The first time I decided to listen to Lay Down Rotten’s new album, Reconquering The Pit, I had the worst headache that I'd had in months. Given the nature of Lay Down Rotten's uncompromising style of music why I chose to listen to it at that particular time I’ll never know; the fact that I enjoyed it so much however speaks volumes. 

The album starts with a short instrumental intro before heading into the title track, which sets the band's stall out and lets you know exactly what is to follow.  For the record Lay Down Rotten's style of death metal is, in places, reminiscent of Scar Symmetry without the melodic vocals whilst in other places the heavier side of Opeth springs to mind, especially on “Bitter Thoughts”.

Actually it's difficult to single out tracks as individual entities as it's all pretty similar throughout. There are, of course, the ubiquitous powerful death growls over the heavy chugging guitars with some great riffs, listen to “Demons Breed” and you'll see what I mean. You can almost feel how they the songs will play out in the live environment as you cannot help but to start nodding your head to most, if not all of the band's efforts here. With such a tried and tested formula Lay Down Rotten rarely feel the need to change the pace or their approach although in the main that isn't really a problem, they do however throw in some impressive guitar solos at times to break up the incessant riff attack; “Sound Of Breaking Bones” being the prime example. 

Lay Down Rotten may not be reinventing the wheel and Reconquering The Pit is unlikely to be anyone’s album of the year, but what they do, they do very well. If you are a fan of death metal then you could do a lot worse than check this album out. 

Let us know your views on Reconquering The Pit

Track Listing

Anarchic Outburst
Reconquering The Pit
Sound Of Breaking Bones
Bitter Thoughts
New Mechanic Human Phenomena
Demons Breed
Nihil
Unholy Alliance
All Of This Pain

Line Up

Daniel Jakobi- Guitar/Vocals
Jost Kleinert - Vocals
Nils Förster - Guitar
Uwe Kilian - Bass
Timo Claas - Drums