When members of your band come from Converge, The Hope Conspiracy and The Red Chord, chances are the result will be nothing short of vicious and chaotic heavy music. It’s not surprising then to hear just how good the music sounds on God Is War, the debut full-length by Massachusetts’ All Pigs Must Die. They play an aggressive mix of hardcore and d-beat melded with metallic hardcore riffing, all topped off with an old school Swedish buzz-saw guitar tone reminiscent of Entombed. Sonically, this album is fast crust punk-driven metal with bits of sludge, groove and noisy feedback as the main additional elements. The two exceptions to their hybrid of sounds are the exclusively slow and solely sludge/drone tracks, epic closer “Sadistic Vindicator” and the title track. Vocals courtesy of Kevin Baker are harsh, throat-shredding yells that are scathing but still largely intelligible. Though certainly derivative, All Pigs Must Die show they know how to craft their influences into an interesting sound with plenty of room to evolve.
This article appears in August 16, 2011.