Hungary’s Long Pig, which represents the name of human flesh as food for cannibals, is a four-piece death/grind band with a deep love for old school bands like Carcass, Napalm Death and Neurosis. With Barren, they represent their first full-length album at Grindhead Records.

 

Actually, this album is pretty easy for reviewers. It is so god damn clear that all of the members of Long Pig are true fans of the genre according to the technical abilities of the musicians on their individual instruments. Whether taking a closer look on the blasphemy on drums, the fast played dissonance scales or the indiscernible, yet very strong, vocals, it is clear that such a control over the instruments results from a deep nurturing of the scene.
 

Yet, the structure of the songs, the sound, the production, it is all far from original and within the overwhelming offer of grind/death bands. One just gotta come up with something surprising on the one hand, or uber-cool guitar riffs, interesting rhythm sections or other ways to make the listener feel sick. Which does not mean there isn’t anything cool about this album; especially the last two songs, ‘Overcrowding’ and ‘Leading Silence’, have very nice variation in speed and samples of disgust mixed within the songs. But in general, the songs are pretty much all the same; a brutal grunting opening combined with a blastbeat which isn’t much changed throughout the, say, two minutes.
 

Taking that into account, it’s a good thing the album doesn’t last much longer than half an hour. If longer, I’m sure Barren would have bothered me a lot more. All that results now is an album that never really exceeds in quality, yet it never loses its intensity which is in my opinion criterion number one in the genre.