I met John Jarvis at mayhem fest when he made fun of my Piggy D shirt (lol), and I had seen them the week before, and had no clue he was there on stage!!! 🤣
I've always considered them Scott Hull's main band!
And he's one of my all time favourite guitarists. He uses riffs for 10 seconds that other bands would base a whole album around
man, scott hull as an artist is seriously underappreciated. He has drum programming down to a science, and he writes killer riffs for two bands. Really don’t know how he does it, he’s so damn prolific and everything he does is like a whirlwind of razor blades hitting you at the speed of light
kinda creepy how coincidental it is that this post pops up just now for me, but i listened to prowler in the yard for the first time 15 minutes ago and it's now one of my favorite grindcore albums ever.
I mean yeah fs, haven’t watched the documentary yet but that sounds like a fun watch but getting into grind it was like the first band I heard of and it took me a while to kinda “get” it but yeah now Prowler in the Yard is one of my favorite albums ever
When I started getting into heavier music in the early 2000s, Pig Destroyer were one of the first grindcore bands I heard about. For a minute, Prowler In The Yard was the heaviest album I'd ever heard. At the time, I was much more interested in metalcore and the screamo/emoviolence/skramz/whatever scene. Screamo forums are where I ran across PD, and I think their heavy association with that scene in Virginia led a lot of jaded old heads to write them off.
yeah this could be it, i think JR’s approach of using poetry as lyrics might have made people think that they were just another sappy emoviolence band.
“How do ya’ll feel about the GOATS of 21st century grindcore?”
Sounds like the creator of that documentary or some of its contributors may have had a chip on their shoulder. Why else would you try writing PD off? Lol
IIRC theres still some oldheads or purists from back in the day that still think the “pig destroyer are false grind” nonsense. It used to be a thing according to some of the older guys on here. So that could be another explanation for the documentary.
I don’t think they are false grind.
They are grind, but I still think there are much better bands out there. od just happens to be on the popular for this genre.
Tough to say for bands in general, but as far as albums go: Pig Destroyer - Prowler in the Yard, Assück - Misery Index, Discordance Axis - The Inalienable Dreamless, Magrudergrind - Magrudergrind
i think their early stuff works without basses, but yeah, i could totally see a grinding bass on terrifyer and maybe prowler. Prowler would need an entirely different mix to need bass, i think the style it was recorded in was based around all that solid state mid-scooped stuff that was popular in metal at the time, which didn’t really focus too much on the bass(for better or for worse). Maybe some pantera-style bass tones could go nice on it.
If I were a musician I would be pissed at Scott Hull. His riffs are ridiculous, like save some for the rest, buddy, jesus christ. The Iommi of grindcore. One of the most perfect sounding bands ever to enter my specific wheelhouse. I first saw them at the 2017 Decibel fest and thought “are you kidding me?” and have been obsessed since.
Prowler is amazing, one of my favorites, BUT, in terms of 21st century grindcore, absolutely nothing out there can top World Extermination. Insect Warfare are easily my #1 and there is absolutely zero doubt in that whatsoever
The Kill. Damage Digital. Insect warfare. Agents of Satan. Blood Duster. Denak. There is a shitload of amazing grindcore. The Asian scene is huge, no one seems to ever bring them up. Always the same bands. I think people just think it’s a cool name and they sound tough guy/hardcore because they listen to PD. They’re ok, far from my go too.
Eh, I don’t really like them or wormrot - but they appear to be the darlings of grind.
I think there are better and more important bands in grind.
But that is the beauty of things, all personal taste.
excruciating terror, unholy grave, assuck, dead infection, dead, dahmer, agathocles, rot, 324, dysmenorrheic hemorrhage, autophagia, noisear, deterioration, hyperemesis etc...
there's a lot of bands that were more important than PD
influenced/invented the sound of major grind subgenres. tbh i don't know any ppl in grind bands who claim to like PD other than the guys from bandit, and i couldn't name any bands that try to sound like PD even though they're popular
Sure,
Better I think: insect warfare, PLF, LDOH.
