Pigs is a trio from Brooklyn, NY (USA), consisting of seasoned musicians. Dave Curran (Unsane), Jim Paradise (Player's Club) and Andrew Scheider (producer for Cave In, Converge) have all been around for quite a while, destroying venues and stereos everywhere. With this little project, they intent nothing less but absolute noise rock destruction. Their main influences are Vietnamese sandwiches, Tinnitus and Jameson and that's quite audible, in a way.
The album opens with the instrumental 'A Green Blight', which immediately reminds me of bands as Unsane, Karp or Today Is The Day. 'The Life In Pink' follows quickly and intensely and from there on the band rolls over the listener like a massive steamroller. Although the focus is mainly on playing thick noise-rock, there are also some influences from post-hardcore, sludge, industrial and grunge to be heard. 'Mops', for instance, is Sonic Youth meets Ministry.
The album has been playing several times in the past few weeks. On most occasions, I actually forgot that I was listening to something I had to review. That's because this album takes me back to my early days at rock festivals like Rock Herk or Zwemdokrock. Those festivals often featured noise rock bands and I was in awe every singe time. The energy and intensity is stunning and probably the main reason why noise rock is one of my favorite live-genres.
I can easily imagine songs like 'Make Sure To Forget' or 'Wrap It Up' becoming killer tracks on stage, turning the entire audience into a deranged crowd surfing moshpit. So I really hope that Pigs will come over to Europe real soon and smash their grinding guitars over an unexpecting audience. So if you like some flesh ripping musical insanity, look no further. Pigs are here to take over the noise rock scene and they will not take no for an answer...
Serge