Fukpig - Belief Is The Death Of Intelligence

For me, this is the ultimate Fukpig release, and it trumps anything else they've ever done (which in itself is no small feat). If the first three tracks alone aren't enough to get you hooked then I think you are listening to the wrong genre, mate. "Die Bastard" is fucking vicious, "Britain's Got Fucking Aids" is a rabid stroke of pure genius, and "This Is England" completes the hat-trick of brutality with a back'n'forth blasting atmospheric minute and a half. 

The sound is perfect in the nastiest way possible; the drums are crystal clear and the guitar is like a fuckin' buzzsaw. The vocals...well, they have to be heard to be believed, as any description I could attempt probably wouldn't do them any justice. I think that Belief... is much more focussed (and angrier) than the band's debut - which loses itself a bit - and with that intense production being just spot on, I find it really hard to fault this beast of an album. Is it grind? Is it d-beat? It's fuckin' necropunk!

Fukpig / Kroh - Split 10"

Fukpig bring their haunted crusty d-beat mind-melt to this 10" with Kroh; a confusing clean vocals 'n' super heavy doom combo act. I believe both bands share the same guitarist, but I could be wrong. The guitar tone is really similar by both bands though, even if musically they are completely different. Fukpig bring us three tracks of blackened punk madness, my favourite of which must be "The Prisoner", although opening track "Docile Subjects" brings all the synth creeping in the universe. Kroh lament us through two sludgy hymns of stonery goodness, my favourite of which has to be "Retribution", that although with a softer vocal has a bit more punch to it all round. 

I believe that this is quite a collectable now; not that many of these 10"s were made and like all Fukpig vinyl (this is no exception), it has a habit of disappearing very quickly. Self-released under Devizes Records - also home to both bands. 

Fukpig - Bad Fucking Dickhead

When I heard that Fukpig were returning with another 7" I welcomed the news with open arms. Bad Fucking Dickhead looks absolutely fucking amazing...shit...just look at it! And thankfully, after the slightly off-key release of 3, Fukpig are back on track; Bad Fucking Dickhead sounds as fucking amazing as it looks. I can't really understand what is being said but there is a lot of swearing and a lot of screaming, which is always a good thing.

 

THAT vicious guitar tone is back, as is the haunting synth over the top of everything that gives Fukpig their unique vibe. The B Side, "The Place That We Called Home" opens with a much more classic Fukpig vibe...the d-beat style drumming and the wailing guitars are fucking everywhere, making this a tune that is not only goddamn awesome, but makes me want to get out Belief Is The Death Of Intelligence and spin that bastard as well.

Fukpig are such an under-rated band. There can be no denying that they are absolutely fucking excellent, and their under-exposure is puzzling. Everyone listen to this shit and then go and buy the 7", then all the albums. I'm not asking....I'm telling! Self-released on the brilliant Devizes Records, and limited to 250 copies, all of which are the fantastic transparent yellow with black splatter. I have number 27. Amazing!

Kroh / Ice Dragon - Split 7"

Kroh are on top form here, bringing up more mega-heavy tunage with their trademark crooning vocals. This could be a B-side from the S/T recording sessions for all I know, the sound is that similar to the recordings used there. Does it matter? Nope. Great stuff! Fat production, brilliant singing and THAT guitar sound that we love so much from Fukpig.

 

Ice Dragon I can't get my head around, unfortunately. The sound is an absolute mess, and the band play in some sort of melodic trad doom approach which is as confusing as it is interesting. Imagine merging Zeppelin and Sabbath in a birthing pool filled to the brim with the essence of the modern stoner metal sound, and then throw in some awful production values and you've pretty much got Ice Dragon. Eventually the song slows into one epic solo and shit sounds great, but when things are going faster it just all falls apart. I think I need to see these live to form a decent opinion on them.

Limited to 100 copies on Devizes Records, 50 on green wax and 50 on orange (this fucker).

Fukpig - Spewings From A Selfish Nation

As much as I facking adore Fukpig I can't help but get tits-bored of this album by track three or something. I almost feel bad writing this, but this record is equal amounts nasty, heavy and boring. I know that it is hard to be original in the d-beat/crust corner of grind and punk, but even when Fukpig bring their own rather unique black metal-esque distorted tinge to the table, the combination of different outcomes is still disappointingly low.

For starters, you need to listen to this record on a decent sound system to get over THAT bass drum pattern. If you can't pass this hurdle you might as well give up all hope now. Proceed no further, friend! Ha ha - in all seriousness however, this is an excellent record, I am just over-exaggerating. Do heed my warnings however; I am not lying when I say that it is very repetitive and sometimes boring. Despite my complaints this album contains some brilliant tunes perfect to get your head banging to, or to tear each other apart to in some of the mentalest mosh pits I have ever seen. To the uninitiated; imagine Anaal Nathrakh crossed with Extreme Noise Terror and you'll get a pretty good idea of what is going on here, and hopefully what I mean by a bit boring! Sorry!

Spewings was released by FETO Records and is/was limited to 200 copies. Some copies were released directly by the band and were called the "black" copies. Every single last piece of artwork on these was jet black.