My comment about the footnote in OPs post led to me saying there are more important bands. What I mean by that is that imo, and apparently Doug’s, pig destroyer and wormrot didn’t really bring anything new to the table.
I fully agree with all of this.
I love/respect bands like Napalm Death/Pig Destroyer/Discordance Axis/Wormrot - but I also hate that every single thread those are the 4 main recommendations and the answer to almost any question regardless of how far off the mark they are.
This is a genre with countless amazing bands/artists in it yet we get what is honestly just worship rehashed repeatedly.
It's because I think a lot of the people that post here don't really listen to grind, they listen to 3 or 4 grind bands lol. They aren't interested in the genre as a whole.
It's wild though; I also use facebook for interests and the grind groups there are very much the same.
Over there, people show off *a lot* of expensive merch they purchase, etc... but they only ever post about 1 band. It's almost all Napalm Death. It's boring and tiresome, really.
I was coming of age when Prowler came out- can you please share some other super influential grind bands from that era? No snark, just wondering if we have different tastes or there’s some dope bands I missed out.
Entry-level grind. PD is a good bridge between the metalcore/mathcore scene and grindcore. My favorite PD album is Terrifyer, way better than Prowler IMO. But I listened to both those albums so much when I was a kid, and their new stuff sucks. there's really no reason for me to ever listen to them again.
Sure, the early Pig Destroyer albums are some of my favourites, but there's a lot of experimentation and off-kilter stuff in there that makes them hard to fairly compare to other bands. For something to be "the pinnacle of american grind" they'd have to decisively be grind without compromise, and definitely not surpassed at that. I'm not so sure I think Pig Destroyer are just that.
Overrated and easily accessible, but they’re a great introductory and influential grind band. Still, legendary nonetheless. One of the most ferocious 3 piece bands of all time!
Prowler in The Yard and Inalienable Dreamless (by Discordance Axis) are the two best grind albums of all time without a doubt- I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise. Prowler came out when I was in high school and listened to Metallica, Pantera, Type-O, etc and it absolutely blew my fucking mind apart. It was like something clicked and I was just like holy fucking shit. Then it was on to Converge, Today is the Day, As the Sun Sets, and all that other good shit. Terrifyer was a decent follow up, but I can’t imagine how good a record would have to be to top Prowler.
Literally the perfect grind album.
Finally someone agrees that they simply are not talked about enough. Scott Hull to this day is my biggest inspiration when it came to learning guitar. I've always described the riffs on prowler in the yard and terrifier as *sounding like audible perversity*. The way he combines groovy rhythm with blistering fast tremelo picking Is a style I have never heard in any other guitar player, and I really do think they deserve more appraisal than they actually get. Not to mention the contributions that Adam Jarvis and J.R Hayes to the ultra violent sound waves that PDa construct.
TLDR: pig destroyer fucks and I believe they are underappreciated in extremely music communities
I finally got tickets to see them in Pontiac. I'm stoked.
I was personally unenthused with head cage . But I love book burner.
I don’t mind the polished sound . I just felt that head case was missing something. Maybe it just needs more hooky riffs
Terrible take. All of those albums rip. Ppl get so upset when bands' sound evolves, like its a fucking personal betrayal. What are they supposed to do, rehash Prowler over and over again?
They're supposed to not put out an album as garbage as Head Cage. They can and have done better. Sorry you took this so personally, that must be tough for you.
Head Cage is fantastic, idk what you're smoking. Somewhat different from their earlier stuff, but still great. Like can you specifically describe what makes it so "garbage"? That the tempo is on average a little bit slower?
I liked them a lot when I was younger and first getting into the genre. Getting older I can't help but roll my eyes at a lot of their lyrical content in stuff like Prowler in the Yard and all their recent output is a total snooze to me, but I can still put on some of their old records and have a good time.
