‘Granted that the majority of the subject matters are palpable to many as is, at times you simply need to be reminded about who the real enemy is, why, and what you should do about it. After all, all pigs must die.‘
-Eeli Helin
Release date: July 28, 2013 | Southern Lord | Bandcamp | Twitter
Many bands hide behind frilly monikers and metaphorical lyricism. All Pigs Must Die said ‘fuck that noise‘ and did the exact opposite, dressing their unsparing dissection of the human condition in the most no-holds-barred metallic hardcore imaginable. Crust punk and grindcore have always been easy bedfellows, and on Nothing Violates This Nature, APMD hammer this realization home like rent was due and the landlord was about to catch these hands.
Eeli Helin
‘Police brutality is the use of excessive or unwarranted force by law enforcement, resulting in physical or psychological harm to a person. It includes beatings, killing, intimidation tactics, racist abuse, and/or torture. In the 2000s, the federal government attempted tracking the number of people killed in interactions with US police, but the program was defunded. In 2006, a law was passed to require reporting of homicides at the hands of the police, but many police departments do not obey it.‘
-Wikipedia, on police brutality
All Pigs Must Die – a proper statement as well as a band – released their sophomore album NothingViolates This Nature on July 28, 2013 via Southern Lord, to an unsuspecting crowd that got torn to smithereens as soon as the opening choked hits of “Chaos Arise” swept in. While the group, also with a super-prefix in some instances, certainly made waves already with their debut God Is War from two years prior, it’s with Nothing Violates This Nature that the grinding metallic crusty hardcore punk veterans cemented their place in the collective psyche of the audiences in their particular niches, and for a good reason.
The veteran portion of the above stems from the fact that despite having been an active group for only a few years, the members have such noteworthy acts as Converge, Trap Them, Killer Be Killed, The Hope Conspiracy, and Mutoid Man, to name but a few, under their belts. While All Pigs Must Die instantly made some waves when coming into existence, and without diminishing the merits of God Is War, on Nothing Violates This Nature, APMD truly began to stand on their own feet and shine through the murk as a beacon of entirely its own making.
The rage and fervour plastered across the entire album remains unmet by many, and paralleled only by a select few, truly lifting the sonic violence to exemplary heights. While the faster battering is met to nearly equal measure with primitive mid-tempo beating, the entire 33-minute effort is a seamless work of ravaging art that has stood the test of time with ease. While the music itself is admittedly extreme, the production is crystal-clear and emphasises the cutting instrumentation without compromising the roughness in the slightest. It is a tight rope to walk on, to not slip on either side too much, but APMD treads that well enough to appeal to both sides of the equation.
The lyrics are just as poignant and topical today as they were twelve years ago, which doesn’t exactly speak for a cultural progress on humanity’s part. There’s no smoke and mirrors tactics applied here either, as it’s all straight to the point and zero bullshit, just like the music itself. There is a good reason as to why people resonate with this kind of material, as it conveys a lot of abstracts into a tangible experience. Granted that the majority of the subject matters are palpable to many as is, at times you simply need to be reminded about who the real enemy is, why, and what you should do about it. After all, all pigs must die.
Broc Nelson
When I think of metalcore, I tend to think of glossy production, clean vocal choruses, and an overemphasis on breakdowns. For years, metalcore has lingered on the edge of mainstream music with bands like Thy Art Is Murder, Parkway Drive, and Whitechapel, but that isn’t the full picture of the genre. In fact, that kind of metalcore makes me irritable, like when a housefly keeps landing on your drink and your arm and no matter how many times you swat at it, it just keeps popping up to bother you. It is unfortunate, though, because before metalcore became the Hot Topic merch mover that it is known for, it produced some incredibly badass music.
At the time, I didn’t really think of acts like Converge, Botch, Cave In, Earth Crisis, or Shai Halud as metalcore. They were just hardcore bands that leaned into thrash or death metal, but time makes fools of us all. Now, the arbitrary distinction of metallic hardcore is assigned to those kinds of bands, and as metalcore became more melodic, it took the term ‘metalcore’ with it. Converge and Integrity (among others) still make the kind of metallic hardcore that I enjoy, and twelve years ago, I was given a reminder of how much I enjoy that sound with Nothing Violates This Nature by All Pigs Must Die.
First of all, All Pigs Must Die is one of the best band names in hardcore or metal by a long shot. It spoke to me without even hearing the music. Like, yes, I will listen to this no matter what it sounds like, but to find out the band had Ben Koller of Converge and Brian Izzi of Trap Them in it made it a no-brainer. On top of that, Nothing Violates This Nature was produced by Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou, who basically turns heavy music into gold, and it had members of The Hope Conspiracy and Bloodhorse on it, though admittedly I was not very familiar with those acts.
The rolling cymbals and thrashy, mathy riffs that kick off the album on “Chaos Arise” immediately tell you that this album is not fucking around. All Pigs Must Die are complex without being distracting and have the raw energy of early hardcore bands like SS Decontrol. “Silencer” gives some D-beat energy that almost gets lost with all of the change-ups, but ultimately drives the ferocity. There is virtually no relenting on this energy. Occasionally, there is the icy tremolo picking of black metal, maybe a touch of groove here and there (both noticeable on “Primitive Fear”), but even a medium-pace for APMD is well within the punk and hardcore BPMs. “Of Suffering” does slow things down to a doom-metal pace, building a menacing intensity that despite being slower carries all of the white-knuckle fury of the rest of the album.
Lyrically, Nothing Violates This Nature’s primary theme is the violence mankind does to itself in the name of false myths, notably religious extremism, but greed, nationalism, racism, and the hubris of man trying to live outside of nature are all targets. “Aqim Siege,” nearly a powerviolence track, offers a thesis: ‘nature empowers, mankind devours, peace will never exist.’ This kind of nihilism is all over extreme metal, but APMD joins the ranks of Primitive Man, Nails, and Indian for presenting some of the most blunt and bleak manifestations of this. “Sacred Nothing” repeats, ‘you exist for nothing,’ like a mantra against meaning. Album closer “Articles Of Human Weakness” drives this home: ‘Nothing violates this nature, this nature violates all/honed by cruelty we cling to humanity,’ Kevin Baker barks, closing the track with, ‘all is lost, abandon all hope.’
For as grim as this may sound, All Pigs Must Die and others who share their lyrical themes and musical intensity exist to provide catharsis for all of our most hopeless moments. Whenever I feel hopeless, like no matter how well intentioned and well-researched my utopian dreams may be, they will always fail to the crushing weight of colonialism, capitalism, theocracy, nationalism, fascism, and impending environmental disaster, and mankind’s lust for apathy and ignorance, I know that All Pigs Must Die exist. I can always take half an hour to rage the fuck out to some of the best metallic hardcore recorded in the last 15 years on Nothing Violates This Nature. It may be a temporary respite, but through this rage we can feel solidarity and cleanse the burning anger that dwells in each and every one of us that dares to hope.
