Death Grips is Back with ‘Bottomless Pit’

Death Grips are back from their self-imposed early retirement with Bottomless Pit, an announcement they made two years ago that was met with a mixture of skepticism, disappointment, and confusion — especially since the three-musician team of rapper MC Ride, drummer/producer Zach Hill, and coproducer Andy Morin has continued to put out albums and tour since that fateful and empty declaration. Bottomless Pit blasts into existence with the furious punk guitar glory of “Giving Bad People Good Ideas,” courtesy of Tera Melos guitarist Nick Reinhart. The energy of the album is frenetic throughout, but it tones down in tracks such as “Warping,” an ode to the lifelong shifting of personality and perspective, and “Eh,” a disarmingly vulnerable track where MC Ride digresses on the self-esteem problems that his larger-than-life persona and disdain for society at large often overshadow. The punk energy at the album’s start returns for the triumphant final track, “Bottomless Pit,” culminating another wild, fever-dream ride of a Death Grips album.