Death Grips really do defy expectations at every corner. Although over their half decade career the trio consisting of Zach Hill, Flatlander, and MC Ride have released copious amounts of music. Many people prior to this album gave off the impression that the band had peaked with their 2012 album, The Money Store. Others felt that there was no way they could better the second half of The Powers That B, Jenny Death. An album with so much fanfare around before the release that the fact that it was a rare occurrence in that it gave us a genuinely thrilling Rap-Rock album was a bonus.
Bottomless Pit has been a lot more straightforward; they merely announced it, released a single and then released the album on the actual date. Most of the anticipation for this album came from the fact that the final track on Jenny Death was entitled ‘Death Grips 2.0’, a song that was all instrumental and very challenging. Bottomless Pit does follow this clear progression but shows the trio dipping into their past albums.
This album follows Jenny Death in terms of style. They’ve taken the heavy live instrumentation mixed with MC Ride’s increasingly versatile performance in Rapping/yelling and made it much heavier. Not only that but at points this album is so confused and disjointed that it makes ‘Death Grips 2.0’ seem like a taster for the wonkiness of their compositions. The opening track to the album ‘Giving Bad People Good Ideas’ hears vocalist Clementine Creevy giving a brilliantly sweet-turned-sour performance before the track explodes into Black Metal instrumental with MC Ride’s signature vocals over the top. Death Grips make blatant Rap-Metal that completely tries to rewrite the horrible trend that made it the butt of every joke in the late 90s/ early 2000s.
The track that follows, ‘Hot Head’ is one of the most claustrophobic songs that Death Grips have ever made to listen to without becoming too uncomfortable and look to their past for inspiration. On albums like Niggas On The Moon, the claustrophobia can make the songs a headache to listen to, unlike The Money Store they knew when to let their claustrophobia open up into spacious chaos. We hear The Money Store influences on this track as they ease up on the disjointed electronics allowing the song to build into something huge as MC Ride grabs hold of a tangible hook.
Death Grips are embracing their instrumentation more full on but they’re allowing themselves room for MC Ride to breathe and allowing the same electronics to punctuate their sound like they always have. On ‘Ring A Bell’ there’s an incredible Space-Rock guitar riff over an incredible groove where the vocals slot in like a glove. On ‘Spikes’ they blend a downtrodden, catchy riff with electronic vocal blasts hollering back to their Exmilitary days.
In contrast to these songs that are to be added to the growing list of Death Grips anthems, there are much more low-key tracks as well as a more balanced mix of the harsh/soft songs. ‘Warped’ has Ride sounding drunk and slurred as he slowly tears himself apart within his lyrics. Whereas ‘Eh’ and ‘Trash’ both have MC Ride putting together raps containing standard flows with hushed vocal tones but still menacing.
MC Ride treads much of the same water as he always has in his lyrics. Their songs deal with self-loathing, vivid, violent imagery and lines that are consistently memorable for many reasons. They’re consistently used as memes within their interesting fan base, and continue to add fuel to the fire on this album. Some lyrics come across more genuinely than others – Ride belts “I’ll fuck you in half” on the title track and “Catch me hanging from my noose like Ehhhhh” on ‘Eh’, they come across as genuinely witty and interesting whereas “This asshole be a pussy turd” on ‘BB Poison’ is slightly over the top.
Although from one song to the next there’s a slight lack of cohesion, Bottomless Pit feels like Death Grips’ most complete project yet. This album unites all of the best parts of their previous music while adding levels of creativity to the blend genres as they continue to make music that’s genuinely weird, but refreshing. Like Jenny Death, it’s hard to see a way that they can top this as every project feels like a new career high. Death Grips are the only people who know if their more creativity to come from their project and judging by the fact that they said they’d break up if they felt the project had run its course, we must trust that there’s more to come.
