Wednesday 16 September 2015

Pig Destroyer - 'Prowler In The Yard' Reissue (Review)

By: Chris Bull

Album Type: Full Length (Reissue)
Date Released: 04/09/2015
Label: Relapse Records


Fans of Piggie D will welcome this remaster in my opinion, the added weight behind such classics as 'Trojan Whore', 'Star Belly' and 'Piss Angel' make it sound 100 times better, the original release sounding somewhat thin in the guitar area. Also pleasing is the inclusion of an unreleased and untitled track which is typical PD grind and pause and grind again. For those of you who are new to Pig Destroyer, welcome! This is a great place to start.

‘Prowler in The Yard’ CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Jennifer (1:21)
2). Cheerleader Corpses (0:36)
3). Scatology Homework (0:49)
4). Trojan Whore (1:35)
5). Ghost Of A Bullet (0:20)
6). Heart And Crossbones (0:49)
7). Strangled With A Halo (1:26)
8). Intimate Slavery (1:06)
9). Mapplethorpe Grey(1:22)
10). Evacuating Heaven (0:16)
11). Tickets To The Car Crash (0:40)
12). Naked Trees(1:47)
13). Sheet Metal Girl (1:09)
14). Preacher Crawling(1:29)
15). Pornographic Memory (0:57)
16). Murder Blossom(0:19)
17). Body Scout (1:02)
18). Snuff Film At Eleven (1:10)
19). Hyperviolet (3:29)
20). Starbelly (5:03)
21). Junkyard God (2:000
22). Piss Angel (7:58)
23). Jennifer 2 (5:28)
24). Unreleased Untitled (0:51)

Pig Destroyer on this recording were:

Rian Harvey | drums
JR Hayes | vocals
Scott Hull | guitar

The Review

Back in '07 a friend of mine tried to get me into Pig Destroyer. He loaned me all the albums that they had released up until that point but other than a few riffs, I couldn't really get into it. Some time passed and I decided to give them another try. The album that turned the corner for me was 'Prowler In The Yard'. Now 14 years old, Relapse have decided to give it a face lift...well, more like a butt lift but you get what I mean.

The guitars benefit from added oomph and they've undoubtedly turned the nob marked 'bass' up quite considerably. J.R Hayes' vocals also sound grittier and nastier than ever before. Fans of Piggie D will welcome this remaster in my opinion, the added weight behind such classics as 'Trojan Whore', 'Star Belly' and 'Piss Angel' make it sound 100 times better, the original release sounding somewhat thin in the guitar area. Also pleasing is the inclusion of an unreleased and untitled track which is typical PD grind and pause and grind again. For those of you who are new to Pig Destroyer, welcome! This is a great place to start. Check out 'Cheerleader Corpses',  'Tickets To The Car Crash' and 'Body Scout' for some sickening grind and check out the d-beat amphetamine blast of 'Mapplethorpe Grey'. If you're not a fan of the grind, PD supply plenty of chug, guitarist Scott Hull can craft a head noddingly nasty riff at the drop of a hat, just listen to 'Piss Angel'. Fans of weird noise stuff will enjoy 'Jennifer' parts 1&2 with the computerised voice describing a horrific scene involving a character of that name.

Having been named as "the 3rd most important grindcore release of all time" by one publication, you can see why it's finally been remastered and released to sound the way it should have in 2001. A must for die hards and essential listening to any fan of the heavy stuff.

‘Prowler In The Yard’ is available here

FFO: Napalm Death, The Melvins, Nails, Brutal Truth, Converge






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