"mass and volume"
Year: 2006
Label: Relapse
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 2
Time: 25 min.
Genre: electronic
Style: Experimental
Recorded by Shannon Follin and Scotty O'Toole, December, 2006 at Omega Studios. Written and recorded during the final day of the Phantom Limb sessions. 3,100 copies pressed on clear green vinyl, another 300 on green splatter and 100 on clear.
"theoctagonal stairway"
Year: 2020
Label: Relapse
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 7
Time: 30 min.
Genr: rock
Style: Grindcore
Trying times calls for trying music, and there are few bands more up to the task than Pig Destroyer. Their name alone conjures images of bloodied swine corpses or maniacal abattoir workers taking pleasure in their meat-murder. Alongside godfathers Napalm Death, the Virginian five-piece are one of grindcore’s most notorious bands, pushing the boundaries of extremity to their limit over the past two decades. Their most recent full-length – 2018’s Head Cage – added a more metallic flavour to the violence, and now, with this new stopgap EP, PD explore the benefits of electronic warfare.
It’s an interesting move to split a six-track record into two halves, especially when the whole EP is less than 30-minutes and one of those tracks is an interlude, but there are two distinct moods at play. The first is one of abject grind savagery while the latter removes the riffs to become something wholly more sinister.
It should be noted that Pig Destroyer completists may have heard some of these songs before. The title track comes from a 2013 Adult Swim release, while The Cavalry and Cameraman were released last year as singles. Here though, they fit the cohesive jigsaw of depravity.
As opener The Octagonal Stairway eerily whirrs into action, the punishment begins. Crushing with all the might of The Hulk at his greenest, a flurry of blast beats and chainsaw riffs ensnare the senses with drums that bore into your soul, rampaging at a rate of knots that doesn’t falter for next two songs. The Cavalry is a lean, mean, grinding machine, with all its fat trimmed to be a turbocharged pummelling that still finds a headbanging groove; ducking and diving through thrashing metal, Ministry-esque industrial electronics and Kaoss Pad antics. Cameraman calls an end to the first half, piling on and peeling back layers to disorientate while the grind ploughs forward.
Interlude New Channel 6 doesn’t offer much respite from the record’s oppressive nature, as a newsreader reels off headlines about New Orleans being under water and LA being on fire, before taking an even darker turn as the anchor instructs us to ‘Be ashamed of everything that’s ever happened, it’s your fault’ while thick industrial builds below. It’s certainly not The One Show.
Head Cage – taken from the title of their previous record, although it didn’t appear – is like something straight from a horror movie as warped spoken-word ricochets against digital rain and pounding drums in hypnotic fashion. But it’s the eleven-minute finale that truly captures Pig Destroyer’s new penchant for noise.
With “field, ambient, noise and drum machine” provided by one Iggor Cavalera of Cavalera Conspiracy, Sound Walker’s initial bass pulses strike at the back of your cranium. The menacing, echoing vocals twist and buckle under the weight of the brooding, throbbing electronics, like listening to a lecture while falling down a rabbit hole. It’s not really music, more of an avant-garde experiment that would soundtrack an art installation of grainy war crime footage on loop. The vinyl version of the EP dedicates Side B entirely to this track, no doubt with many copies going unflipped after the first attempt as it’s an uncomfortable journey for those who just want to throw down. But it’s evidence, yet again, that Pig Destroyer are still one of the world’s most sadistic bands, and they don’t even need guitars to prove it (*Review by Luke Morton ).
Year: 2018
Label: Nuclear Blast
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 12
Time: 30 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Grindcore
"book burner"
Year: 2012
Country: US
City: Washington, D.C.
Label: Relapse
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 19
Time: 31 min.
Style: Grindcore
When Pig Destroyer frontman J.R. Hayes snarls “They’re coiled on the
chairs, they’re crawling down the stairs, they’re squirming everywhere”
on “House of Snakes,” Head Cage’s monstrous closer, it genuinely sounds
like he’s mentally unraveling. It’s frightening in a way that only Pig
Destroyer can be. The seminal grindcore quintet is still capable of
producing such visceral, emotionally gut-wrenching sounds 21 years after
their formation; it's a testament to the band’s profound strengths.
With moments this memorable, it’s impossible not to give Head Cage an
earnest recommendation, despite its rougher edges. Head Cage is probably
not the record fans were expecting, but the new territory it charts is
so resoundingly that one can’t help but be enthralled. Yes, there are
undeniable faults, but Head Cage is nonetheless proof that 21 years
later, Pig Destroyer is still one of metal and hardcore punk most
celebrated creative forces for a damn good reason, that’s more than
anyone could’ve reasonably asked for. Score: 8/10
Discogs , Download
"book burner"Year: 2012
Country: US
City: Washington, D.C.
Label: Relapse
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 19
Time: 31 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Grindcore
"phantom limb"
Year: 2007
Label: Relapse
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 15
Time: 30 min.
Pig Destroyer was formed by guitarist Scott Hull aside from his other major grindcore band Agoraphobic Nosebleed. The reason for forming Pig Destroyer is to bring back what "grindcore should be". The explanation behind the name of the band was a story in which the members were waiting in line to go on a roller coaster when they were thinking of the "most absurd punk rock name they could come imagine." They thought of Cop Killer and Cop Destroyer, but then thought of Pig Destroyer; a less-obvious name than the other two. At the time they were more political and it made the most sense to them, but now they claim it's just the name of the band. For a very long period of time, Pig Destroyer never had a bass player, nor did they use bass in their music. They went without a bass player in their entire career up until October of 2013 where John Jarvis was incepted into the band. Before 2013, the only ever exception was the recording of a live gig with a bass player for the bonus part of their song "Terrifyer". Contrary to popular belief, Scott Hull did not collaborate with Tribes of Neurot on the album "Static Migration" under the pseudonym "Walking Time Bombs", this pseudonym was used by Pain Teens guitarist Scott Ayers. Shortly before Pig Destroyer formed, JR Hayes and Scott Hull were in the band Treblinka together - the lineup completed by Mason (Enemy Soil), Jeff Kane (City of Caterpillar), and Eric Kane (Strike Anywhere). They played one show at Club Soda (Washington DC) in 1997 opening for Assuck before splitting up.
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"phantom limb"Year: 2007
Label: Relapse
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 15
Time: 30 min.
