<PIG>

Category: Industrial / Rock

Album: The Gospel

Stars: 4.5

Blurb: The Lord of Lard makes a triumphant return with an album that presents <PIG>’s raw and perverted sensibilities with an updated sheen, as boisterous and bombastic as ever!





Having spent the better part of a decade under the radar to focus on family and work on other musical and artistic projects, Raymond Watts made a triumphant return to the underground industrial music scene in 2015 with not one, but two collaborative EPs – Long in the Tooth with Primitive Race, and Compound Eye Sessions with Cubanate’s Marc Heal under his M.C. Lord of the Flies. While audiences mostly reveled in the return of their Lord of Lard, they would have to wait another year before the great <PIG> would return with a brand new full-length album… but with the release of The Gospel, their patience is ardently rewarded.

A distant church bell tolls, a scathing electro beat kicks in, and Watt’s succulently sadistic snarl booms through the speakers, preaching his perverted sermons to the parish of pork as “The Diamond Sinners” begins the album with all the sleazy aplomb one could hope for from a <PIG> album. With chants of “Hallelujah” and crooning background vocals that are too damn catchy not to sing along with, The Gospel is off to a strong start. Certain songs seethe with an insinuating tone of menace and melancholy like “Saturated” with its slow and sultry beat driven by swells of slithering synths and bluesy guitar passages, “Missing the Mainline” with its layers of atmospheric guitar lines and Watts’ impassioned vocal delivery, or “The Fly Upon the Pin” with its steely acoustic guitar and distant, distorted vocals evoking a desolate deserted diorama, steadily building in rhythmic intensity as the beats and synths rise to a crescendo reminiscent of a past <PIG> song like “Save Me.” Others exhibit a more forceful and energetic vibe like “Found In Filth” and “I’m So Wrong” with their strutting rock & roll rhythms and strident vocals, or “Mercy Murder” and “Viva Evil” with their sexy blues riffs and witty lyrical wickedness that make it feel oh, so good to be bad, the latter track being especially notable for its dubstep-like warbles and squelches. “Drugzilla” is given a glitchy makeover from its Compound Eye Sessions version, giving what was already a ballsy and boisterous song an even more guttural vibrancy, while “Make Yourself Deny” ends The Gospel with one of Watts’ most melodic outings on the album, like a depraved carnival ringmaster as Günter Schulz’s familiar frills on the guitar are sure to please.

It’s gratifying to hear an album like The Gospel from an artist whose singular sound helped shape people’s perceptions of what industrial/rock is capable of, especially after such a long absence. While the orchestral samples that permeated much of <PIG>’s past releases are not present, the same level of bombast and ambience is achieved, thanks in part to a contingent of cohorts. Guitarist extraordinaire Mark Gemini Thwaite co-wrote a majority of the album – in fact, some might notice… *ahem* similarities between certain songs on this album and MGT’s Volumes release, on which Watts gives a guest performance. Ex-Combichrist keyboardist Z. Marr lends his indelible touch to The Gospel, giving <PIG> an updated sheen while retaining the raw sound that defined such legendary albums as Sinsation or Praise the Lard, while En Esch and Schulz’s past associations with Watts in both <PIG> and KMFDM also help to ground the album in the history of <PIG> without wallowing in nostalgia. Suffice to say, The Gospel is everything one could want from a modern <PIG> album – heavy electronic atmospheres and jazzy rhythms with a rock & roll attitude, all driven by Watts’ belligerent bravado and demented demeanor. You’ve been missed, <PIG> – welcome back!!!



Track list:

The Diamond Sinners Found In Filth Toleration or Truth Drugzilla Missing the Mainline Viva Evil Saturated The Fly Upon the Pin I’m So Wrong Mercy Murder Make Yourself Deny



<PIG>

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Metropolis Records

Website, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Bandcamp, YouTube



Purchase at:

Amazon CD

Amazon MP3

Amazon Vinyl

Bandcamp

Storming the Base CD

Storming the Base Vinyl



2016-09-09



Ilker Yücel (Ilker81x)