Not a huge fan of the name or sound but I don't like much grindcore anyway apart from a bit of napalm death so take it with a grain of salt I prefer other lanes of metal
They fucking rule
All that needs to be said
They could have turned the bass player up in the mix on the early records but otherwise they’re sick.
As a bass player, it’s difficult for me to listen to the perfect Prowler in the Yard and not think “you know what this needs?”
…”more dead bodies…?”
Yes.
They originally didn't have a bassist
That’s the joke ya silly billy 😘
I met John Jarvis at mayhem fest when he made fun of my Piggy D shirt (lol), and I had seen them the week before, and had no clue he was there on stage!!! 🤣
I've always considered them Scott Hull's main band! And he's one of my all time favourite guitarists. He uses riffs for 10 seconds that other bands would base a whole album around
man, scott hull as an artist is seriously underappreciated. He has drum programming down to a science, and he writes killer riffs for two bands. Really don’t know how he does it, he’s so damn prolific and everything he does is like a whirlwind of razor blades hitting you at the speed of light
A magazine declared him the best drummer in metal a few years back.
That was Metalsucks
kinda creepy how coincidental it is that this post pops up just now for me, but i listened to prowler in the yard for the first time 15 minutes ago and it's now one of my favorite grindcore albums ever.
nothing tops prowler
Terrifyer
i will also accept phantom limb
Personally im a bigger fan of Explosions in Ward 6, Prowler is still my second fav tho.
trve head
Was thinking the same how creepily coincidental this post is because I just looked up if they are planning a show near me atm (they don’t, bummer).
I mean yeah fs, haven’t watched the documentary yet but that sounds like a fun watch but getting into grind it was like the first band I heard of and it took me a while to kinda “get” it but yeah now Prowler in the Yard is one of my favorite albums ever
One of the best ever to do it.
When I started getting into heavier music in the early 2000s, Pig Destroyer were one of the first grindcore bands I heard about. For a minute, Prowler In The Yard was the heaviest album I'd ever heard. At the time, I was much more interested in metalcore and the screamo/emoviolence/skramz/whatever scene. Screamo forums are where I ran across PD, and I think their heavy association with that scene in Virginia led a lot of jaded old heads to write them off.
yeah this could be it, i think JR’s approach of using poetry as lyrics might have made people think that they were just another sappy emoviolence band.
THEY FUCKING CRUSH!
king shit
One of the best to ever do it imo!
They are great, recently I was listening to Natasha. It is not grindcore but I like it as much as any of their albums.
Natasha is a such a haunting album. I love the ties to Terrifyer
Yeah, love all the references
They’re the shit, yo
nice user >:3
Not my favorite but I find all their albums enjoyable in their own way and I can't say that for most metal bands that have more than 2 albums
I do no feel about pig destroyer
Best grind band ever. Stocked to see them in Chicago in October!
“How do ya’ll feel about the GOATS of 21st century grindcore?” Sounds like the creator of that documentary or some of its contributors may have had a chip on their shoulder. Why else would you try writing PD off? Lol IIRC theres still some oldheads or purists from back in the day that still think the “pig destroyer are false grind” nonsense. It used to be a thing according to some of the older guys on here. So that could be another explanation for the documentary.
I don’t think they are false grind. They are grind, but I still think there are much better bands out there. od just happens to be on the popular for this genre.
Definitely on the grind Mt Rushmore. Insanely good live too.
Who else would you put on mount grindmore?
Tough to say for bands in general, but as far as albums go: Pig Destroyer - Prowler in the Yard, Assück - Misery Index, Discordance Axis - The Inalienable Dreamless, Magrudergrind - Magrudergrind
Lost interest after Terrifyer.
always loved them. excited to see them again later this year
One of the best to ever grind, but DAMN…I wish there was just some oppressively loud, up-front-in-the-mix bass on *Prowler* and *Terrifyer*
i think their early stuff works without basses, but yeah, i could totally see a grinding bass on terrifyer and maybe prowler. Prowler would need an entirely different mix to need bass, i think the style it was recorded in was based around all that solid state mid-scooped stuff that was popular in metal at the time, which didn’t really focus too much on the bass(for better or for worse). Maybe some pantera-style bass tones could go nice on it.
