Occasionally, just occasionally, a record floats past you as you plough your sorry way through the overflowing shit-trench of mindblowing musical mediocrity, desperately searching for that oft-promised yet perpetually elusive pearl. A record that is so unexpectedly fantastic, so ridiculously unhinged, so fucking ambitious and exciting, that in an instant you remember yet again why it is you spend fifteen minutes every morning trying to find the appropriate soundtrack to put your socks on to.
Ladies and gentlemen, I’m pleased to tell you that that record has arrived.
Year of the Pig is, without doubt, a masterpiece. I never thought I’d find myself describing an 18 minute (18 MINUTE?!) prog-hardcore (PROG-HARDCORE?! I don’t even like simple ‘hardcore’ until it gets to era of the ‘post’ prefix) single as such, but there’s truly no other word for it. It starts like a behemoth waking from a century of slumber, uncoiling and stretching and flexing, all Led Zep descending chords and organ trails. The first half is a duet between gentle guest vocalist Jennifer Castle and the brutal throat-stripping bark of lead singer Pink Eyes. He grates his head with a piece of chipboard at gigs apparently. It doesn’t come as much of a surprise. The verses repeat and build and build and repeat until about 8 minutes in, when the track explodes into a meteor storm of sheet metal guitar and ear-twatting drums. Two minutes later and you’re flat on your back wondering how the hell that just happened.
And then…out of nowhere comes a motorik beat that sounds like it’s ascended from the bar-room of hell itself, and suddenly we’ve been transported to a nightmarish/bloody incredible vision of the future where the reanimated corpse of Dimebag Darrell plays Neu! cover versions in the style of the Stooges. I don’t remember much of the next six minutes, as it basically turns me into a giant goosebump every time, but I do know that as it ends all I want to do is go straight back to the start and sit through the whole epic journey again.
And that’s the only problem with Year of The Pig: it tends to make whatever you listen to afterwards a type of aural sorbet, existing only to cleanse the palette of your ears in preparation for the next fucked up course of Fucked Up. But what the hell, this type of thing doesn’t come around that often. Why put up a fight?
2 comments:
I liked reading this post a lot. Well done. x
2007 is the Chinese Red Female Pig Year - Red being equivalent to the element of Fire, and Female because 2007 is a Yin Fire year.
The Pig is the 12th and final sign of the Chinese Zodiac and the New Year begins on the 18th February. 2006 was the year of the Fire Dog and was a year of structure. This year will focus on making things comfortable and finishing off unfinished projects and achieving goals. The year of the Fire Pig is meant to be auspicious bringing good fortune and prosperity. It is an excellent year to marry and have children. However it will not be a peaceful year, wars and natural disasters, particularly those connected to fire and water such as bushfires, volcanos, floods and tsunamis will occur causing the economy to blow hot and cold. Rising real estate prices will continue and homeowners and builders will do well. Fire Pig is well known for luck in money and speculation, particularly for those who share and do good deeds for the poor.lucky number
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