siLLy puPPy The PIGS must be DESTOYED! And PIG DESTROYER is here to do the job. PIG DESTROYER formed back in 1997 after J.R. Hayes (Enemy Soil, guitarist Scott Hull (Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Japanese Torture Comedy Hour, Anal Cunt) and drummer John Evans decided to get together and making some freekin’ noise! After releasing a demo and split with Orchid in 1997, they unleashed their debut album EXPLOSIONS IN WARD 6. Well, if album is what you wanna call it. Like much hardcore punk, this grindcore album follows suit and crams 19 tracks in a total time span of 18:57, but while most of these are under a minute long, the finale “Pixie” clocks in at a staggering 6 minutes and 4 seconds.

While PIG DESTROYER are one of the more famous pure grindcore bands in the biz, on this debut they infuse a little sludge and thrash metal into the mix. The guitar tones are more grungy and with a more deepened bass sound than what other grindcore acts usually incorporate but PIG DESTROYER leave no doubt that this is indeed the sound of a grindcore band complete with all the earache inducing techniques turned up to 11 and beyond. J. R. Hayes screams his vocal chords raw and Scott Hull’s guitar is about as distorted and caustic as possible. The music is the typical aggressive as hell noisefest and while i can’t understand any of the lyrics as they are shouted beyond recognition, this is supposedly political with a few spoken skits thrown in about horrible things in the baby delivery WARD in a hospital.

The only track that really stands out is “Pixie” as it is given time to breath and this is the most sludgy chugga-chugga track with thrash elements here and there for good measure. The remaining short but sweet tracks are aggressive as hell and try to pack in as much noise in every possible second as possible with alternating screaming vocals and guttural death growls. This is practically a forgotten beginning for PIG DESTROYER as the album seems to be very hard to come by these days and ignored in favor of the following more popular albums like “Prowler In The Yard” and “Terrifyer,” but this is a decent slice of grindcore with elements of sludge, thrash and screamo all battling it out. A decent but not outstanding debut.

UMUR "Book Burner" is the 5th full-length studio album by US grindcore act Pig Destroyer. The album was released through Relapse Records in October 2012. Pig Destroyer have long been widely considered one of the leading American grindcore acts and certainly one of the most successful ones. "Book Burner" probably won´t challenge that position.

The music on "Book Burner" is raw, ultra aggressive and relatively varied grindcore. The musicianship is really strong and the band play fiercely fast-paced blasting sections as well as more groove oriented mid-paced ditto in an equally convincing fashion. The extremely raw and shouting vocals by J.R. Hayes can be a bit hard to listen to for a longer period, but there is still something about that caustic delivery that´s greatly enjoyable. His lyrics are as usual a rather unpleasant read about the darker sides of life.

The 19 tracks on the album are packed in a raw, powerful and sharp sound production that suits the fiercely aggressive music well. "Book Burner" is en every way another high quality grindcore release by Pig Destroyer and deserves a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating.

Conor Fynes 'Book Burner' - Pig Destroyer (6/10)

The brand of musicians and people attracted to grindcore have rarely been ones to care much about what others think of them. In spite of that, Washington-based grindlings Pig Destroyer have been an object of love and affection from press and fans alike. Whether it’s for their surprisingly technical approach to the style’s trademark fury, their provocative lyrics or beyond-the-call ambitions, Pig Destroyer have long been a go-to act when demonstration is needed to show what grindcore is potentially capable of. With a five year break since their last full-length (2007’s “Phantom Limb), it’s been about bloody time that we have something new from these guys. With consideration that “Prowler in the Yard” and “Phantom Limb” are among my favourite grind records, it’s more than a little disappointing that “Book Burner” is what it is; a fairly monotonous ‘more of the same’ type album that doesn’t seem to offer much more to the band’s career than what came before it. The trademark tech-aggression and ferocity is indeed here, but I’m not sensing the clever songwriting and dynamic that made some of their past work so remarkable.

