so-subtly when heading into Gallery of Skewered Swine) refining and expanding upon their base sound from Meat Demons, and it’s why Hunter Griller honestly seems like a step down, as it regresses somewhere between Meat Demons and Grilling on Adrenaline in terms of song structuring and the elements that make the music. Granted, there’s not much wrong with going back to basics in an EP that’s basically a stop-gap between two major releases. Sometimes, heading back to the drawing board like this can help to generate new ideas, as you remind yourselves of what made your sound tick in the first place. Groovy death metal isn’t inherently bad, even if the face of this style is (apart from a solid debut), and Pit Lord had made it work in the past. Really, it’s just how they carry it out on this here EP that makes it a bit of a disappointment.

In short, the first two tracks maintain their sizzle, but the latter two cool off somewhat. “H-G (Hunter Griller)” feels like the fullest Pit Lord song on here, given the audio clips that set up the whole barbecue metal thing they got going on, and the grooves have have subtle variations to remain fresh throughout to provide a meaty substance. “The Matter of Platter” drives the ship with its uptempo grooves, and its sub-3 minute length lets it strike hard and fast. These two songs are indicative of what Pit Lord are – extra thick grooves with a death metal edge. But then “Done as Shit” pops on and it’s… a bit like eating a well-done steak with no seasonings. It’s just some groove that has the basics down, but none of the fire or drive that Pit Lord are normally known for – and the same can be said for “Kill Step”. It’s weird because stylistically, they don’t really deviate from one another. Even execution-wise, it’s not like there’s some huge drop or anything – at least at an objective level. It’s just a lot of little things that make it feel like a right step down when compared to everything else that they’ve done.

Pit Lord’s a modern band I’ve developed an affinity towards, and maybe this EP really is just a stop-gap piece and the next big release will actually be this killer release like the others. Given the circumstances, I can’t come down on it too hard, especially since it did give us two good songs; still, the other two songs being decent at best does put a damper on the whole thing.