City Newspaper Archives - 8/2007
Pig Destroyer "Phantom Limb"
Relapse Records
Published by Saby Reyes-Kulkarni on Aug 01, 2007
In the 15 years since Helmet's Page Hamilton suggested that shock is actually the easiest course a musician can take, artists have pushed boundaries even further while a yawning public grows increasingly numb to real-life horror. Extreme metal in particular is swarming with cowards who beg for attention by trafficking in gore but offer zero insight, and even have the nerve to protest when they're taken "too seriously." But Pig Destroyer stands head and shoulders above its blood-splattered peers. Shrieker/lyricist JR Hayes wrings poetry from psychotic rage and even illuminates sexual violence by relying on suggestion over force. Meanwhile, guitarist/bandleader and Agoraphobic Nosebleed alum Scott Hull turns this album into an air-guitar field day - not easy when you're talking about riffs so ultraheavy they sound like a helicopter rotor run through distortion. For being so relentless, Pig Destroyer doesn't waste a note and uncovers something all too human at the mouth of madness.
