Personnel: Scott Hull (guitar); Brian Harvey (drums).
Recording information: Visceral Sound.
Originally released as a bonus high-fidelity DVD with their album TERRIFYER, NATASHA allows Pig Destroyer to revisit one of their most experimental songs in the more accessible CD format. Clocking in at a mammoth 37 minutes, the song is atypical of the Virginia band in many ways. Fans of their furiously complex grindcore may be dismayed at the slower pace--more Melvins than Napalm Death--but NATASHA retains the multi-part intelligence of the band's approach. The song tells the story of love, murder, loneliness, and ghostly revenge, mirroring Appalachian murder ballads, only with a brutal new twist. After long minutes of silence and whispered ambient noise to set the scene, the band and singer JR Hayes slowly build up tension, the music's agitation steadily increasing with the horror of the lyrics. Intensity comes in many shades, and NATASHA matches that of Pig Destroyer's other work with a different, but effective, approach.
Professional Reviews
Alternative Press (p.143) - 4.5 stars out of 5 -- "[With] impeccably recorded sound effects and disturbing, frequently whispered horror narrative....[The album] feels like a monumental leap for grindcore in general."
