Lovecraftian dread, post-millennium aggression and Scandinavian rhythmic ideation still fuel the muscle memory of revived and restated Querétaro, Mexico-based death metal quintet The Pit fifteen years beyond their first full-length album, now presenting an admirable second tier of refinement on this particularly taut and barreling sophomore release. ‘Of Madness and Evil Whispers‘ revives old ghosts with new sacrificial rites, interring the spirit of old (but not ancient) craft while essentially resolving the sophisticated melodicism of romanticist-era Swedish death metal with the excess bullying of the decade plus beyond advent. What initially reads as a throwback to a set of jumbled ideals ultimately focuses into an impressive tunnel downward, a spiral which skirts total plunge into the abyss by holding fast to the tuneful, experiential value inherent to the high standards for early 90’s death metal while maintaining their own path far beyond.

The Pit formed circa 2004 between folks who’d been involved in the early line-up of Profanator, soon landing upon a style that was similarly focused on an extreme form of thrash metal which was heavily influenced by the late 90’s style of groove metal influenced melodic death. Their first release was a split LP (‘Mechanical Jaws Invasion‘, 2006) with fellow Querétaro-area thrashers Piraña and while the general idea was more-or-less there in terms of intensity the closest thing to what we’d find on their debut full-length (‘Disrupted Human Symmetry‘, 2008) was the cover of Dismember‘s “Misanthropic” tacked onto the end. Their first LP flipped the script by leading with a semi-melodic Scandinavian death metal sound which’d been kicked harder into gear via late 80’s thrash metal brutality. The major goal was an admixture of impressive speed and clever use of melodic tracts of riff to stand out, thoughtful yet always full-blast semi-melodic death/thrash metal. If you are familiar with Cenotaph‘s ‘Saga bélica‘ that was the general feeling, or, ratio of thrashing melodic death and aggression though the Unanimated-esque aspect of that band’s approach doesn’t apply to The Pit, who were more influenced by the next generation of that style.

Though we could still generally set The Pit within the realm of “brutal”-yet-melodic death metal per similarly Dismember‘d groups like Intestine Baalism today their approach has broadened its horizons beyond extreme thrash and classic death metal in the gap, er, the fifteen year void between releases. Their return circa 2019 has thus far been spent acclimating to a new drummer and a different second guitarist while getting back to work on the band and this seems to have contributed to the greater sense of wizened dynamism in their work, especially in terms of pacing; ‘Of Madness and Evil Whispers‘ still confronts the listener with their ancient muscle memory in terms of compositions which feels rooted in the late 90’s groove (see: the very ‘The Fourth Dimension‘-era Hypocrisy style chugging of “A Desolation Sign”) but expands upon what that means with a sound that occasionally feels like it’ll break into something akin to Serpens Aeon here and there (see: “Catacomb’s Vermin”) as they’ve incorporated a fleeter-footed, Nile-esque verve to round out their attack without losing sight of Swedish style death metal entirely.

Unlike The Pit‘s debut they’ve put some work into making sure this second album is a ride rather than a straight blast through. The best songs on ‘Of Madness and Evil Whispers‘ stick to their intense pacing for effect, creating a spectacle of their aggression much in the way that early Swedish death metal did by focusing on the tunneled-at riff. The wide-eyed shouts and hammered-at finesse of the drums which frame opener “Visions of Doom Revealed” present some stylistic uncertainty up front, threatening to break into a straight up melodeath riff as they veer into the piece but never quite doing it. This turns out to be a substantial indication of the experience and its appeal, constantly implying a melodic turn but delivering riffs instead, especially on the very driven set of songs that make up Side A. “Eyeless God of Death” is probably the peak, or the best representation of The Pit‘s sound at its most focused but I couldn’t necessarily pick any one particular song that covers all bases.

The Pit‘ve nailed a high standard here on their second album and it all works as a full listen even when certain songs don’t land as tuneful, or memorable as others. The middle of the album (“A Desolation Sign”, “Aeons of Hate”) eventually began to feel a bit plain compared to the pieces which surround it and I’d eventually found myself checking out ’til “Catacomb’s Vermin” took me back in. To their credit the last ten minutes of the record are on par with the first ten, the whole thing holds up well even if there are a few dips in my own interest along the way; After listening to this record over the course of a couple of weeks I did eventually grasp the vision at hand, a reasonably ambitious attempt at a the well-rounded ideation of death metal where ventures into cavernous brutality and thrashing semi-melodic touches all work together as complimentary parts. Although the groove oriented riff-fest of it all becomes increasingly dense in its initial read, often feeling jumbled in terms of its overall tone, there was no question that the quality inherent to the experience complimented its extreme density. A moderately high recommendation.

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