So Pitted – Neo – Album Review by Killian Laher

Every so often you need a bit of rage in your life. A means of reacting, a soundtrack for frustration, if you like. This debut album by Seattle trio So Pitted delivers accordingly – 11 gnarled howls over 28 minutes. Opener Cat Scratch absolutely barrels out of the speakers with pounding drums, rough guitars and Nathan Rodriguez’s warped, unintelligible vocals, like a muddy version of Nirvana’s Tourette’s. It’s followed by Pay Attention To Me, which you certainly will. If anything this track is even more visceral and more thrilling than the opener, Rodriguez bawling “YOU ROTTTT!!!!! Pay attention to me” Mudhoney-style as guitars rage all round. Play it loud enough and it’ll strip the paint off your walls.

The slower, slamming riffs of Woe and, later in the album, Feed Me are a change of pace, again evoking ghosts of Seattle’s past, as do the Bleach-ed out guitars of Holding the Void and breakneck pace of The Sickness. Don’t come here looking for lyrical profundity, unless lines “need you, want to, love to, feed you” (Feed Me) float your boat. In this context, they work perfectly before the barrage of guitars collapses in on itself. Mighty riffs abound on tracks like No Nuke Country and Rot In Hell, while elsewhere the primal roars of No Nuke country, I’m Not Over It and Rot In Hell will appeal to anyone who enjoyed last year’s METZ album.

There’s no let up in intensity on this album, and towards the end it gets a wee bit exhausting. Not an album you’ll want to listen to everyday, and certainly not the most original thing you’ll hear, but as a method of getting the pulse racing, this works brilliantly.

Track list –

1. Cat Scratch
2. Pay Attention To Me
3. Woe
4. Holding the Void
5. No Nuke Country
6. The Sickness
7. Feed Me
8. I’m Not Over it
9. Rot In Hell
10. Get Out of My Room
11. Chop Down That Tree

Rot In Hell: