Pig Destroyer has always been a band that's about speed and relentlessness above all. The formidable intensity of the band's music comes from the brevity of each song – since many of the band's tracks clock in at under a minute and a half, the listener has been cut to ribbons by the music before they even know what's happening. But what would happen if the band slowed down their blistering pace to the lumbering crawl of doom metal? That question was answered last year when Pig Destroyer released a two-song digital EP called Mass & Volume.
It's understandable if you missed the initial release of the EP – it was only available as a Bandcamp download for a limited time as a fundraiser for the daughter of Pat Egan, Relapse Records' former Director of Retail Sales who passed away early in 2013. Mass & Volume hasn't been available to purchase for more than a year, but that's about to change when Relapse releases a physical version of the album on CD and vinyl on October 14th. The EP can be pre-ordered now through Relapse's website, and, if you want it, you should reserve a copy now as quantities are extremely limited.
The two songs on Mass & Volume were recorded near the end of the studio sessions for Pig Destroyer's 2007 album Phantom Limb, and even though the band is playing a style they've never so much as dabbled in, this still sounds like Pig Destroyer music. Scott Hull demonstrates that he's as adept at writing riffs that crawl rather than sprint, and J.R. Hayes's vocal delivery suits the plodding tempo of doom metal just fine. You can stream one of the tracks from Mass & Volume below; it's called "Red Tar", a name that successfully captures the feeling of the song – bloody and bogged down under its own weight.