“Book Burner” follows a proud grind tradition- that is, the breaking up of music into short, bite-sized tracks. The 19 tracks here consist of 32 minutes, although for the sake of approaching “Book Burner” as an album, the entire thing feels like a single, flowing chunk of aggressive music. Each track floods seamlessly into the next, and unless you’re paying heed to the track numbers as they whiz by, it’s conceivable that you won’t even notice a break between songs. For all purposes, this is one of the best things about “Book Burner”; although there are few ‘recurring themes’ to give it the semblance of a half-hour epic, the furious momentum brokers no surrender once it’s fired up. Save for a few ambivalently successful voice samples, there’s little pause in the string of thrashy riffs and punkish rhythms. At little over half an hour, the album ends before the formula thin.

Pig Destroyer’s greatest strength remains their razor-sharp performance, and this is something that hasn’t lost any of its bite during the band’s studio silence. For one, “Book Burner” enjoys one of the angriest-sounding guitar tones I’ve heard in recent memory. It’s got the richness of tone that Meshuggah sports, but it’s filtered through a much more frantic style of riffing. Generally, Scott Hull’s guitar work alternates between a barrage of furious noise and more structured riffs, the likes of which I could imagine hearing in a raw-produced thrash record. The addition of Adam Jarvis is a fitting one; the new drummer brings an appropriate attack of blastbeats and manic permafills that riles up an added whirlwind while keeping the technical edge of the music refined and precise.

Of course, performance standards only take a band so far, especially when the compositions themselves aren’t so interesting. This is certainly the case with “Book Burner”, an album that seems to suffer a tragic case of déjà vu. Although it’s clear that the band intended to create a record that emphasized anger over anything else, “Book Burner” is essentially an artillery barrage of the same few elements, over and over and over again. The handful of tracks that amount to conceivable ‘full song lengths’ (the single “The Diplomat” included) are forgettable on their own, instead blurring facelessly into the rest of the album. Frankly, as much as the initial impact seems to nail exactly what Pig Destroyer were aiming for, it’s the repeated listens that show the album’s flaws. It doesn’t take long for the album’s style to become familiar, but even when it does, there isn’t much of a memorable nature to speak of here.

Pig Destroyer haven’t given up on their core values, but for whatever reason, the album lacks the dynamic and lasting appeal of alot of their earlier material. There is some chaotic fun to be had here, but the shock value is sadly short lasted. The initial burstfire energy may be worth the price of admission alone, but “Book Burner” won’t be one to admire on the long haul.

UMUR "Phantom Limb" is the 4th full-length studio album by US grindcore act Pig Destroyer. The album was released in June 2007 by Relapse Records. Since "Terrifyer (2004)" the band have added Blake Harrison (Samples/Ambience) to the ranks, but still no bass player, which means that Pig Destroyer basically create their music with only guitar, drums, vocals and now Samples/Ambience. Blake Harrison is rather subdued though and besides the occassional sample, I don´t really think he adds much to the sound. At least not something I notice.

The music on the album is raw and aggressive grindcore but with the occassional thrashy/ hardcore infused riff. The band have been accused of adding "core" elements to their sound on "Phantom Limb", but I don´t think that´s true. At least not in a sense that the music is metalcore in any way. Like on the last release the vocals are distorted, hystarical, screaming, yelling and aggressive. The production is also distorted but very professional and powerful. It´s not easy to make an album sound this full without a bass. The band successfully vary the pace on the album to not make the album one long grindfest. Personally I appreciate the variation, which isn´t exactly the focus of most grindcore acts.

While "Phantom Limb" isn´t exactly as surprising or innovative as "Terrifyer", I still think Pig Destroyer have produced a very good album. The songwriting is inspired and adventurous ( within the confines of the genre), the production is excellent and the musicianship is solid too. Pig Destroyer are one of those few grindcore acts that actually have an instantly identifiable sound and that´s quite the achivement in a genre with very limited possibilities of expression. Hardcore grindfreaks might even find this one too adventurous. A 3.5 - 4 star rating is deserved.

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.