Top 25 Albums of 2018 #24
Pig Destroyer - Head Cage
Release Date: September 7th, 2018
Genre: Metalcore / Grindcore
For fans of: Converge, Nails, Ramming your head through a brick wall
Whenever my college roommate would walk into our apartment and hear any form of metal music wrecking its way through my laptop speaker he knew exactly what was up. “Got a lab report due this afternoon huh?”, “You know it, buddy”. It was my soundtrack to getting **** done. Ambient music may very well be my straight up favorite genre and I know a lot of people turn to that or something similar like classical or instrumental hip-hop for schoolwork or things of that nature, to me things like that just provide more opportunity to drift off and get distracted. There is no sense of urgency there that I desperately need to feel motivated. While I would usually stick to old school standard bearers like Megadeth and Maiden, with fast approaching deadlines, I often needed something much more in your face, and thus led me to my love for metalcore. The harshness and noisiness honestly stressed me out even more than I already was, and that was exactly the motivation I needed to get papers and projects submitted on time. Since those days have passed, I haven’t had much use for metal music, and other than my personal favorite, sub-genre darling Converge, whose albums I’ll spin from time to time, the majority of that corner of my library has remained unplayed. The past six months or so, I’ve been trying with varying success to rekindle my love for metal, and I’ve found the best way to do so is to just enjoy it for what it is and try to have fun with it with the pressure off. Lucky for me, Pig Destroyer released one of the most fun albums of 2018, regardless of genre, to help make that transition much easier for me.
Pig Destroyer is a band I’ve been vaguely familiar with since long before the days of trying to shatter my eardrums while finishing up my biology homework, but I definitely wasn’t open-minded enough to enjoy them in their heyday aside from saving a couple tracks I found bearable from Prowler in the Yard, just so I could throw around the fact they were in my library to make my music taste seem more unique and well-rounded, but I am aware of their status as patron saints of grindcore, and in my opinion one factor that makes a band one of the ‘best’ in their given genre is accessibility to those who aren’t necessarily fans of that genre. Now, some may disagree and harp against ‘entry-level’ albums, but sharing music with others is something super important to me, so that crossover appeal is something I always appreciate, and believe Pig Destroyer provide on Head Cage. (Clearly not everyone shares that sentiment, as the RateYourMusic page for this album is polluted with negative reviews by ‘true fans’)
Excluding the opener, which includes a spoken warning of what’s to come, and an unspoken one in that fact that it is literally just noise, Head Cage is a succinct <30 minutes of screams and squeals about how much we as a society have ****ed up and continue to **** up, layered over aggressive and chaotic riffs that will guarantee you have a good time and get amped up as hell, while confronting the fast and inevitable decline of our planet because of our own misdeeds. On ‘Army of Cops’, vocalist J.R. Hayes, goes bigger picture than just railing against the government, but more so the whole institution of law and order, but us little people don’t get off blameless as he shouts: “Nobody likes our direction / Yet we don’t turn around / Could it be that secretly / We like being kept down?” We’re all hypocrites, and I willingly accept that fact while banging my head to the repeated groovy guitar rhythm that makes this potentially the catchiest track on the album. This lyrical sentiment, and dare I say it, danceability(?), provided by the backing instruments is continued and turned up a notch on the following track, ‘Circle River’, my personal favorite. Hayes switches the perspective to that of ‘one of us’ and goes on about his apathy over continuing on the path to self-destruction all while the heavy and equally angry bassline keeps the listener engaged through another few minutes of deprecation. This is the theme that continues throughout the record’s runtime.
I’ve spent a little more time than I would have expected talking about the lyrics on a grindcore album, but if you’re one of those people who just considers the vocals another instrument for stuff like this, or don’t have the ear (or internet connection) for discerning the words sludged out by J.R., you’ll miss out on one of the weirder and funnier moments in music this year. On ‘The Adventures of Jason and Jr’, we get a break from the existential dread, and are transported into a story told by Hayes where on his way to a concert he has run-ins with Dick Cheney on a jetpack and a swedish lesbian commando team among other seemingly random references. Even if you’re reading this and have no intention of listening to the album, at the very least google the lyrics to this one, I promise you won’t be let down.
The album closer, ‘House of Snakes’, over twice as long as the second longest track, another story-song, though this one about a detective trying to solve a murder case. It doesn’t just differ lyrically either, as it is by far the least aggressive track on the album. It moves along at a significantly slower pace, and the grooviness of before is replaced by more technical, churning riffs. Head Cage contains a lot of train imagery throughout, and that comes full circle here with the feeling evoked by the bassline that remains unchanged throughout the final few minutes. We’re approaching our last stop, and as Hayes reaches the climax of his tale and comes face to face with the murderer (a talking snake), the music doesn’t fade out, but just abruptly turns to quiet static. We’ve arrived at our destination and its time to get off. The silence that comes out of nowhere is jarring and honestly a little uncomfortable. Its not every album that leaves me wondering “Ok, what do I do now?” once its over, but this one certainly does.
Overall, an exciting, wild ride that sucks you in and spits you back out on the other side. I think even those who aren’t fans of the genre can find something here, and this album will always hold a special place to me as one that got me “back in” to metal.
Overall Score: 7.6/10
Highlights: Army of Cops, Circle River