Out of the murky depths of the DIY metal label Road to Masochist comes Plague Pit's "A Whispered Curse."  The UK-based quintet delivers a short EP of "necrotic death metal" or whatever the hell anything is called nowadays. Plague Pit is a fairly new band, having only a demo, a single, and this EP under their belt. Four tracks, sixteen minutes, and a promise of some heavy stuff is on the way with "A Whispered Curse."

The lead single is also the first track of the project. "The Seventh Bell" opens eerily, riffs relentlessly, and dances on the lines of black and death metal. Thall-like atmosphere fills the song when it starts to slow down, and it stays slower for most of it's duration. For an under three-minute song, it sure does explore different sounds and segments, showing a knowledge of song structure and pacing. This track was released with a visualizer on the official Road to Masochist YouTube channel, and it sits near the top of Plague Pit's most streamed songs. It's nothing absolutely mind-blowing, but it gets the job done well.

Song two now. "Womb of Orchids" introduces a slam-sounding snare into the mix that pummels away and away. The vocals adopt a black metal register that actually fits pretty well with the instrumentation - I usually have issues with modern death metal and higher register vocals. Hardcore elements appear, as some beatdown hardcore grooves shove their way into the track. Not necessarily a slam, but still a down-tuned "umph" of music. The song slowly fades out with some ethereal-sounding ambience and what sounds like coins falling on a hardwood floor. An interesting approach, but I'll welcome it.

Third up is "The Weeping God," which is a short song that barely crosses two and a half minutes. There's no room for atmosphere building here. Like the rest of the songs, a metallic wash of sound eventually takes over the separate sounds of instruments and just cloaks you in noise. The song is a direct gateway to -

- Song four, a.k.a. the title track. Beefy bass starts the barrage of Plague Pit. The guitars have time to nestle into the song, as feedback and dark-sounding chords accompany each other before the slow, plodding screams and pounding drums return. They again get set aside near the end of the song for more sci-fi ambience. A weird choice the first time, so not sure why we needed fifty more seconds of it.

There are some questionable choices made on this EP for sure. The mixing is metallic, which overtakes the band sometimes. It works for the genre, but is a bit overbearing at times where I'd prefer to hear other elements of Plague Pit's music. The other bit I'm still not sure about are the ambient bits. This is one album where quiet parts are not a strength, and the EP would be better off if the slow, dreary parts and the blistering fast parts were the only two types of parts. A fifty second outro? Did we run out of riffs?  This is a shorter review as this EP was only four songs, and while it wasn't bad at all, and I enjoyed the mix of metal with hardcore-sounding elements, I want more from Plague Pit in the future.