Having formed just a couple of years ago, Death Pit are
young thrashers out of the United States. “Hell On Hallows Eve” was released on
Halloween this year, and is 9 tracks of some crossover/punk influenced thrash.
In fact, two of the songs on this release are punk covers. Though I know
nothing of punk, the cover of “Pet Sematary” was actually pretty impressive. The
originals are a mixed bag in terms of quality. Songs like “And There Was Blood”
and “Dying Will Be Your Destiny” have interesting melodies (in the case of the
former) and impressive vocal hooks (the latter). While none of the other songs
are outright bad, at times they feel underdeveloped. “Charles Lee Ray 2” doesn’t
even break 90 seconds, but it is like a barrage of vocals constantly shouted
with no attempt for coherency. Another somewhat frustrating moment is “Curse of
the Witch”; the song as a whole is on par with the stronger stuff, but there’s
a melody that is similar to Annihilator’s “Alison Hell” or Anthrax’s “Among The
Living”. In addition, this song has vastly different production to the
remainder of the album for some reason.
The sound of “Hell On Hallows Eve” is predictable, but that
certainly is not a bad thing. It’s hard to imagine the vocalist has any sort of
training or years of experience, but there’s no other way it should be in
crossover. It’s fitting that Death Pit’s singer sounds like a crazy man yelling
randomly. The guitar tone is surprisingly heavy, as it’s pretty crunchy. The
solos sound good, if a bit hectic, but definitely fit the EP. The drum fills in general have a proper sound, but when the double bass kicks in, such as in "Dying Will Be Your Destiny", it's noticeable how poor they really sound.
One thing aside from the music I’d like to say about this EP
is that it’s a bit disorganized. I have been given no indication of what the
track order is, nor was I informed of what the EP was even titled until I
looked it up myself. As a band, I would think doing promotion is the easy part,
so it definitely is a good idea to be able to present your music well in a PR
package. Maybe I enjoyed this in the right order, but maybe not. Either way,
good music does trump poor presentation, but if you’re a band looking to get
noticed, make it easy for those who can notice you to do so by presenting the
music well.
Highlights
"And There Was Blood"
"Dying Will Be You Destiny"
"Mobile Infantry
Final Rating
3.6/5 or 72%.