Bottomless Pit (album)

Bottomless Pit is the fifth studio album by experimental hip hop group Death Grips, released on May 6, 2016 through Third Worlds and Harvest Records.[3]

Bottomless Pit
Studio album by Death Grips
Released	May 6, 2016
Recorded	2015–2016
Studio	Sunset Sound Recorders[1]
Genre	Experimental hip hop digital hardcore[2]
Length	39:20
Label	Third Worlds Harvest
Producer	Death Grips
Death Grips chronology
Interview 2016 (2016) Bottomless Pit (2016) Steroids (Crouching Tiger Hidden Gabber Megamix) (2017)
Death Grips studio album chronology
The Powers That B (2015) Bottomless Pit (2016) Year of the Snitch (2018)
Singles from Bottomless Pit
"Hot Head" Released: February 6, 2016 "Eh" Released: May 5, 2016

Background

On October 21, 2015, the group uploaded a video to their YouTube page titled Bottomless Pit. It features footage from 2013 of the late American actress Karen Black reciting lines from a film script Zach Hill wrote months before her death. They also posted on their website and Facebook that this would be the title for their upcoming fifth official studio album.[4][5]

On February 6, 2016, Death Grips released a song called "Hot Head" from their upcoming album onto their SoundCloud and YouTube accounts.[6]

On March 18, 2016, the band published a Facebook post featuring the cover artwork for Bottomless Pit and the track listing.[7]

On April 19, 2016, the band announced a release date of May 6 via a Facebook post alongside a download link for a document containing lyrics for each track on the album.[8]

On April 29, 2016, the album was leaked in its entirety from the band's SoundCloud page via the website Reddit.[9]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.9/10[10]
Metacritic	80/100[11]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[12]
The Austin Chronicle	[13]
Consequence of Sound	B[14]
DIY	[15]
Exclaim!	8/10[16]
Pitchfork	8.1/10[17]
PopMatters	8/10[18]
Rolling Stone	[19]
Spin	8/10[2]
State	4/5[20]

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 80 based on 11 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[11]

Pitchfork wrote, "On their new album 'Bottomless Pit', they stitch together one of their most cohesive grotesques ever, renewing their focus on songcraft, rather than chicanery." Pretty Much Amazing described the album as "the best release from one of the most exciting artists of the 2010s",[21] while PopMatters stated, "Bottomless Pit will clearly not be for all hip-hop or punk fans, but it is impossible to deny that this album, just like the rest of the trio's catalog, is doing a much-needed service to both genres by experimenting with them in unimaginable ways."[18]

Rolling Stone ranked Bottomless Pit as the 51st best album of 2016.[22]

In media

Track number six, Bubbles Buried in This Jungle was used in Genre, Episode 5 of Season 3 of the television series Westworld.

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Giving Bad People Good Ideas"	3:07
2.	"Hot Head"	4:18
3.	"Spikes"	3:05
4.	"Warping"	2:54
5.	"Eh"	2:52
6.	"Bubbles Buried in This Jungle"	2:40
7.	"Trash"	2:52
8.	"Houdini"	2:44
9.	"BB Poison"	3:06
10.	"Three Bedrooms in a Good Neighborhood"	3:03
11.	"Ring a Bell"	2:26
12.	"80808"	3:16
13.	"Bottomless Pit"	2:55
Total length:		39:20

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Bottomless Pit.[23]

Death Grips

• MC Ride – vocals
• Zach Hill – drums, production
• Andy Morin – keyboards, production

Additional personnel

• Clementine Creevy – vocals (track 1)
• Nick Reinhart – guitar (all tracks), bass guitar (track 2)
• Geoff Neal – engineering
• Morgan Stratton – engineering

Charts

Chart (2016)	Peak position
US Billboard 200[24]	193

References

1. "nick reinhart on Twitter".
2. Reeves, Mosi (May 11, 2016). "Review: Come Test Death Grips and Get Sliced on 'Bottomless Pit'". Spin. Retrieved May 13, 2016.
3. Strauss, Matthew (2016-03-18). "Death Grips Detail New Album Bottomless Pit | News". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2016-03-18.
4. "Bottomless Pit". Death Grips. October 21, 2015. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
5. "Death Grips Announce 'Bottomless Pit' Album". Exclaim!. October 21, 2015. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
6. "Death Grips - Hot Head". YouTube. 2016-02-06. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
7. "Timeline Photos". M.facebook.com. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
8. "Death Grips - the digital release date for our new album... | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2016-04-19.
9. "zach here, your welcome. :: deathgrips". reddit.com. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
10. "Bottomless Pit by Death Grips reviews". AnyDecentMusic?. Retrieved October 20, 2019.
11. "Reviews for Bottomless Pit by Death Grips". Metacritic. Retrieved May 13, 2016.
12. Wacey, Rob. "Bottomless Pit – Death Grips". AllMusic. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
13. Spearman, Kahron (November 4, 2016). "Death Grips: Bottomless Pit (Third Worlds/Harvest)". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
14. Barry, Sean (May 6, 2016). "Death Grips – Bottomless Pit". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved May 13, 2016.
15. Jones, Craig (May 11, 2016). "Death Grips – Bottomless Pit". DIY. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
16. Slingerland, Calum (May 13, 2016). "Death Grips: Bottomless Pit". Exclaim!. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
17. Camp, Zoe (May 12, 2016). "Death Grips: Bottomless Pit". Pitchfork. Retrieved May 13, 2016.
18. Elone, Emmanuel (May 10, 2016). "Death Grips: Bottomless Pit". PopMatters. Retrieved May 13, 2016.
19. Weingarten, Christopher R. (August 1, 2016). "Review: Death Grips' 'Bottomless Pit' Sounds Like No Punk on Earth". Rolling Stone. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
20. Hamilton, Aaron (May 14, 2016). "Death Grips – Bottomless Pit". State. Archived from the original on May 14, 2016. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
21. Fowler, Luke (May 12, 2016). "Review: Death Grips, Bottomless Pit". Pretty Much Amazing. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
22. "50 Best Albums of 2016". Rolling Stone. November 28, 2016. Retrieved November 6, 2020.
23. Bottomless Pit (CD liner notes). Death Grips. Harvest Records. 2016.CS1 maint: others (link)
24. "Death Grips Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved May 18, 2016.