Terrifyer

TERRIFYER

• Artist: Pig Destroyer

• Release: October 12, 2004

• Label: Relapse Records

• Genre: Grindcore

The Background:

I'd imagine that a Pig Destroyer fan in the early 2000s would have a hard time picturing how much more unhinged the band could get for their next album. 2001's release of Prowler in the Yard was probably the most devastating event of that year. Just imagine how many eardrums were blown out after blasting the album for so long. A relatively underground grindcore band shot up and got attention from some of the more mainstream hardcore news outlets. It's always cliche to say the album "changed the game" in it's genre. However, it's not a ridiculous thing to say in this instance. To this day, no band can replicate that uniquely disgusting grindcore sound. You can make your music sound as uselessly heavy as you want, but it won't feel nearly as vicious as a Prowler in the Yard without such ripping vocals, riffs, or poetically vile lyrics. Also paired with such amazingly brutal artwork that isn't just someone's brains splattered on the floor. But enough of that album before this starts to look like a review for it. What I'm just trying to explain is how brutal the sound and imagery of Pig Destoyer is. While many consider Prowler in the Yard to be the musical peak of the band, I think what was next to come tramples over that title. Their next album Terrifyer took one of the utmost vile grindcore albums and turned it up to 12 in a beautifully unhinged masterpiece.

My Experience with Terrifyer

My first listen of Terrifyer just also happed to be my first rendezvous with grindcore as a whole. At the time, I never dived into extreme genres much. Besides from the small rotation of death metal I was circling in. I believe it was new years day I discovered Relapse Records as they were advertising the 20th anniversary release of Terrifyer. That led me to discover both Pig Destroyer and Necrophagist, whom both of which I listened to that night. Of all the metal/hardcore punk albums I've listened to, Terrifyer took the least amount of time to really click with me. As heavy as death metal is, many instances of it fail to reach the brutal sound of hardcore punk albums; particularly grind core. But even that, not many albums in any genre can live up to the sound of Terrifyer. So safe to say my first listen was mind-altering. My first listen felt as quick and sharp as a punch to the gut as any grindcore album should be. I still remember being caught by the musical jumpscare brought by first screech in Pretty in Casts, following the intros dripping blood. I was also definitely not used to the sheer amount of sub-2 minute songs that bashed into eachother constantly. If I lost attention to the album for even a little bit, I wouldn't have noticed that a whole song had just passed. There is not many albums that give me such a head rushing experience quite like this one.

There will be periods in time where I forget how much I love this album. I'm just always caught up with discovering new bands that I'll go without some of my all time favorite albums for awhile. But with this one, everytime I come back to it, it only gets better. No matter what new heavy genre I dive into, whether it's bdm, black metal, or mincecore, this album always stands out to me the most. And that's not to say it's the heaviest album in grindcore or any genre. I just find the seething emotions, blasting drums, and shrieks found in this album beat those found anywhere else. It's very cathartic. And all that is only one side of the coin. The other main reason I love this album so much is the painfully vulnerable imagery Terrifyer bleeds out. It holds one of my favorite album covers of all time along with some chilling lyrics spread throughout the tracklist. Every aspect of this album is just brutal.

The Music

As explained earlier, the sound of the album is extremely vile. A lot is fit into the short runtimes of each song. With the exception of Gravedancer and Towering Flesh reaching over 3 minutes. The 21 tracks cover just about 32 minutes. They'll come and go by leaving no evidence except blood in the crime scene. It's definitely intended to blast the album at full volume, though your ears might make you regret it. Each song is propelled with disjointed riffs, plenty of blast beats, and what sounds like the final breaths of J.R Hayes over each track. There are little to no breaks in the album. Especially with the amount of transitions there are. Otherwise, the song is started with a quick drum intro before all hell breaks loose again. The only gasps for air leak earache, dingy riffs presented on the likes of Towering Flesh and Terrifyer. The chaos is all balanced out with clean production and tight performances from each member. No factors in any of the songs outweigh any other. Each ingredient perfectly fits its part in building the infernal landscape. Should I also mention that there is no bass? Take that bassists of the world! And with the songs being so short, there is little to no structure to be found. At the top of my head I can't think of any choruses in the album. Passages and riffs are rarely returned to. So there are plenty of ideas presented on the album. Sometimes the latter tracks can get a little repetitive if you start to tune it out. But it is still easy to get a unique enjoyment out of every individual song if you pay attention. I could go on and on about how this album is like. It's like a beautifully planned murder! It's like violence in the form of music! I can only use so many adjectives and whatnot to describe the album. But the best thing is to just go listen for yourself. Which would be a little odd for a hardcore fan if they haven't already.

