Best of 2007 - #9

9. pig destroyer - 'phantom limb'
[review published on issue #78 of LOUD! magazine, translated and slightly adapted for too.many.records.]
The incessant racket that was Pig Destroyer's previous album 'Terrifyer', had a accompanying counterpoint to it, the mysterious DVD-audio that contained one single sinister, slow and oppressive 37-minute song called 'Natasha', for which you needed even more stomach to listen to in its entirety than for the album itself. Aware of the effect that these contrasts provoked in their listeners (or victims?), Pig Destroyer have on 'Phantom Limb' a sort of mix of both. Of course, the minute-and-a-half insane discharges are present and accounted for, but roughly half the songs here are over three minutes long, showing a complexity and different arrangements that make the record a much more intimidating whole than the constant grind of yore. Expect no mercy, however. Everything hits you, and it hits you hard. Harder than before, even - as the dynamics improved, the fast parts are much faster and project an even greater image of uncontrolled insanity, and their effect is much more pronounced because of the contrast with those bits when everything becomes sicker, slower and you go back to that dark room that was 'Natasha'. It's not pretty at all, and with a new fourth member hired just to wreak havoc on samples and electronics, it gets even uglier, which is obviously the point. Vocalist J.R. Hayes is a liberated monster, belting out his penetrating lyrics mixing esoteric lyricism with visceral gore like few have done this side of Dax Riggs and sharpening these songs beyond what's reasonable. Pig Destroyer were already at the top of the grindcore 'hierarchy', but judging by all the territories this album visits, soon you'll have to mention them on the death metal hierarchy, as well as doom's, and devil knows what else. No need to go into petty discussions about best songs and whatnot. It's all a merciless beating from beginning to end, and you'd have to be crazy to endure it all. Fortunately, we all are, a bit.

Pig Destroyer - 'Thought Crime Spree'