Phantom Limb - PigDestroyer (Relapse)

Thu 5th Jul, 2007 in Music Reviews

Phantom LImb is the first album for US deathgrind band Pig Destroyer since their 2004 release Terrifyer. Previous albums got rave reviews, and I dare say that this album will build on the band’s previous successes.

The album features fourteen songs in just on half an hour – which is what you’d expect from a grind band going their hardest. I could tell you that this album is totally crushing, is incredibly brutal. I could say that listening to it is like being thrown against a solid brick wall and having the shit kicked out of you, that it’s like being pummelled with no remorse until you are barely alive. You might not believe me. But if you’ve never heard Pig Destroyer before, then this album will literally knock the breath out of you by its sheer intensity.

Pig Destroyer have always tried to be as brutal as possible, and to make their albums better every time. While their previous album was brilliant, this one is even more so.

Lyrically, this album is savagely beautiful, even poetic. JR Hayes has outdone himself this his writing for Phantom Limb. While much of the album could feasibly be read together, the last two tracks are written differently. That doesn’t mean they’re worse: in my opinion, Girl in the Slayer Jacket, the second-last track, is lyrically one of the best. The last couple of lines in that song are among the most haunting: the truth is her eyes/Had been dead since she was five/She just hadn’t disposed of her body.

For at least the first half of the tracks, there is no breathing space; there are barely any breaks between tracks, and the relentless assault that is Phantom Limb just keeps at you. A decision by the band to build memorable tracks, making greater use of riffs and a bit more of a groove might lead some people to think that it’s more commercial; but the reality is that you’ll just be able to remember individual tracks rather than one whole blasting album. The brutality and intensity of this album is well balanced, however, with the eerie hidden track at the end, which make you feel curiously empty in comparison, as you think of all those horror movies where there’s a pause in the bloodbath…

This album is fantastic. If you haven’t already bought it, stop dithering about and get your arse into gear and fucking buy it. It is likely to be heralded as one of the best albums of this year, and deservingly so. Deathgrind seldom gets more brutal than this.