The Lyrics

This might be my favorite album of all time when it comes to the lyrical content. It surpasses all other types of edgy or violent lyrics by how they're presented. I can feel all the emotion that went into writing this as I read and listen to every song. In an interview with Exclaim!, J.R Hayes is asked what inspired the disturbing lyrical approach. He answers with, "A couple broken hearts and ten tons of self-loathing." I'd imagine it would definitely take a lot of that to spit out such words over 20 songs. I like to view every song as a little poem. All of them featuring either someone begging for more pain, or showing captivation to inflict it on someone. There is an underlying theme about being in a relationship with someone extremely bruised. Their fragility lets you take control. But in the times where they don't, the hatred for yourself takes over. True limerence bleeds through every line. Horrific acts disguised as the love for someone you obsess over. Here are some of my standout lyrics:

Pretty in Casts:

Maybe she'll
Snap her wrists doing cartwheels
Or her ankle
Dancing drunken at some rave

Maybe she'll
Go through a windshield
And have twinkling bits of glass
Stuck in her face

She's so pretty in her casts
Damaged so perfectly
She's so pretty in her casts
Prettiest thing I've ever seen

Gravedancer:

I could cut myself
To pass the time
Haven't felt
Anything in days

A six year old girl
Dances on my ceiling
She might as well
Be dancing on my grave

Towering Flesh:

She's got heroin embraces
That I still need to be in
I force myself to loathe her
So I can fall for her again
So I can fall for her again

Her lips are wet with venom
Her posture's serpentine
She'll touch my arm and
Flowers grow there
Poisonous and obscene

All her shrugged little movements
And their despotic majesty
In the midst of such perfection
I can't help but feel diseased

Soft Assassin:

Your heart looks delicious
She says licking her lips
As her kamikaze fists
Crash into floating ribs

I stare at you the way you stare at your mirror

So please show me no mercy
Don't be a soft assassin
I scream though I'm laughing inside
I know you can't destroy me
But you're adorable when you try

Crippled Horses:

Push my fingers past her ear
Watch them disappear
Into her brown hair
I wish the rest of me
Could go with them

Her bedroom is quiet
But my heart screams
A horrifying sound
Like a hundred crippled horses
Lying crumpled on the ground

Begging
For a rifle
To come and put them down
Put them down
Down

The Packaging

I absolutely love the artwork for Terrifyer, just as everything else. The album cover was done by artist and musician Chris Taylor. Which was such an amazing discovery to learn he is one of the vocalists for the early skramz act, Pageninetynine. I saw similarities in the album covers of Pg. 99 as well as the altered faces in the gatefold of Terrifyer. And surely enough it was done by the same guy. I love the ghastly faces done by Taylor, making everyone look like a hollowed out skeleton. J.R. Hayes says that they found the lady on the album cover from a random porno magazine. Chris used a copy machine for a lot of the art to alter and darken images, like the front lady's face. The original image is barely shown on the 20th anniversary cd of Terrifyer. The lady originally held a somewhat smug grin. Little did she know she'd star one of the best grindcore albums of all time. I also adore the back cover as it shows a lot more vulnerable state. The extremely bold text holds a lot of weight in the hard-hitting packaging. Another highlight is the gorgeous red and black smoke record pressing. Terrifyer is definitely a stand out in my record collection. Both in terms of packaging, and musical content. This wasn't as much as a review as it was me blabbering about how much I love this album, but who cares. There's not much music that I hold so passionately like this. Terrifyer is one of the most horrifically beautiful and heavy albums I have ever listened to. The album is as perfect as grindcore can get. It's just another stone that cements Pig Destroyers reputation as one of the most notoriously vile bands of all time.

