Pig Destroyer - Prowler in the Yard

20 years after, Scuttlegoat goes back on a mythic grind album

Roger Ebert, in his review of “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer” mentions a divided film festival audience. Some argued that the violence in it is “justified because of its uncompromising honesty in a world where most horror films cheapen death by trivializing it”. Or rather, a divide between “those who felt the film did its job brilliantly, and those who felt its job should not have been done at all”. The all-too-real to be enjoyed horror film has since - and even before, if we consider ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ or ‘Maniac’ - been replicated, its formulas analyzed and introduced into the language of film. Music, and particularly heavy metal music, tends to employ horror as a subject matter rather often. Metal seems to be obsessed with the camp, with ludicrous gore, vampires, ghosts and the like. Metal has not often attempted to depict real violence, depravity and pathological mental illness. Perhaps the earliest work that did it brilliantly is ‘Prowler in the Yard’ by Pig Destroyer, which turned twenty years old on July 24th of this year.

Scott Hull, famously the only instrumentalist in the ridiculous drum machine grind project Agoraphobic Nosebleed, founded Pig Destroyer with the intent of functioning more like a traditional band. Omitting the bass, as was the style at the time, recruited drummer Brian Harvey and vocalist J.R. Hayes (also in Agoraphobic Nosebleed at the time). First they produced the (rightfully) maligned ‘Explosions in Ward 6’ on which the musicians seemed not able to get into a solid groove, resulting in an album that is rather scattershot with its ideas. After a couple of splits, they would finally release ‘Prowler in the Yard’ in 2001. Prowler is decidedly different from anything they had done with Agoraphobic Nosebleed. You see, this album is the rare case of a Grindcore concept album. The story is told in the rambles of a drug addicted and heavily medicated man who continuously stalks and ultimately murders the ex-girlfriend that left him. The album opens with a story about Jennifer, likely the protagonist’s ex-girlfriend, having the weirdest intercourse imaginable on a busy street. It is narrated by a text-to-speech program - we are detached from what is happening. Nonetheless there is a comment being made: This might be pornography, but it also might be art, as discussed by a slug-like woman and a balding professor-type man. Immediately, we understand that our protagonist has lost his grip on reality, as he apparently murders unrelated cheerleaders in an act that would make Patrick Bateman proud. He goes on to stalk, harass and frighten Jennifer - he is the ‘Prowler in the Yard’. Conflicting information is presented, as he apparently formulates a suicide note in the song ‘Starbelly’ and yet is able to murder Jennifer, holding her head in his hands - a trophy, like his viking ancestors, as Edward Kemper would put it. A release can only come for him in fantasy, as he resumes his fantasy from the start. Jennifer aids in the unbirth of her friend that she made out with so artfully just moments before.

Musically, a lot is on display here. As grindcore dictates, the music is fast and has a punk feel. Songs are short and only present a few musical ideas at once. ‘Prowler’, however, succeeds where earlier Pig Destroyer material failed: musical ideas are being developed and given time to be properly explored - no longer does the band seem to have the urge to stop songs as soon as possible. Songs are as long and as developed as they can be. Some, notably ‘Starbelly’ and the closer ‘Piss Angel’ reach titanic lengths for grindcore - more than 3, no, even 5 minutes! The album showcases a band playing with each other and finding joy in playing this material. As such, the album feels less like an exercise in exhaustion than many other grind albums. The vocals eschew sillier vocal concepts like pig squeals or gutturals in favor of a desperate yell - sometimes reverberated in odd ways, like the end of ‘Body Scout’ where they are allowed to exist completely without instrumental accompaniment. You can hear the Prowler scream from the yard, but you don’t know exactly where he is. The guitar work on here is also some of Scott Hull’s best. This is a varied album, where Hull’s guitar work is always playing with the drummer and not settling into a repetitive trem pick assault too often. From sludgy riffs, to an almost start-stop mathcore section, to skronky passages that almost recall a grinded-up Gorguts, they all can be found here. 

‘Prowler in the Yard’ is an album whose influence can still be felt today. While some of its innovations might seem to have been made obsolete by more experimental acts like Full of Hell or Gridlink, there can be no doubt that Prowler has at least somewhat influenced them. ‘Prowler in the Yard’ has stood the test of time and can be recommended to extreme metal fans without many reservations.