Pigs Blood

About

From Brazil with Love, I Mean Milwaukee - 77% TheStormIRide, September 28th, 2017 Though the band photo and having instruments listed in Portuguese would have one thinking Pigs Blood hails from Brazil, the band is actually from Milwaukee and features members of Protestant, Abaddon, and Prezir. Punishing and barbaric death metal are the order of the day, somewhat toeing the line between depraved, putrid death metal and bestial black/death metal. Released through Godz of War Productions, the debut full length from Pigs Blood is an exceedingly heavy and crushing affair. While much of the black/death metal fodder of late has focused on pushing the boundaries of density and dissonance, it would seem that a large portion of straight up floor cracking heaviness and barbaric intensity has been lost along the way. Don't get me wrong, progression can bring great things, but sometimes the mood calls for downright savagery and, when that mood strikes, Pigs Blood could be the answer. Pummeling drum with hawkish precision and blistering fills constantly charge forward, providing the footing for the rest of the band to crush everything in its wake like an M1A1 battalion. The vocals are deep, bellowing growls with occasional higher end shouts, though, for all their power, their bass-ridden delivery often sees them lost in the din. The guitars deftly flow between crushing death metal riffing and brief flourishes of jagged trems and irregular bits of weighty groove. The majority of the album's thirty-six minute run time goes for the throat, with mid-to-fast paced intensity, but a few trudging paces break up the constant onslaught quite nicely. With their debut full length, Pigs Blood is surely attempting to adopt the imagery of bestial Brazilian death metal. While it's a bit goofy to project your band as being from a different country, these guys have zeroed in on a particular sound and done so with aplomb. Sure, there have been tons of bands to do this style in past, but with most current bands reaching for that whole atmospheric disso-death schlock, it's refreshing to hear a band go back to basics. So, yeah, it's derivative, but one could do much worse when looking for bestial death metal with a putrid, old school touch. Written for The Metal Observer.