Okay, here's today's Album of the Day review. This was meant for yesterday, but I had work and got back to late to write anything:
Pig Destroyer - Prowler in the Yard
It puzzles me to this day how a genre as disparate and artistically inclined as grindcore could have such a unified, and such a dull, aesthetic. The colour is green, the lyrical theme is sociopolitical dissatisfaction, the point of reference is almost always Napalm Death. Pig Destroyer offers something different. An American band, perhaps free from the crust punk crutch which overtook the European scene, Pig Destroyer take influence from thrash, grindcore and sludge metal to create a rather more derranged beast.
This, their second album, allowed for Scott Hull (ex-Anal Cunt and central member of Agoraphobic Nosebleed) to really explore his songwriting abilities, and his genius shows through. Despite most tracks being under 2 minutes in length, Hull's sheer playing speed allowing him to pack in great riffs throughout. While not Pig Destroyer's most experimental release - Hull had yet to switch to an 8-string, and Blake Harrison had yet to join as an electronics player - it is probably their best album as far as sheer instrumental albility goes.
Of course, another thing to note is the vocals. J.R. Hayes remains in my eyes the quintessential crazy-person grind vocalist (Though Guy Kozowyk's not doing too badly for himself). His lyrics in particular are warped and Lynch-esque, and capture a prose-like quality with which it tells a fractured story of violence, obsession and insanity.
Easily my favourite grindcore album (Sorry, Exit), this warped and astonishingly well-realised work puts Pig Destroyer up there with Isis and Converge in the upper echelons of the art-metal scene.
Right, after two days of extreme metal, I'm going for something lighter. Next up is The Decemberists' new album The King Is Dead.
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