Exclusive Album Stream: Pig Destroyer’s Prowler in the Yard Deluxe Reissue

In the summer of 2001 I was hanging with a Friend and a Friend of a Friend drinking shitty beer and blasting Anal Cunt, which we enjoyed primarily not for its music, but for its hilariously un-P.C. song titles and lyrics. “Wait wait wait,” Friend of a Friend suddenly announced, “If you guys like this, I’ve got something you have to hear.” And he opened up his backpack, reached in, and produced a copy of an album called Prowler in the Yard by a band called Pig Destroyer.

Beyond admiring Napalm Death’s merch designs, I didn’t think much about grindcore in those days, and my initial reaction to the existence of band called “Pig Destroyer” with an album entitled Prowler in the Yard was to titter. I assumed we were in for another Anal Cunt-esque laugh riot.

Then the album’s intro, the now-infamous “Jennifer,” began, and the tenor of my laughter shifted. I was no longer amused; I was… scared. The contrast between the soullessness of the voice box and the poetic skill of the text it was reading; the slow rise of knowing, demented laughter; the very meaning of the thing, announcing that what we were about to hear might just sound like trash but was aiming to be something far more profound (“This is disgusting, it’s pornography!” “No, no, no. This is beautiful. This is art!”)… it gave me gooseflesh.

And then the actual MUSIC began.

Holy fuck!, I thought.

I stopped at an all-night record store on the way home (ah, the good ol’ days) and bought the album immediately.

I imagine I’m not the only fan who had such a reaction to Pig Destroyer’s seminal full-length debut. Recorded in drummer Brian Harvey’s basement (!!!), Prowler has gone to become one of the most significant grindcore record of its era, as important to this generation as Scum was to the one before it.

As such, it is entirely deserving of the deluxe edition that will be released by Relapse this Friday, September 4. Fully remixed and remastered by guitarist/engineer Scott Hull — and including a never-before-released, untitled track from the original recording sessions! — Prowler now sounds at once clearer and more muscular than it ever has before, making it less of an indiscriminate carpet bombing and more of a tomahawk missile that can be guided straight down your throat. In other words: Prowler in the Yard is now more lethal than ever before.

Whether you’re a longtime fan or just discovering Pig Destroyer (or grindcore altogether!) for the first time, you NEED to stream the deluxe reissue of Prowler in the Yard, and you need to stream it LOUD, so that everyone within earshot can hear it for all of its vile magnificence. Then pre-order it here. It’s available in various editions, all of which include expanded artwork, exclusive photos and new liner notes, including the complete Decibel Magazine Hall of Fame piece on the album. This is THE must-own reissue of the year. Do not miss it.

Lucky fans in Denver and the Netherlands can catch Pig Destroyer live in late 2015 and early 2016. Get the specifics below the album stream.

Upcoming Pig Destroyer live performances:

Dec 05 Denver, CO Denver Black Sky w/ Skinless, In The Company of Serpents, Khemmis, Axeslasher

Feb 26-28 Tilburg, NL Netherlands Deathfest w/ Gruesome, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Cripple Bastards