Seasonings in the Abyss

Deciding to upsize their grill, Seasonings in the Abyss sees Pit Lord serve up a full course meal of burgers, steaks, ribs and snags – and don’t forget the beers! Alongside the odd media clip – usually related to barbecuing but sometimes more butcher-related – are some nice thick, juicy riffs. The kind of riffs that melt right in your mouth. Mixing it up between eating contest-thick grooves and some faster tremolo-esque riffs, Pit Lord ultimately end up cooking up some dumb, fun songs that go well with some beers. Across the board, each song goes off this massive groove and then intersperses into more death metal compositions, with faster drums further stoking the charcoal rocks and the faster riffing adding that perfect sear to them. Sometimes, it kicks off a bit faster, settling more into a relatively rapid-fire groove, but more often than not, it’s a mid-paced one that’s thick and juicy.

The thing with Pit Lord here is that, for the most part, they have this real meat and potatoes approach that they maintain throughout the whole album. On one hand, it’s like if you compartmentalized Dying Fetus’ sound into its bare essentials – namely, the grooving. It’s definitely got a more boneheaded approach to it. Just flat out “here’s the groove; here’s the death metal bit; here’s maybe a similar groove that builds onto that main groove”. But on the other, Pit Lord make it into their own, which is kinda rare in modern metal. The lower-end, chunky production bolster up these riffs into something meaty, and the clips add a more fun-loving glaze to the meat and potatoes. Hell, even the vocals – going between some medium-well growls and searing higher growls – add a rather delectable flavor to it. The lower range does come across more comical, sounding like somebody kinda imitating a death metal vocalist, although it’s got enough charm to it to work with the less serious music. That being said, the higher range is fairly good on its own terms, with more power behind them to really offset the lower end.

It’s not to say that it’s all meaty grooves. “Grill Marks” has a hazier and more harmonized riff towards the end that adds a pretty cool flavor to the slab; “Skewers of Madness” have those gang shouts that are honestly out of place; and “Spiritual Black Digestions” has this full-on Mayhem-like tremolo going on throughout. In fact, the latter track definitely stands out the most on this album as it’s the least like the typical Pit Lord song. It’s got its chunky grooves, but it’s more about those tremolos and haunting choirs. Though it’s not to say that being different is always enough to stand out. “In Their Darkened Brines” could’ve been a big deal of sorts since it’s an instrumental, but given it is instrumentally similar to the other songs and even the slightly twisty riff towards the end does little to change up that dynamic, it’s more like they just didn’t add vocals to the song. It’s about the only real chink in their armor on this album – not that the vocals are fantastic by any means, but they do complete the overall package better than the exclusion of them do.

Look, “Propane Creation” basically sums up Seasonings in the Abyss and Pit Lord as a whole – dumb grooves with more than enough gusto to be eminently fun and compelling, and King of the Hill clips from the George Foreman episode to add appropriate humor to it. The title’s a play on the Bolt Thrower song “Profane Creation”, and it’s about barbecuing with propane. But is Pit Lord a novelty act like how Hank Hill considered George Foreman grills? Given the EPs, it would seem like they’re at least a more one-dimensional act, albeit one that pulls it off well. But with Seasonings in the Abyss’ longer runtime and extended song count, it’s safe to say that… they’re still a largely one-dimensional act, but as much as the barbecue theme can come across as a gimmick, it actually complements their meaty style of play. Basically, this ain’t one of them novelty grills!