Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Pig Destroyer - Explosions in Ward 6 (1998)

For no valid reason I have never previously sat down with a Pig Destroyer release.  Coming into this month's Review Draft I decided it was time to rectify that and where better to start with their debut full-length offering from 1998? After four years of Agoraphobic Nosebleed material guitarist Scott Hull decided to treat the world to what "grindcore should be" with eighteen tracks of spazzing chaos that only ever really lets up for the most punky of vibes to bounce through.

No bass guitar is used at all here (that was still some fifteen years off for Pig Destroyer at this point) yet the guitar tone is so full and powerful and backed by a superb drum sound also that you do not miss the bass at all.  When you add J.R. Hayes' vocals into the mix then I personally find myself in my complete element with this record.  A succinct nineteen minutes and twenty seconds of eighteen individually clear explosions as the album title promises.  Complete with a Melvins' cover also for additional variety.

Closing track, Pixie is a monstrous six minutes in length and is by far the slowest paced affair on the whole album.  However, it still retains that air of primal violence that threatens to burst out across the track as Hayes' trademark vocals make no effort to change slant or angle despite the whole slowing down of proceedings to close out the album.