Natasha

I've always been a fan of Grind bands doing slow, doomy songs. I regard Napalm Death's frequent voyages into Swans-pilfering to some of their finest work ever, and regard Cephalic Carnage's "Halls of Amenti" and The Berzerker's "Farewell" to be the greatest thing both bands have ever done. When I heard about "Natasha", I was always keen to hear it, but due to it's ridiculous DVD/Surround Sound format, I could never lay my hands on it. So, when I heard they were re-releasing it as a CD, I was ecstatic! I couldn't believe it! Finally, I could get it! But would it live up to my hopes?

When the ambient noises fade in, it is genuinely creepy and lasts for a good few minutes, before BANG! Out of nowhere comes a huge sounding Godflesh-style riff, mixed with early Swans. The thudding riff just levels you, and the menacing drums just add more weight behind the force with which you fly out of your seat. About now, I'm expecting Micheal Gira to pop up and start crooning in his own unmistakable fashion, but instead we get some whispering and then shouting fro JR Hayes. Although, it's not what I expected, it's certainly great when i get used to it. Perhaps a bit too quiet for my liking, but nothing major. The multi-layering gives the whole thing a schizophrenic quality, and the whole thing sounds like a mentally-ill homeless man ranting. Then it all suddenly stops, and you're given a moment to recollect yourself, thanks to some calming swooshing, before BANG!

Once again, you are levelled as JR turns into full-fledging maniac, shouting and screaming at full volume over a riff which mutates and mutates changing notes every so often, until it's a completely different fucking beast. Then, the to-and-fro nature comes rearing it's head again, as we are treated to more ambience, this time with some strange backwards voices plaguing your mind. Then, it hangs on one note, for what seems an eternity, while samples of various, odd things can be vaguely heard in the background, until a thudding bass note comes in and shatters your pelvis. As this fades out, we begin to hear the remnants of a nice clean riff, glistening and shining out from the darkness, with more Swans worship, this time of later Swans with haunting Jarboe-esque vocals chilling you to the bone. It's nice to see a grindcore band who don't just rely on early Swans, as all the others do, because later Swans is a far greater and far more interesting beast than anything they did before Jarboe joined. Then, water starts to trickle, and I begin to need a pee. A strange voice can be heard, a perverted voice talking as if he is sexually harassing someone, threatening to rape them, all soundtracked by something out of a arthouse horror film. Then there's a riff which is unmistakably doom metal. but it's upbeat. Sounding like a mixture of Burzum, Isis and My Dying Bride, whilst being backed by angelic chants. when the vocals kick in, it's positively ethereal, with a gothic charm unseen before in this type of grindcore experimenting. When the whole thing turns more downbeat with dissonant notes that sound unpleasent to the ear, while JR starts to scream his fucking head off, it really is something to behold. JR's vocals on the next section, mutli-layered, varying from a rabid rabies-ridden dog, to a distorted Bill Steer-esque voice used by so many crap pornogrind bands, but it fucking WORKS. When it all fades out, there's even a slow fucking thrash riff in there, but it WORKS! The ambience seeps through once again, a chilling respite, but the samples which come through leave you bemused "What the fuck is that? What's happening?", before it all washes over you, in the loud hiss of rain and storms, like a more laidback, musique concrete Merzbow. The whole thing envelops you before it stops, and there's silence, nothing. You just don't know what to think. You really don't.

I can see why PD were reluctant to release this as a normal CD, it was developed and certainly suited for the DVD format, but the fact they had a hesitation about releasing this is unbelievable. This is the greatest thing PD have EVER done. Once again, the slow songs outstrip the mind-erasingly fast grind songs by far. Pig Destroyer are a great band, but on this, they've excelled themselves. I hope to fuck they do something else like this in the future. It also sounds like something that I'd love to see Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Hull's other, godly band, do. Actually describing it is hard to say, but imagine early Swans fighting later Swans, being covered by members of Godflesh, Isis, Earth and Merzbow. This doesn't do this justice at all, though. At first, I didn't think it would work. I thought "this will drag, they simply can't stretch this out for 37 minutes" but they have and it works. Astonishing.