Josh's Review of
Watts - Pigmartyr
Five years. In the grand scheme of things, five years is nothing. When you're waiting for a new album from one of your favorite artists, though, five years is a bitch and a half. And you know what the worst part is? The longer you wait, the bigger your expectations get, until even the best album of an artist's career won't satisfy you. Knowing this, I tried to approach Pigmartyr with an open mind. I didn't want it to be the best album ever, I just wanted it to be good. After listening to it a few times...well, it's definitely not the best album ever. And sadly, it's really not even a very good album, either. There are bits and pieces of the excellence here and there, but most of the album is just filler that doesn't really go anywhere. It's almost like Raymond spent a bunch of time on one little part of each song, then slapped the rest together in about fifteen minutes. Take "Vitriol Vice & Virtue", for example. It opens with an absolutely killer riff, then just kinda...stops. The rest of the song is bland and forgettable. The riff comes back in a couple of times, but it's drowned out by the rest of the mix. The album is filled with moments like this. It's really frustrating, because it feels like there's a great album somewhere in there just waiting to burst out. After five years, I feel crazy for saying this, but they really should've spent more time on this album. All this being said, however, Pigmartyr isn't a total loss. Like I mentioned before, there are some excellent bits to it, and a couple of the tracks rock just as hard as Pig ever did. Anyway, let's get to the song by song review.
Suck Spit Shit - When I first heard this song on the SickCity Volume One sampler a couple years ago, I was kinda iffy about it. There were a couple of cool parts, but over all it wasn't that memorable. This new version, on the other hand, rocks like a bastard. It's basically the same, only with a hell of a lot more punch. Excellent opener.
Here to Stay - This song pretty much epitomizes what I don't like about the album. It starts off with a catchy bass riff, then goes into a nicely melodic chorus with some great female vocals. But that's it. That's the entire song. The verse and chorus each repeat a couple more times, and the song ends. It's not bad, really, there's just not much of anything to it.
Reject - Starts off pretty well, with a simple-but-crunchy guitar riff and some upbeat drumming. When the song hits the chorus, though, it falls flat on its face. At that point, it sounds like just about every other song Raymond's ever written.
Situation - Starts with a nice, heavy guitar riff and some electronic bass, then adds some surprisingly funky elements. The chorus is explosive, but something about it doesn't fit with the rest of the song. That aside, it's a great song, albeit one that's over way too quickly.
Kundalini - This is a really excellent track, kind of like Pig doing new wave 80s music. It seems Raymond's recent collaborations with Bryan Black of haloblack have influenced him significantly. Kundalini has the same glitchy, lofi electronic feel that haloblack does. It's melodic, atmospheric and downright sexy. Raymond's vocals deserve special mention here. They're throaty and sensual, recalling gothic crooners like Peter Murphy and Andrew Eldritch.
Vitriol Vice & Virtue - Opens with one hell of a guitar riff. It's at once both crushing and anthemic. Sadly, the song goes absolutely nowhere with it. The verse & chorus are both pretty generic, sounding like they could've been clipped from just about any Pig song. When the opening guitar riff finally does come back, it's almost totally lost in the mix. This could've been a really cool song, but as it is, it's just barely mediocre.
Take - Unlike Suck Spit Shit, Take is pretty much identical to the version heard on the SickCity Volume One sampler. The only real change is that Raymond now shares vocal duties British chickrocker Harry. Harry is a strong addition to the song, but it's just not enough. While this is the song closest in sound to the older Pig material, it's overly simple and pretty uninspired. Nothing we haven't seen Raymond do better a thousand times before.
Arbor Vitate - Originally a Schaft song, Arbor Vitate has become slightly more rock-oriented in the ensuing years. It's got a nice propulsive quality to it and there are a couple of catchy guitar riffs here and there. It's nothing really special, but Raymond's scream of "I...feel...AAALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE" near the end of the song is one of the album's best moments.
Stage Slut - Opens with a bass riff that, while catchy, is a little too similar to the beginning of Here to Stay. The chorus is pretty cool, but, like Situation, doesn't feel like it fits with the rest of the song. The song doesn't really end, it just kind of peters out into nothing. Pretty unmemorable.
Junky - Okay, don't get me wrong, this is actually a pretty damn good song. Sadly, it doesn't compare with demo version that was released on the SickCity website a couple of years ago. That version was almost entirely guitar-driven and had Arianne Schreiber on vocals. It had a raw passion to it that was nothing short of stunning. This new version is much, much more electronic, with Raymond handling the vocals. In my opinion, that totally kills most of the honesty and intimacy the original version had. Arriane's original vocals felt like a bitter, desperate cry for help, but when Raymond sings them...well, it sounds just like every other song Raymond's ever sung on. Like I said, it's still an excellent track, despite the changes, but I just can't help listen to it without thinking how awesome the original version was.