Hardcore bands sure like to walk the walk and talk the talk, but when it comes to all out war, in many instances, sheer intensity is missing from the music. Enter the real deal, All Pigs Must Die, with their searing second salvo titled, ‘Nothing Violates This Nature’. The Massachusetts based band featuring alumni from such hardcore luminaries Converge (drummer Ben Koller) and The Hope Conspiracy (vocalist Kevin Baker) avoid all the negative connotations that come from such a loaded word as “supergroup”, as this band is completely without contrivance. Like their 2011 debut ‘God Is War, ‘Nothing Violates This Nature’ has also been produced by Kurt Ballou (Nails, The Secret) of God City Studios and released by Southern Lord, and it is another pitch black pressure cooker of grindin’ metallic hardcore.

The diversity of the music on display, dictated by Koller’s superhuman drumming, is what separates All Pigs Must Die from the rest of the Entombed-fanatics playing catch up. Opener ‘Chaos Arise’ races out the gates like Trap Them at their unbridled best, and ‘Silencer’ swiftly follows suit with all the hostility associated with grindcore and power-violence. It is a direct continuation of where the band left off with their debut only with added attention paid to the pacing of the album, as each song has been positioned for maximum force. Instead of keeping to breakneck speed and eventually losing power through repetition, All Pigs Must Die have the wherewithal to drop tempos during the ferociously groove-focused ‘Primitive Fear’ and the deathly ‘Bloodlines’. While the slow, sinister and methodical ‘Of Suffering’ takes this approach one on step darker with its doom-laden beginnings, simple eerie guitar leads, anguished screams, and pummelling end beat-down which rides out on a hail of feedback.

As mentioned, Koller is on fiery form (nobody would expect anything less from him) and his playing really give the caustic music its uncontrollable verve. He detonates the grind of ‘Aqim Siege’; takes ‘Holy Plague’ from bucking noise-rock through the mouth of punk, grindcore and thrash with his fluid tempo changes and powerhouse blasts; and, as with his contributions to Converge’s music, he shows how impactful he can be even at slower speeds (Faith Eater). The real highpoint of his playing, however, is found at the album’s end. “Articles of Human Weakness” is a flaying finish to an album that is as sonically harrowing as you are likely to hear. Koller’s cyclonic fills cause a sandstorm when matched with the ragged riffs and screams, and the song has a lot in common with the title track from Converge’s last album, ‘All We Love We Leave Behind’, in that, the band drain out every ounce of intensity and emotion remaining after the preceding 9 songs. Just when you thought it was safe, Southern Lord have let loose another bile-filled, high speed and high impact hardcore album; this time from one of the gnarliest bands to ever spill out of Massachusetts.

Dean Brown

Band info: www.facebook.com/apmdband
Label info: www.southernlord.com

Dean Brown is a metal scribe based in Ireland. He is currently a contributing editor to the North American cultural magazine Popmatters and he regularly throws words for a number of other reputable loud noise publications such as About.com/heavy metal, Soundshock.com, MetalIreland.com, MoltenMagazine.com, amongst others. He has a strong affinity for music that shakes souls and leaves debilitating tinnitus in its wake and such obsession has left him financially and medically crippled, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. Follow Dean on twitter @reus85

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With a name like All Pigs Must Die, it's clear that this Massachusetts four-piece are not into the subtlety game and their music is not to be taken lightly. Vile as a gangrene infection and menacing as the great white shark, “God is War” is one of the fiercest, ugliest, most threatening records issued this year.

From the get go, “Death Dealer” demonstrates what APMD are all about, enraged and buzz saw riffs, furious and relentless percussion and gut wrenching snarls amongst other delights. It’s like a cross between the primitive extreme metal of acts like Celtic Frost and Entombed with the raging d-beat/hardcore of Cro-Mags and Discharge. “Pulverization” recaptures that vintage Entombed sound, with the savage chainsaw guitars crushing all in their path while vocalist Kevin Baker spews pure bile. “Sacrosanct” erupts with relentless fury sounding like a fucked-up collaboration between Discharge and 1349.

Clearly, All Pigs Must Die (which features members from Converge, The Hope Conspiracy, and Bloodhorse) are not trying to break new ground with “God is War”, instead they seem sadistically pleased to fuck up with your aural and nervous system by tossing out a vicious amalgamation of metal, hardcore, crust and punk with unrelenting menace, abrasion and malice.

This is top-notch material that deserves a place your record collection right next to “Left Hand Path”, “The Age of Quarrel” and “Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing”. (9/10)

David Alexandre

Read full issue here.

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