Review: All Pigs Must Die, Nothing Violates This Nature

Guilty as charged: I love supergroups! (And apparently, so does someone else.) Contraband, Adrenaline Mob, Damnocracy, The Damned Things… the metal world is so saturated with talent, you can’t NOT want second-tier members of your favorite aging bands to form new super-hybrids. It’s a win-win for everyone! Especially you, the fan.

Enter Boston’s subtly monikered All Pigs Must Die, pieced together from the likes of The Hope Conspiracy, Converge and Bloodhorse. Super! Admittedly, not quite the super of, say, Tracii Guns and Nikki Sixx (Brides of Destruction RIP)….

But this is different. These are angrier guys. Their genre: “HATE,” as their Facebook band page posts. Grrrr!

On their second full-length (after 2011’s God is War), it seems like the APMD meeting of the minds went something like this: you play fast, you sound like Tom Araya, and then everyone hate, kill, die, etc. We good?

And, yes, we good. “Chaos Arise” and “Silencer” start the album fast, an overload of tempo and hyperactive thrash/punk akin to Slayer’s Undisputed Attitude.

But ten songs like this would be too much, all money shots and no setup (let us get to know the pizza delivery guy, ok?). So it twists. “Primitive Fear” and “Bloodlines” go slow, building a groove. And “Of Suffering” is pure molasses, a sluggish meditation on pain that befits its title.

From there, it’s back to full throttle, with the last five tracks (especially “Sacred Nothing”) a furious assault of hardcore noise and crusty pessimism. Fast or slow, there’s nothing on Nothing Violates This Nature that suggests joy or serenity. This is pain, expertly delivered.

I mean, all-star pain. But still.

All Pigs Must Die’s Nothing Violates This Nature came out on July 23 on Southern Lord. Stream the entire album here and order it here.