Long Pig - Barren

Cost: $15
 

At last, the bludgeoning force of Long Pig will be felt!

 

Prepare your mind for the inevitable blunt force trauma it will suffer at the hands of Long Pig's debut full length Barren! Formed out of the ashes of Hungarian grind band Din-Addict, Long Pig overwhelms listeners with over half an hour of sludgy, downtuned grindcore, aptly communicating a bleak vision of harsh reality that will flatten you out like a ton of bricks.

 

Long Pig have carved out a totally unique sound, mixing raw Napalm Death-styled old school grindcore with influences from sludge, death and stoner metal, as well taking select dynamics from modern grindcore groups such as Nasum and Rotten Sound. This unique melting pot of influences coupled with raw aggression and a due sense of apocalyptic nihilism results an intense listening experience sure to awaken the sedated minds of the public with all the subtly of a sledgehammer.

 

A battering, thick and powerful slab of grindcore that will satisfy old and new fans of genre alike.

Reviews

Diabolical Conquest
Sometime in the 90s, I remember a Britpop band called The Longpigs. When the style dried up around 1997, I think the band split up and one of ‘em began to pursue a solo career, so perhaps this is him? Unlikely, seein' as this is a very new Death/Grind band from Hungary, formed from the debris of Din Addict. Taking old skool Grind values then updatin' ‘em quite a bit with a modern Grind approach, they certainly struck a chord with me on Barren. It's like a large trip within which you can embark on thirteen mini excursions, so I suggest you plug this album into your ears, have a nice sit down and enjoy half an hour or so of displeasin' Grindcore scenery. Perhaps it was ‘cos partook of this release thru earphones whilst at my lokill public house beer-garden earlier this afternoon, the listenin' experience enhanced by a rare wave of hot weather, Guinness guzzlement and the surreptitious consumption of several conical paper-clad herbal tubes, that your reviewer derived much enjoyment from Long Pig.

The songs jolt you about the place through full-throttle earbash, mid-paced lurch and a few heavin', doom-infused sections, delivered by a performance that chooses from the grindin' palette in a grab-baggy sort of manner, givin' them a chaotic, disjointed feel that compliments the catchy heart of the different riffs. To do this sort o' thing, the guitars thrash, judder and shunt dirty ol' riffs into each other, galvanisin' it with a modernized, technical Grind coat, then underpinnin' the tangled mass with some intricate yet flowy percussion and corrosive bass-work, which clench the song-cores til dissonant fluids ooze all over the place, makin' for an infectious yet unpredictable thus memorable release. The vox add further discordance and disorientation, especially if you're readin' along with the lyrics, cos they guzzle down those lines and regurgitate them all over the songs in partially digested chunks of coarse guttural growls and chyme-soaked glottal screams. Although it's a good overall listen, the work does of course have its more tedious moments, where a sparse chordscape slowly ingests the flow with a lapse of inspiration, but this often adds much more clout to the blastulated, growl-packed bout of buzzsaw riffage that follows it. The album is rounded off very well with "Leaden Silence", which is a grotesque, slow-bubblin' number that drags you thru various stinkin' stages; first into portentous, lumberin' riffment, then face-first into highly viscous chug-sludge afore blastin' yer noggin to smithereens.

The composition has a more modern Grindcore kind of feel in comparison to the horde of old skool stuff lurkin' under the choppy surface of their choppy chops. So, behind the early 00s Relapse Grind sort of exterior of the arrangements, think Pig Destroyer, Cephalic Carnage and possibly a smudge of old Nasum, I could clearly hear bits of old Earache playin' style, such as classick Terrorizer, putrid old Carcass, early Napalm Death (especially in the vox), a bit o' Unseen Terror and even some Old Lady Drivers! There's a fair bit of Exit-13 here, with a few cupfuls of Blood slopped over it, and maybe a select few Agathocles bits, and Assuck too, but lobbed about the place til they're all misshapen, then slotted into the tunes.

Production is clear enough, but coated with enough fuzz and scum to keep it dirty enough to avoid clinical clickety-clackery, whilst clear enough to prevent loss of the more elaborate sections and points at which the sudden time changes link ‘em all together. Also worth mentionin' are the experiments with vox effects, which daub dense layers of cavernous reverb, disorientatin' flangement and I think also a wee bit of pitchshift somewhere too, all of which help the vox further obscurity, ominousness and otherworldlyness to the songs.