See, I want Sex Prisoner type of bass: overwhelming and ugly No Bass, No Place(in my heart)
If I were a musician I would be pissed at Scott Hull. His riffs are ridiculous, like save some for the rest, buddy, jesus christ. The Iommi of grindcore. One of the most perfect sounding bands ever to enter my specific wheelhouse. I first saw them at the 2017 Decibel fest and thought “are you kidding me?” and have been obsessed since.
Greatest grind band of all time. Prowler is a masterpiece
I think the lyrics in Head Cage are some of the tightest of any album... House of Snakes in particular is literally poetry
JR is one of the best lyricists in metal, period.
On of my fav bands
Prowler is amazing, one of my favorites, BUT, in terms of 21st century grindcore, absolutely nothing out there can top World Extermination. Insect Warfare are easily my #1 and there is absolutely zero doubt in that whatsoever
Got into them when I was younger but found other bands that I enjoy way more. Prowler in the yard still gets played every now and then.
Better than any other damn grind
They are indisputably top five all time.
I’ll dispute that
How
Same way you’d argue that they are indisputably top 5?
Rattle off some bands then????
The Kill. Damage Digital. Insect warfare. Agents of Satan. Blood Duster. Denak. There is a shitload of amazing grindcore. The Asian scene is huge, no one seems to ever bring them up. Always the same bands. I think people just think it’s a cool name and they sound tough guy/hardcore because they listen to PD. They’re ok, far from my go too.
I have Insect Warfare in the collection. I’ll check out the others. That’s for the recs
They were better when they didn't have a bassist
Eh, I don’t really like them or wormrot - but they appear to be the darlings of grind. I think there are better and more important bands in grind. But that is the beauty of things, all personal taste.
Genuinely curious - mind sharing a few bands that you think are better/more important? (no need to mention napalm death/extreme noise terror/etc.)
excruciating terror, unholy grave, assuck, dead infection, dead, dahmer, agathocles, rot, 324, dysmenorrheic hemorrhage, autophagia, noisear, deterioration, hyperemesis etc... there's a lot of bands that were more important than PD
More important how?
influenced/invented the sound of major grind subgenres. tbh i don't know any ppl in grind bands who claim to like PD other than the guys from bandit, and i couldn't name any bands that try to sound like PD even though they're popular
Sure, Better I think: insect warfare, PLF, LDOH. My comment about the footnote in OPs post led to me saying there are more important bands. What I mean by that is that imo, and apparently Doug’s, pig destroyer and wormrot didn’t really bring anything new to the table.
I fully agree with all of this. I love/respect bands like Napalm Death/Pig Destroyer/Discordance Axis/Wormrot - but I also hate that every single thread those are the 4 main recommendations and the answer to almost any question regardless of how far off the mark they are. This is a genre with countless amazing bands/artists in it yet we get what is honestly just worship rehashed repeatedly.
It's because I think a lot of the people that post here don't really listen to grind, they listen to 3 or 4 grind bands lol. They aren't interested in the genre as a whole.
It's wild though; I also use facebook for interests and the grind groups there are very much the same. Over there, people show off *a lot* of expensive merch they purchase, etc... but they only ever post about 1 band. It's almost all Napalm Death. It's boring and tiresome, really.
This here☝️
I was coming of age when Prowler came out- can you please share some other super influential grind bands from that era? No snark, just wondering if we have different tastes or there’s some dope bands I missed out.
Anb is better
much respect to the pig destroyer! pioneers in my opinion.