Natasha

Natasha is a 37 minute long sludge/doom metal track conceived at the same time as Terrifyer. The 2004 cd release of Terrifyer came with a DVD disc for the song; recorded in 5.1 surround sound. With a seperate ep for the one song being released in 2008. It was definitely a big experiment for the band. Seeing as the singular track is longer than the album itself. The song plays out long and brooding. Many passages slowly rise and fall, carrying many noises. The 5 minute intro is filled with the barking of a dog, a doorbell sound, ambience, and the whispers of J.R. Hayes. Other sections bring radio static and a creepy lullaby instrumental. After the intro, we are hit with the first sludge-type riff and the force of a hammer to the face. The song continues to take its time as it brings a pattern of slower, then heavier passages. Patience is very much necessary for a sit-down listen of Natasha. But I believe it very much pays off; ending with a gut-wrenching climax.

The liner notes for the 2004 cd contain a 6 page story about the girl Natasha. Showing her painful relationship with a man named Stacy, which ultimately ends in the death of him. In an interview with Kerrang, J.R Hayes explains that, "the lyrics are obviously from the same head space as the Terrifyer lyrics and the story in the booklet, so for me, they belong together. I kind of wish they were still packaged together, but it's also kind of cool that Natasha is it's own thing now." I like to imagine Natasha as both the girl in the story, and the one shown in the relationship of the Terrifyer lyrics. With Natasha rounding out the album in both music and story. The lyrics of the song may be even more bone-chilling and beautifully horrific than the album. When paired with the music, it becomes one of the most gut-wrenching pieces of media I have experienced. If you won't bother to listen to the 37 minute song, I'd at least advise you read the lyrics.

Natasha:

Been lonesome two years since she disappeared
I'm at the park where she was last seen
A vast green clearing
Wrapped up in maple trees
Spilling the morning rain from their leaves
I used to walk here with a girl
Seventeen at the time
Mistress of seventeen smiles sublime
With flaming locks of red in autumn
And burning locks of orange in the summertime
We were solemn and awkward
That last night together
She laid by my side
Staring into starless skies
Black as fallen angel feathers
I stared into the forest
Pretending not to see the hangmen
She was hiding in her eyes of serpent green
She said there was another
I refused to believe her
I thought we'd kiss
'Till our tongues tied together
I thought we'd kiss
'Till our tongues tied together
All my loving memories
Became scenes of frenzied slaughter
My hands became cruel talons
As they moved to destroy her

Her neck broke like a toy
In a careless child's grip
My tears rained down
Into dead eyes
And splashed upon
Her lifeless lips
I put her in the ground
Like a flower
I put her in the ground
Like a flower
I put her in the ground
Like a flower
Here I am standing
In that same spot today
Where my angel's empty shell last laid
And as my tears began
To well up once more
I see a path into the tree line
That I'd never seen before
I follow it down into a ravine
Find a hole in the earth
Framed in the roots of a birch tree
Subtle echoes of her voice
Speaking words I've never heard
But the way she hissed her "s"'s
I knew it had to be her
I smell honeysuckle then opium
Two of her signature scents
I pull aside all the thistles and vines
And mesmerized I make my descent
As I crawl further inside the light slowly dies
And the dirt begins to feel like her skin
I tremble
As I drag my fingers down the walls
Caressing her sweet flesh again

I'm slipping downwards
Trying so hard not to fall
Slipping on the blood
That's seeping from the walls
Then suddenly I'm surrounded
By a thousand of her eyes
Bathing the tunnel in a strange green light
The eyes show me pictures
Like ghostly television screens
All her thrashing final struggles
And her ravaged corpse serene
The tunnel is closing behind me
Pressing me further and further down
I'm being swallowed by her earth
And consumed by her ground
The end is moving into sight
I gasp and I scream
As I see her lovely mouth
Five times the size of me
Her lips curl into a grin
Around her crooked gnashing teeth
I'm pulverized and devoured
In the jaws of a girl seventeen

Scott Hull, J.R. Hayes, Brian Harvey

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