Death Pill

Two years on from their sensational debut, Ukrainian ‘Riot Grrls’ Mariana, Anastasiia and Nataliia, aka Death Pill are back.

And back in full force, locked and loaded with a mighty set of tunes, … as they put it. ‘A bold exploration of personal empowerment’. ‘SOLOGAMY’ is fierce, heavy and melodic. The album’s 10 tracks mark a bold evolution in the band's sound and Death Pill really deliver with ferocity and belief through multiple gear changes and genres as if it were easy. Hardcore, punk, grunge, thrash, riot grrrl, emo, are just some of the touchstones this album moves through, and all with the accomplished ferocity and memorable melody the band introduced on their debut. There are cellos, piano’s, sound effects and ornate arrangements that open out their sonic palette, there’s a bit of pop and even a bit of prog. But rest assured … It's all pure ‘Death Pill’.

Thematically, ‘Sologamy’ is, at its core, a celebration. Kicking off with ‘Listen To Me Sister’. A metal thrashing, bass drum pummelling, snarling statement of intent. A bag of riffs n’ grooves punctuated by one line of 'call-to-arms' vocal. It totally kicks ass. The pedal stays firmly rooted to the floor with the nasty but hooky hardcore of ‘Haters Gonna Hate’ before the fuzzy, sardonic grunge groove of ‘Ugly Me’ settles the pace. Only temporarily, because ‘Craterface’s thrash metal puts things firmly back in face melter territory.

At this point it must be said that the playing and musicianship and singing on this album is top drawer. Mariana certainly delivers the goods, doing spit and snarl and clean and melodic with equal aplomb. ‘Don’t Say It So’ is as catchy as it gets, an almost anthemic slice of grunge, which set the scene for ‘Phone Call’ , probably the most accessible Death Pill track to date, it’s a brilliant slice of … well … pop. You might call it 'pissed off pop’ something Green Day or Foo Fighters wished they’d written … a new genre if ever there was one. And it’s at this point in the album where Death Pill really open it out. ‘Hey Man’ with it’s melodic guitar/cello intro and super hooky pop sensibility is followed by the frankly crazy ‘Monsters’. An off kilter hardcore-prog psycho nutcase story for Generation Z. It ups the ante on the single version released last year.

But perhaps the trio have left the best till last, with 2 connected songs. ‘Outro’ has an almost progressive post metal vibe, twisting and turning but always (and this is one of this album’s trademarks) delivering pure earworms tunes. Complete with an almost baroque middle section and sound fx it segues into ‘Pro Yarika’s piano led opening. Which in turn explodes into proper nastycore with a great chorus. Cinematic in its scope it’s a fitting finale to a mighty second album, signalling that from this point on, Death Pill can go anywhere they choose to.