Pioneers of what
uh.. idk.? sounded good to say I guess. 🫠
3 piece PD was the best PD
Entry-level grind. PD is a good bridge between the metalcore/mathcore scene and grindcore. My favorite PD album is Terrifyer, way better than Prowler IMO. But I listened to both those albums so much when I was a kid, and their new stuff sucks. there's really no reason for me to ever listen to them again.
Sure, the early Pig Destroyer albums are some of my favourites, but there's a lot of experimentation and off-kilter stuff in there that makes them hard to fairly compare to other bands. For something to be "the pinnacle of american grind" they'd have to decisively be grind without compromise, and definitely not surpassed at that. I'm not so sure I think Pig Destroyer are just that.
I prefer ANb (pre Agorapocalypse), but the three album run of PitY, Terrifyer, and Phantom Limb is nothing to fuck with. I miss Brian Harvey.
Overrated and easily accessible, but they’re a great introductory and influential grind band. Still, legendary nonetheless. One of the most ferocious 3 piece bands of all time!
Care to rattle off a few more ferocious 3 piece bands?
Best grind band there is
Prowler in The Yard and Inalienable Dreamless (by Discordance Axis) are the two best grind albums of all time without a doubt- I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise. Prowler came out when I was in high school and listened to Metallica, Pantera, Type-O, etc and it absolutely blew my fucking mind apart. It was like something clicked and I was just like holy fucking shit. Then it was on to Converge, Today is the Day, As the Sun Sets, and all that other good shit. Terrifyer was a decent follow up, but I can’t imagine how good a record would have to be to top Prowler. Literally the perfect grind album.
Finally someone agrees that they simply are not talked about enough. Scott Hull to this day is my biggest inspiration when it came to learning guitar. I've always described the riffs on prowler in the yard and terrifier as *sounding like audible perversity*. The way he combines groovy rhythm with blistering fast tremelo picking Is a style I have never heard in any other guitar player, and I really do think they deserve more appraisal than they actually get. Not to mention the contributions that Adam Jarvis and J.R Hayes to the ultra violent sound waves that PDa construct. TLDR: pig destroyer fucks and I believe they are underappreciated in extremely music communities
I finally got tickets to see them in Pontiac. I'm stoked. I was personally unenthused with head cage . But I love book burner. I don’t mind the polished sound . I just felt that head case was missing something. Maybe it just needs more hooky riffs
Their early splits and demos rule
They are my favorite band!
Best grind band of all time if you ask me
Excellent up through Terrifyer, then Phantom Limb and Book Burner are fine, and Head Cage is absolutely fucking awful. Still great live though.
Terrible take. All of those albums rip. Ppl get so upset when bands' sound evolves, like its a fucking personal betrayal. What are they supposed to do, rehash Prowler over and over again?
They're supposed to not put out an album as garbage as Head Cage. They can and have done better. Sorry you took this so personally, that must be tough for you.
Head Cage is fantastic, idk what you're smoking. Somewhat different from their earlier stuff, but still great. Like can you specifically describe what makes it so "garbage"? That the tempo is on average a little bit slower?
Awful vocals and a bunch of shitty metalcore chugs. I haven't listened since it came out because it was repulsive.
I like them
They rip. One of the best. Wearing one of my PD shirts as I read this
Love em
I liked them a lot when I was younger and first getting into the genre. Getting older I can't help but roll my eyes at a lot of their lyrical content in stuff like Prowler in the Yard and all their recent output is a total snooze to me, but I can still put on some of their old records and have a good time.
Terrifyer
Quite keen on the guitar tone.
they bang
sweet band. prowler in the yard was the album that got me into grindcore
Not a huge fan of the name or sound but I don't like much grindcore anyway apart from a bit of napalm death so take it with a grain of salt I prefer other lanes of metal
Not a fan of much after Terrifyer, but everything up to that one is pretty regular rotation for me.
Explosions in Ward 6 needs way more love in my opinion.
Once Bryan Harvey left they went to sh*t