James

That just may be the worst album artwork in existence. Packed full with cliches about Heavy Metal artwork and overall just unpleasant to look at. But for your own sake do not let that put you off this album. "Grindcore? Wtf is Grindcore? That sounds stupid" I used to say, even the name sounded like something awful that was only admired by frat-boys, scene kids or extreme metalheads. I put this past me and checked out Napalm Death's Scum. It was a good album, started off great but dragged on towards the end, so I didn't pay it much attention. I hadn't heard much about anyother Grindcore artists. Then while lurking someone's Last Fm. a few months ago, I noticed they had a lot of plays from Pig Destroyer, I had nothing better to do so I downloaded Prowler In The Yard and Phantom Limb.

As Prowler In The Yard began there's a Stephen Hawking style computer voice. The first thing that struck me about this was the complexity and beauty of the lyrics for a Grindcore release, especially one with such cheesy artwork and band name. This was my first clue that this was more than your average Grindcore. The Jennifer lyrics are below.

"Jennifer wrestled her friend playfully to the ground
in front of the snowcone stand and began licking at the
girls eyeballs, as if they were sugar cubes.
Their bodies convulsed and flailed with an almost seizure
like intensity.
At times their pale limbs seeming to shift back and forth
from one torso to the other.
A crowd gathered almost immediately to watch these two
girls tie and untie their bodies like a pair of pit-vipers.
They were confused, or concerned, or
shocked, or aroused, or all of the above.
But no-one dared interfere with the performance.
Jennifer's long ashen hair hung down concealing the girls face
like a curtain around a hospital bed.
No one had any idea that the girls eyes were revolving
under her ruby tongue.
"This is disgusting, it's pornography"
exclaimed a pasty slut white woman in a fur coat,
vanilla ice-cream smeared across her double chin like a money shot.
Counting a balding professor type in his
mid-forties, his left hand stuffed crassly down the
front of his pants "No, no, no. This is beautiful,
this is art.""

I mean come on, they'e some of the best lyrics I've ever heard. Intense, creative, original and honest lyrics. The lyrics here are an effective comparison for the release itself. Some may find this music disgusting, ugly and monstrous, but for others it is beauty, it is art and it is fascinating. The album only gets better from here, it's a rare example of an album which is very backloaded and increases in quality all the way through. One of the interesting things about Pig Destroyer is the absence of bass on their albums. While I find the bass to be my favourite instrument and I even play it I must say this works in favour to Pig Destroyer's overall sounds. It makes their music seem more chaotic, intense and dare I use a cliche, brutal.

Pig Destroyer throughout the next 15 or so tracks really changed my opinion on Grindcore. Rivetingly fast and crazy tracks that are fun but have deep, emotional and honest lyrics to follow that up. But once you reach the end of the album, that is where your mind is truly blown, the last two tracks are some of the most intense, building and all around awesome songs i've ever heard, from any genre. It's with these two tracks that Pig Destroyer surpassed the cheesy name, genre and artwork and became an admirable group of musicians that I would visit time and time again. The short and sweet Junkyard God with some of the heaviest drumming you will hear followed by the long and brooding Piss Angel . Piss Angel just seems to grow and grow and get better and better, they mind bending guitar riff crawling into your ears and massaging them with the talent and creativety of Pig Destroyer . For me this song is their magnum opus.

In retrospect Pig Destroyer are a band which surpass the grindcore genre(one genre which I certainly don't like the execution of, or the name) and create fascinating and interesting fast paced heavy music, with genuinely well thought out lyrics(rare for this type of music) to fall back on. I would certainly recommend.