Pigsty - Planet Of The Pigs

Planet Of The Pigs is the final (?) album from long-running Czech grindcore band, Pigsty. I think to still call Pigsty a grindcore band by this point is pushing it a bit; Planet Of The Pigs has a whole world of other influences building on the grinding template, from thrash to death metal, to the kooky ongoing concept ("Inspection Report" kicks this thing off with GWAR-grade sci-fi storytelling) and even the insane djent moments that randomly crop up through the chaos. 

The band have had an almost exclusive relationship with Bizarre Leprous productions, and I sincerely hope that one day they shall return from the Planet Of The Pigs to blast us with more perplexing space grind.

Meshuggah - Catch Thirtythree

I'm not entirely sure what it was that struck me, but I randomly went out of my way to finally listen to a Meshuggah record, and what suprised me more than anything was that I was able to make it all the way to the end without turning it off. I have nothing personal against Meshuggah, except for inspiring a worldwide fucking legion of brocore brown-nosers and carbon copy chug and/or "djent" bands that believe that having expensive guitars and a ridiculous low end tone somehow compensates for actual songwriting. Yeah, we get it, the guitars are playing out of time with the drums. We know. Beefheart did that shit in the fucking 60s.

But Catch Thirty Three is a pretty decent slab of metal, if I'm honest, if not a little repetitive. I'm a grumpy sod when it comes to metal, but I would be lying if I said this was bad.