Album Review

Pig Destroyer
Terrifyer
Relapse Records, 2004
32:16

Listen to Pig Destroyer - Thumbsucker

There’s not much wiggle room in grindcore. Songs are a minute or more on average, the music is frenetic and fast incorporating blast beats and shredding guitars and the vocals are generally indecipherable high pitch squeaks. However one band that breaks the mould of the conventions bestowed before them by the likes of Napalm Death and Brutal Truth is the Virginian triplet Pig Destroyer. What makes this even more incredible is they don’t have a bassist.

Grindcore is a musical oddity by itself wherein it may come across as noisy and irritating to some, polished and intelligent to others, however it has been lauded as one of the most technically intricate and complex forms of heavy metal. These days it is difficult to create a sound instantly recognisable and truly unique, but regardless of how you view Pig Destroyer they have seemingly accomplished this and much much more.

A departure from their previous effort, 2001’s Prowler in the Yard, which boasted old school thrash metal with subtle hardcore influences and Vocalist J.R. Hayes borderline demented poetry, the band has spent three years meticulous perfecting and crafting this album, which sees 21 songs race past in about 32 minutes. While there are some similarities to its predecessor, most notably the tormented but poetic lyrical themes, and Guitarist Scott Hull’s chugging beatdowns, everything has been improved upon. The production is crisper, the riffs are more infectious, the drumming is phenomenally fast and the vocals, dare I say it, are more sadistic and morbid than I had thought possible.

Opening with the ironically titled Intro, you can hear the subtle drips of water over a doomy atmospheric backdrop. Then out of nowhere... echoed footsteps climb in frequency and volume until a blood curdling scream perforates your eardrums. When I first heard this years ago, I was scared ****less, and this is only 40 seconds into the album. Right off the bat it smacks into Pretty in Casts, defined by highly technical time sequenced drumming with overlayed 7-string riffing. It is an aural explosion, but Pig Destroyer make it appear controlled and even somewhat catchy.

With every song transitioning seamlessly from one to the next, Thumbsucker just might be the albums mini-opus. At a minute and a half the song starts with grindcore, moves into death metal and ends with a hardcore tinged breakdown incorporating the blast beating of drummer Brian Harvey, chugging guitar and vocalist Hayes shrieking “So punish me for weakness, blame me for everything/I don't like the suffering I like the sympathy it brings”. If you haven’t acquainted yourself with the pure aggression, noise and ferocity of the music by now Sourheart will quickly overwhelm you with its breakneck speed yet groovy guitars, complimentary timed/synched drumming and perhaps the most inhuman opening scream I have ever heard.

The albums longest track, clocking in at three and a half minutes is Towering Flesh. This song is notable because no other track on the album sounds anywhere near this. Beginning with the proficient blast beats grind is known for the song takes a turn towards death metal around half way, building to a crescendo of groove guitar and double kicking before easing into an almost lullaby bridge with an eerie J.R Hayes reciting poetry for mental patients, “Her lips are wet with venom, her posture's serpentine/she'll touch my arm and flowers grow their poisonous and obscene” The song then explodes into a mind melting riff and plummets down with a brutal chugging breakdown.

One thing I noticed while listening to this album is the sheer diversity between the songs and perhaps the most intricate and creative lyricist I’ve ever experienced in extreme metal. J.R. Hayes lyrics convey the emotional underpinnings of thoughts on obsession, lust, rejection and hate in a truly dark and astonishingly interesting way. Notable mentions include themes of unwanted attachment in Boy Constrictor, “Cut my lips off see the lacerations grin/I'm a student of obsession you taught me everything I know” betrayal in Torture Ballad, “The tape across your mouth says more than your words ever could” loss of love interest in Carrion Fairy, “She used to be so radiant so sexy when she laughed/Now her eyes look like gravesites as she speaks in epitaphs” and a self-destructive relationship in the miniature epic Downpour Girl, “I want her to drown me in her poison, I thought she was sewing up my wounds...But she was really planting tumours inside.” It is definitely disturbing and an unnatural way of depicting events, but there’s something oddly fascinating about sick misogyny.

The albums concludes with the title track Terrifyer, a fitting yet diverse ending to an epic album. Harvey's blast beats and double kicks layer upon one another, raising your mood higher untill Hull's slow, groovy and doom-like guitar sends it all crashing back down into oblivion as he chuggs away into obscurity.

Overall Terrifyer is best experienced as a whole, and im sure that’s what the band intended the experience to encompass. Every track has its own distinct character and style and blends so flawlessly into one another. Pig Destroyer has created an opus so inconceivable that most bands their age would exhibit pure envy. The production, done completely by Hull is unabashedly raw and has helped define and develop the band’s sound further since their debut. This is one of the rare albums that I actually felt drained both physically and emotionally after my first listen, and every time I throw it on it still sends shivers down my spine. In a genre where it is increasingly hard to find originality and talent amid certain restraints Pig Destroyer have created a gem that will continue to sound as fresh and encompassing as the first time you played it. Open your mind and allow yourself to be terrified.