Review Summary: The Leaders of the Death/Grind phenominon come forth with another strong album to put under their belts.
I am a huge fan of Grind. I love like the sound, I love the noise, and for the most part, I greatly enjoy it, especially if it's:
A.) Something Extremely Special
Or
B.) Splashed in with my Death Metal.
This album is both of the above-mentioned instances. Way back 10 years ago, formed as a trio consisting of a vocalist, a guitarist, and a drummer, Pig Destroyer set out to be the fastest, heaviest, most revolting Grind band in history. Over the course of that 10 years and 6 albums later, their sound converted from a mere Grind fest, to a more Deathgrind-ish approach. I personally love this band. One of the many Grind bands I adore. It helps that their last 3 or so releases have been completely
wonderful. The perfect combination of the 2 parallels of Death Metal and Grind make for a concoction that is sure to please the hardcore fans of either genre.
J.R. Hayes- Vocals
Scott Hull- Guitars
Brian Harvey- Drums
Blake Harrison- Noise
This album is, well, just flat out immense. No, scratch that,
it’s beyond immense. The sound achieved by Pig Destroyer is just as beautiful as it is revolting. Just as sickening as it is amazing. The samples weave in an out of the music like patterns woven into a comforter. A comforter with gory depictions of mutilation and other various gruesome topics. Starting on the opener
Rotten Yellow, you immediately get the jest of the lyrical, and almost musical themes through the sample
Mommy, they’re Coming…
The rest of the song, is pretty much a wall of thrashing, pounding, fractured riffs. For the most part, that’s what
Phantom Limb is. The Death Metal style is quite blatant throughout the album, with songs such as
The Machete Twins and
Heathen Temple being prime examples. Imagine a big blender. Imagine Scum-Era Napalm Death. Now imagine Deicide. Now imagine throwing them in the cup, and pressing blend. Now imagine a squirrel in that same blender. That is what I visualize this album as. It’s sound isn’t far off from that depiction either. The grinding, electrical-like guitar sound, the bone breaking drums, the demonic bursts of shouting, the eerie samples that pertain exactly to every aspect of the lyrics and album. All of these are thrown together in a gigantic melting pot and are set to boil.
Progressing through the album, I flew through 9 songs in about ten seconds flat. I was left to soak in the first half of the album right as the second half hit. Absolutely no breathing room can be found on this album. It is so engaging, that by the time the Untitled 15th track comes, you’ll be starting the album over, just to pollute your mind with this stuff. Songs like
Loathsome and
Thought Crime Spree will grab you by the throat and never let go until your brain is thoroughly saturated with Blast-Beats and killer riffs. Down-tuned hacksaw riffs interspersed with slowed down, groove-oriented licks freshen up the key formula of shredding at 90 miles an hour, as shown in
Girl In The Slayer Jacket.
Waist Deep In Ash sounds like it could have actually come out of a Slayer album, while
Alexandria sounds like the Pig Destroyer we all know and love.
This is by far the best album PD have put out so far. It just might be the best album of 2007 so far. On a whole, I personally think it is. It is the most overall complete record of the year so far. Clocking in at just under 39 minutes, it provides an incredibly enjoyable, but not monotonous listen because of the ever changing sound to each individual track and fifteen second breaks for the gangly samples that stimulate the brain. From end to end,
Phantom Limb is the record that Pig Destroyer have been striving to make since their career started. Death Metal and Grind never sounded so good!
Pro’s[+]
Amazing Songwriting
Powerful Riffs
Vocals are top Notch
Drumming is remarkable
Songs are memorable and hold Substantial replay value
Con’s[-]
There are a couple songs on the album that fail to capture the wowing factor of the rest, but they are few and far between
Sometimes lyrics can sound goofy (…Ahem, Girl In The Slayer Jacket)
The last track (Untitled) Is completely pointless and takes away from the album’s strong ender.
Recommended Tracks
The Machete Twins
Heathen Temple
Thought Crime Spree
Loathsome
