Meat Demons

Samples from movies, TV shows and what appears to be a beer and barbecue commercial go hand in hand with Pit Lord’s groovier approach to death metal to create a fun-loving death metal album. The grooves are smooth enough to follow and they certainly have their more fast-paced moments to keep things moving. It doesn’t exactly explode or anything – it’s pretty chill stuff, relatively speaking. Well, maybe “chill” isn’t the best way to describe a barbecue-themed band’s album; more like it’s slow cooked with a nice, smooth barbecue marinate. The production’s certainly beefy enough to give the riffs some real meat. Given its proclivity towards its grooves even during the faster segments, the songs wind up sounding quite chunky. Then you glaze the riffs with some raspy growls; at which point, end up with a real nice and juicy cut of meat.

I guess you could call Meat Demons a real meat and potatoes affair, which is appropriate for something like this. But the truth is that, between the samples and the various sendups of classic death metal titles, it’s an outwardly more fun affair. It’s the death metal equivalent of having a barbecue with some friends. “Stuffed Burgers” sums it up perfectly – it’s got an all-American barbecue commercial going on, and even the song proper is all about grilling some burgers up on the barbecue with some beers. Like, how can you say no to this? True, the instrumentation is as boneheaded as all get out and it doesn’t leave a lot to the imagination. Thankfully, the dedication to their barbecue-theming, coupled with the overall presentation, gives the album enough flavorings to be a rather delectable cut of meat.