So, you like both traditional and modern Grind, the kind that has dynamic, cleverly written tunes but delivers them via a much more loose, old-skool type performance with a nostalgic quality, then get this. 8/10

Decibel Magazine
A quick hop across the map to Hungary finds us in the realm of Long Pig. In all truth, we nearly hopped the fuck back again when some fake bomb blast beasts caught us off guard (you know, the kind that this column appreciates of so much), but this is really a minor infringement on "Barren". They favor sludge rock sonics, which they then superimpose onto grindcore ferocity. Remarkably, it works a treat without turning it to mush. Meanwhile, the vocals are bouncing off the walls in an unhinged frenzy of authentic lunacy. Yes, they stick out gloriously this month like a Southern Baptist pre-op transsexual. Praise be.

Supreme Brutality
At first Hungary's Long Pig sound like so much else grindcore, but it soon shows that the music is much more than the average run-of-the-mill kind of grindcore. The band find inspiration in such different bands as Napalm Death, Pig Destroyer, Mastodon and Mr. Bungle. The music is best described as an extreme blend of grindcore, stoner, sludge and death metal. It's a rather untraditional approach, but it work surprisingly well and provides the music with a hint of originality. By not relying on only a single genre Long Pig has created a diverse and different album.

It also function well that the band don't stick to the common grindcore guidelines that songs must clock under two minutes, but instead the Hungarians mix the short tracks with some a little longer. This is done without jeopardizing the song writing or the intense aspect in the music. The production is likewise good. Everything fits perfectly and it's easy to hear each instrument. The guitars are chunky and compact, and is perfectly helped by the bass .The drums are thick and powerful. That gives the music an additional boost. The varied vocals round everything off in the best way. There's really something for everyone on Barren, whether you like Napalm Death, Pig Destroyer or Mastodon.

Vomit The Soul Webzine
LONG PIG unleashes its very first release here, a full length release of fucking Grind Core!! Born from the ashes of DIN-ADDICT, this new band plays 13 tracks of massive Grind Core, crushing as fuck and rather original!! Indeed, think of NAPALM DEATH, TERRORIZER and similar stuffs for the whole Grind Core side of the music, think also of DIN-ADDICT of course, especially for the vocals, and add a fucking great Sludge / Stoner touch to the whole music!! Yeah, LONG PIG includes in every tracks a good dosage a slower parts typical to Sludge and Stoner stuffs, sometimes reminding of some Relapse stuffs.

Well inspired and very well included nice parts, giving the musick played by the band a interesting dimension! The band knows how to create such a fucking heavy music, but don’t worry, you’re not listening to MASTODON or something like that! LONG PIG is Grind Core!! And after those nice slower parts, just wait for the hysterical Grind Core parts in the NAPALM DEATH style, and sometimes reminding of CEREBRAL TURBULENCY too!

Excellent first full length from LONG PIG! Nothing to compare with what they did with DIN-ADDICT in the past, even if it was rather good, but it was not so innovative and original! LONG PIG just kicked my ass! Is that clear enough?? BUY OR DIE!!! BUY OR DIE!!! Excellent first album!!! BUY OR DIE!!!

Thrashocalypse
As soon as this disc kicks in I am reminded of more modern Napalm Death with somewhat of a Strapping Young Lad influence, which makes for a really enjoyable, interesting mix. I don't know too much about Long Pig, except for the fact that this disc is going to receive a lot of plays from me. Anyway, so the first track has a lot of different sounds jumping out at me, and they are as i said Napalm Death and Strapping Young Lad, but I also hear parts of sludgey Mastodon and High on Fire, which is a combination that works really well. Track 2 jumps in as more of a straight forward grind track but still just as enjoyable as the first track.

From then on, the tracks fluctuate from longer lengths to shorter, but still retain solid musicianship, intricacy and a good level of song-writing skill. Production wise, this is excellent, everything sits perfectly, and everything is really clear. The guitars are big and chunky and are rounded off excellently by the bass guitar. The drums have a really thick sound which is great, and the vocals sit on top, but do not over power the other instruments. This is definitely one of my favourite Grindhead Records releases, and I certainly hope that they release more from Long Pig in the near future. Check this out if you dig Napalm Death, Mastodon, Strapping Young Lad, or High On Fire.