UMUR
"Terrifyer" is the 3rd full-length studio album by US grindcore act Pig Destroyer. The album was released in October 2004 by Relapse Records. "Terrifyer" features an audio disc with 21 tracks and a DVD disc with the 37:55 minutes long track "Natasha" mixed in 5.1 Surround Sound.
The music style on the 21 tracks on the audio disc is grindcore of the most filthy and aggressive kind. Seldom have I heard a more out and out mean and violent vocal delivery. Screaming, distorted and demented. The band is a three-piece but still manage to create enough sound to blow everything to pieces. There´s no bass player on the album so it´s only guitar, drums and vocals. There´s something relentlessly aggressive, sick and vile about "Terrifyer". Both the music, the vocals, the imagery, the lyrics and the production ( with little low because of the lack on bass, it´s very hard sounding and distored) makes this album quite an unpleasant experience. All tracks on the audio part of the album are short grindcore tracks ( the longest being "Gravedancer", with its 3 minutes playing time) but the tracks feature other things than blasting. Pig Destroyer understand the importance of variation and while it´s still hard to tell most of the songs apart even after many listens there are actually some good variation on the album ( well relatively, we are after all talking about a grindcore release), both when talking pace in the songs, but also when talking musical ideas.
The DVD part of "Terrifyer" features one 37:55 minutes long track called "Natasha" mixed in 5.1 Surround Sound. If you feel exhausted after listening to the 21 track, 32:17 minutes of caustic and noisy grindcore on the audio disc, "Natasha" is more or less the counterpart to that experience. It´s a long slow sludgy track with long atmospheric and ambient sections. Personally I would have prefered to have the track in a "regular" audio format, but it´s obvious the band wanted their fans to experience "Natasha" this way. It´s an interesting track, but some of the ambience is drawn out a bit too long for my taste.
"Terrifyer" is something as rare as an aestethic grindcore release. I know that may sound all artsy and whimsical, but I can assure you that while Pig Destroyer have put an effort in creating a release where everything from the lyrics, to the imagery to the format have been given a lot of thought, the actual music is still filthy, noisy and aggressive to the max. There are days when the distorted screaming vocals and the in your face distorted production are a bit too much for my ears, but the days when "Terrifyer" really click with me, there´s not doubt it´s one of the most unique grindcore releases out there and I´m completely engulfed by the depravity and the demented nature of the album. A 4 star rating is fully deserved.