Pig Destroyer - "Book Burner" Review

Well, it's all come down to this. Five years, endless amounts of hype, a loss of a drummer, gaining a drummer, more hype, teaser tracks, even more hype, and now the finished product. Man. The past half-decade has been a real trip, for me personally. I must preface this review by saying Pig Destroyer is one of my favorite bands, period. I can't even begin to accurately describe what this band has done for me and how they have shaped my taste in heavy music. And in a sick way, this album was pretty much doomed to be underwhelming for me. Not to say that that this is a bad album, but let's be real honest here. There's no way in hell that this album could have lived up to the expectations I had for it. I have unwillingly fucked myself over. But I think that goes for a lot of people too; I don't think anyone really went into this going, "yeah, this should be pretty decent, at least". I bet every stinking one of you was thinking "Book Burner" was going to be balls ass amazing. But...no. I wish I could wait just a little bit longer for this review, so I could listen to it more and try and soak in some more details, but the curse of journalism is that you have to stay with the times, and I fear that if I wait any longer, this review will become irrelevant. Well, let's get into the nitty gritty now and dissect this beast. And keep this in my, I like this album.

32 Seconds of New Pig Destroyer Is All I Need To Get Stoked.

Well fuck me for not being on top of my game when it comes to juicy new streams from the new Pig Destroyer album, "Book Burner". Definitely, probably, certainly my most anticipated full-length of this year, and the details the band shared with us about it in our recent interview with the band only fueled my roaring excitement (thanks again to Alex Cha!). And now, we can give thanks to the British, for streaming a short and sweet sample of a brand new song entitled, "The Underground Man", on the BBC 1 Radio site. Just going by this sample, it definitely lives up to the "fast and furious" sound the band has mentioned the album will have. It sounds like typical fast Pig Destroyer, which is definitely not a bad thing. The production sounds akin to the "Terrifyer" album, Adam Jarvis drumming sounds great, and is that the Grindfather, Richard Johnson's vocals I hear? Guhhh, so excited, guys! Stream the song here and experience the magic. Be sure to pick up "Book Burner" on October 22!

~VII

Interview: Pig Destroyer

Pig Destroyer have been pumping out some of the some of the most brutal grindcore since their creation in 1997. The band has just put the finishing touches on “Book Burner”, their newest record which drops October 23, 2012 on Relapse Records. I’m sitting in the control room of Visceral Sound in Maryland where I have in front of me vocalist JR Hayes, guitarist Scott Hull and sampler Blake Harrison. While newly-appointed drummer Adam Jarvis, also of Misery Index, shoots drum endorsement videos in the next room, we get to talking about the new record, studio, drummer and more. 
                               

Photo by: Nick Martin

Cha: We had short straight grind on "Prowler in the Yard" and "Terrifyer", slightly longer songs on "Phantom Limb", straight up ambient doom on "Natasha". What can we expect from "Book Burner"?

Scott: Shorter grind. It’s a mix of a lot of different things but definitely a lot more shorter grind on "Book Burner" then there was on "Phantom Limb".

Blake: When Scott was starting to write and get some ideas, he asked JR and me what we wanted and we were like “lean, mean and stripped down”. Let’s just make it raw. I think the longest song clocks in at 4 minutes. The rest are about a minute long.

Scott: We got some new blood in the band and that blood wants to grind a little more so we’re trying to play to that strength.

Cha: Speaking of which, this new record is your first with Adam Jarvis on drums. Can you discuss the events surrounding the exit of Brian Harvey, the brief involvement of Dave Witte and any other drummers you had in mind, to Jarvis being a full time member?

Blake: Brian left. Let’s just leave it at that.

Scott: He had other issues in his life that sort of diverted his focus. He was our brother for 13 or so years, but I think the effects of the bad economy and his home life and work life kind of prevented him from being able to push forward with the band and we sort of let that situation dangle. 

JR: There was a little while where we thought we could work it out like we have in the past but it just got to a breaking point and we had to move on.

Cha: Ok, so Harvey is out. Where do you go?