LIVE REVIEW: PIG DESTROYER + WORMROT + AWFUL NOISE @ THE TRIFFID 09/09/25
Photo Charlyn Cameron
Words by Alec Smart. Photos Charlyn CameronVeteran ‘grindcore’ band Pig Destroyer, formed 1997 in Virginia, USA, performed at The Triffid in Newstead, Brisbane, their first gig in Australia since October 2008 – 17 years ago. They were supported by fellow grindcore bands Wormrot from Singapore and Awful Noise from Brisbane.
For those unfamiliar with the grindcore genre – which largely consists of growling vocals punctuated by shrieks, orchestrated by heavy guitars tuned to drop D or lower tunings, with topics covering dark themes of death and alienation – it is best described as an awful noise! But despite the doom-laden atmosphere, they’re a lot of fun.
Grindcore concerts, which tend to be male-dominated (sub-genres include gore-grind and porno-grind, with obvious lyrical themes), are reminiscent of a collection of irritable, hungry bears in a cave, awakening from winter hibernation.
Awful Noise opened the concert and set to work enlivening the early arrivals, vocalist Lindon encouraging a circle-dance in the moshpit among what was initially only a small collection of people. About eight men ran in an anti-clockwise direction around another man grasping a bottle of beer and grinning.
The four-piece, founded 2017 in South Brisbane, introduced some recently-written songs. Encouraging people to purchase their new music, Lindon declared, “Tonight you’re going to go home, have a wank, go to bed, and listen to our shit too!” He later added, “We’ve got some merchandise for sale at the back. We don’t want it gathering dust at home, we’d prefer it gathering dust at yours!”
The band has released one album – A Peaceful Death with Pretty Flowers – plus two split albums with Segregation and Ignite The Massacre. Their songs feature amusing titles, such as She’s so Fit… and Ready for Consumption, Born with Sewn Shut Eyes, Synchronised Drowning and Parasite Hilton.
Photo Charlyn Cameron
Wormrot are a power-trio from Singapore – just vocals, guitar and drums (no bass guitar). They’ve had a couple of changes to personnel over the years, enabling individuals to pursue their lives outside the band, but the core founding duo of Arif (vocals) and Rasyid (Guitar), and long-term drummer Fitri were the incarnation that shook the Triffid’s foundations.
Onstage they’re a mighty force and deserving of their own headline tour – perhaps next time? They began with a slow, steady rhythm, singer Arif clasping his hands above his head, as if in prayer. Then suddenly he launches into a scream and it’s like we’re on a roller-coaster ride plummeting over a precipice. Thereafter, the band took us on a tempestuous trip, ascending steep inclines, descending sheer drops and in between flung around cuspate corners, all the while defying gravity.
The audience, now swelled to fill the hall, responded enthusiastically, a moshing mass merging in the middle.
Photo Charlyn Cameron
Drummer Fitri is a living powerhouse – plug him into the national grid and his energy would illuminate a city – playing complex rhythms across his kit like a jazz percussionist, albeit double the speed.
Before they played Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Grind, (the title a witty pun on the Jim Carrey/Kate Winslet science-fiction film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Arif asked the audience if they objected to the band playing a slow number.
The song was as fast and furious as the previous numbers, so it was difficult to determine whether Arif was jesting or the track was genuinely a micro-second slower. Like standing on a highway with your eyes closed and trying to determine if the vehicle that impacted you was a truck or a bus.
Wormrot have released four studio albums, Abuse, Dirge, Voices and Hiss, and they have the distinction of being the first Singapore band to perform at the distinguished Glastonbury Festival in England (2017) – during which they played inside a converted railway train carriage.
Photo Charlyn Cameron
They’re signed to the influential British record label Earache (which, incidentally, holds the Guiness World Record for the shortest music video – Brutal Truth’s 2001 single Collateral Damage, which lasts an epic 2.18 seconds!).
Pig Destroyer sauntered onstage to the sounds of a deadly dungeon, including dripping water, screams and manic laughter. We were strapped-in for a rough night! Then the music roared forth, like a freight train passing through a crowded station.
The band is a six-piece: vocals, two guitars (one of whom, Adam Jarvis, also plays for Misery Index), bass, drums and a guy at the front who plays samples on a machine. The latter member, Alex Cha, who doubles-up on vocals, joined in 2023 after the sudden and sad demise of long-term member Blake Harrison, who died of complications of melanoma.
Photo Charlyn Cameron
Hyperactive, Alex is the visual focus of the band, flailing his hair, leaping from the drum riser, tilting his sampler stand forward at alarming angles and periodically lifting the whole unit – sampler, support stand, wires and all - over his head like a weightlifter raising a barbell aloft.
If you were a gladiator in a Roman Colosseum in a fight to the death with wild animals and watched by thousands of spectators, this is the fellow you’d rally behind with your swords and shields as the pride of hungry lions were released into the arena.
Musically, Pig Destroyer sound like a multi-car pile-up on a foggy motorway, with vocalist J.R. Hayes howling and groaning like a victim trapped in the wreckage.
Photo Charlyn Cameron
The band chose their name after determining they wanted something confronting, but less direct than the alternative ‘Cop Killer’, which might have seen them targeted for police harassment.
This combative attitude evolved through guitarist Scott Hull’s previous band, Anal Cunt, which is arguably one of the most offensive band names in history. Unlike ‘Pig Destroyer’, AC is a guaranteed method to avoid and invitation to perform at a prestigious venue like Sydney Opera House, or even in a train carriage at Glastonbury, like Wormrot.
J.R. is a master lyricist, dark, articulate, and unabashed about covering difficult topics, including strangulation, stalking, masturbation, murder, revenge, and decomposition.
Amidst songs from their long history, the band introduced a new track, Liam the Driver, “about a crazy van driver we had in Holland.”
Photo Charlyn Cameron
At one stage a heckler called out, “Not bad, for a Tuesday!” referring to the early weeknight of the gig, to which J.R. replied, “We’re not bad on a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night too!”
J.R. also joked about the musical similarity between them and Wormrot; “We like to test-drive Wormrot songs before they play them!”
Some songs transition from one into another, although Alex always indicates the end of each by mimicking a throat-cutting gesture with his finger. During Cheerleader Corpses, he leaps into the crowd and is carried aloft on a sea of hands before hurling himself back onto the stage.
On their website, the band describe their music as: “Pig Destroyer boil metal down to its muscle, sinew, and bone - razor-sharp guitar, percussive pummelling, and a lone, stark howl - and use them to commit a vicious assault. The lyrics paint loathsome, frightening images of pitch-black self-hatred and the frailty of the human experience…”
Photo Charlyn Cameron
So, not something you’d play to your elderly grandparents – at least not until you dug them up from their graves!
The band have released seven albums and six EPs in their 28-year career, plus five split albums with fellow grinders Orchid (1997), Gnob (1999), Isis (2000), Benúmb (2002) and a three-way split with Coldworker and Antigama (2007).
Pig Destroyer Set List
Gravedancer
Scarlet Hourglass
Thumbsucker
Pretty In Casts
Crippled Horses
The Gentleman
SIS/The American’s Head/Eve
Valley of the Geysers [written as ‘Valley of the Geezers’ on the set list!]
Loathsome/The Dicksophat
Blonde Prostitute
Absolute No
Liam the Driver
Starbelly
Naked Trees
Cheerleader Corpses/Scatology
Strangled with a Halo/Mapplethorpe Grey
Trojan Whore/Piss Angel
Junkyard God
Encore
The Machete Twins
