Rotpit – Let There Be Rot

After a demo tape and single-track promo, of which a review can be found elsewhere on our VM-Underground pages, the trio that is Rotpit felt it was time for a full-length album. The previously released material was proof of the band being capable of writing some decent and solid old styled mid-paced Death Metal, while not being necessarily top of the league, these early recordings were enjoyable. Not in the least because of their short playing time, which actually definitely empowers the punchy energy of the songs. This new album clocks in just over half an hour, so I assume they read my review and took the free and valuable good advice.

Firs of all I must say that the “creative” language jokes in the genre are getting very old by now, the corners of your mouth don’t even curl anymore from titles like ‘Let There Be Rot’ or ‘Night Of The Ultimate Rot’. But apart from that, the Death Metal from Rotpit is pretty much doing what it was set out to do: bludgeon and crush its unsuspecting (?) listeners. While most of the tracks are mid-paced and heavily leaning on the groovy riffs, the band does throw in some powerful accelerations for the necessary variety, but does so without it going to the expense of the blunt force of the mighty riff.

Most of the bands in the genre are having difficulties to keep their mid-paced Death Metal interesting for the full ride of the playing time of their albums, that is not so much the case on ‘Let There Be Rot’. Not only because of the occasional, tasty blast beat or due to the flair of melody here and there but most of all it is because of the solid song writing skills of riffmeister Jonny Petterson (most notably known for his work in Wombbath) who is pulling off some of his best work so far.

When we’re also tackling the overall sound, we can conclude that it is a bit of a balancing act between an old school crunchy sound while also aiming for a moderate modern approach. At least it has both power and a crisp sound that gives the riff the power they deserve.

This means that ‘Let There Be Rot’ is a successful debut album, that actually turned out a lot better than I expected. The previously available recordings, of which all tracks re-appear on this album by the way, promised something decent, but honestly I was afraid it would really prove to be too monotonous and one-dimensional. Fortunately, you can be wrong and still be surprised. Now just get rid of those cheap song titles and it will all add up.