Opening with a sample stating “dangerously angry one minute-rocking and rolling the next” followed by a shriek of ‘MY SISTER’S DANGEROUS’, it gives me no small pleasure to be discussing the return of hate engine Pig Destroyer.
When discovering the Richmond boys some years ago with the release of Terrifier, the malevolence and desperation on display was so palpable that I felt compelled to trawl through their catalogue, happening upon such dinner soundtracks as Painter Of Dead Girls and Prowler In The Yard. The bass-less trio have delivered a foul, flailing burst of an album in the shape of Book Burner.
I was eagerly awaiting their next installment and it does not disappoint. For the uninitiated, this skull splitter feels very much like a cathartic exercise for someone on the ragged edge – death metal, grind, straight up HC, thrash and angular doom all jostle violently for control, especially pointed on ‘Dirty Knife’ . The 19 tracks seething within this record appear and disappear at will, a quarter of them clocking in at less than a minute. Pillaring screams and one of the most white-knuckle drum sounds I’ve heard in recent years splatter the listener from all angles, the record almost completely devoid of let-up until ‘The Boston Strangler’ muzzles the uncaring battery with a moments uncharacteristic mid-pace dirge. ‘White Lady’ spits white hot malice in all directions before surrendering to the mild dilution of ‘The Bug’, which itself then transforms into a hateful merc-ing of everything human.
The second half of the record, marks a slight shift in feel; bit of Autopsy there, touch of Discordance Axis here, liberal sprinkling of ‘Evolution’-era Brutal Truth there, bit of prime-rib Slayer; but this is still Pig Destroyer, possessed of their own fierce identity. It is in some respects remarkable that a band of this nature can have achieved such notoriety – but is it? PD’s overall vibe is one of repressed, boiling anger suddenly uncaged, sounding for all the world like they are the only ones who can tame it. It is rare to have this much dynamism delivered so quickly with such unyielding barbarism, an uncaring eruption of bloody-throated madness and lightning drum abuse within the construct of half a band. Maybe after the less savage but much celebrated ‘Natasha’ they chose to consolidate and re-engage their bile valve; save for the partially tempered rage of ‘The Bug’ this is a kindness-free, bolt-upright, human-shredding experience.
As the timer clicks into the 31st minute, we find ourselves out of runway and Book Burner is over. Left with the lasting impression that more time will be needed to process this billowing maelstrom of limb-cracking bastardry, I will be re-visiting this record for months to come. Triumphant.