Pig is Englishman Raymond Watts, who in the early 1980s moved to Germany to
work as a sound engineer and became a founding member of
KMFDM and later a collaborator of
Foetus. Watts left KMFDM after two albums
and started his own project, Pig.
Never For Fun and Sick City/Shit For Brains were
Pig's first singles.
The ferocious blend of industrial music and rock and roll was still insecure
on A Poke In The Eye (Wax Trax, 1988), but
Praise The Lard (Contempo, 1991 - Cleopatra, 1997)
was the album that defined Pig's style once and for all:
the orchestral impetus of Foetus, a shocking cacophony, a
frantic collage and/or a noir atmosphere.
My Sanctuary and Gravy Train led the charge.
The EP A Stroll In The Pork (Concrete, 1992) remixed some old songs and
offered a few new compositions
(notably Death Rattle 'N' Roll and Hello Hooray).
Pig blossomed with the stylistic mess of
The Swining (Alfa, 1993 - Cleopatra, 1999),
The Fountain Of Miracles leading into Blades and the latter
leading into the Black Mambo and this leading into
The Seven Veils, all completely different from each other.
Red Raw And Sore (Alfa, 1994) was the appendix on EP.
Sinsation (Victor, 1995 - Nothing, 1996) showcased a more aggressive
style.
The music of tracks like Painiac
(also Serial Killer Thriller , Golgotha , Analgesia )
is better produced so that the explosive bursts of guitar and electronics
are in the foreground.
Wrecked (Victor, 1996 - Wax Trax, 1997) is a little too determined in
jumping on the bandwagon of KMFDM's and Nine Inch Nails' commercial success
(Contempt, Everything, Save Me), even if Pig's trademark
folly remains the underlying force of the songs.
Prime Evil (Victor, 1997) and
No One Gets Out Of Her Alive (Victor, 1998) are worthy additions to
the Pig canon.
Genuine American Monster (Victor, 1999) rehashes their fearful
musical and
lyrical themes in compact songs like Disrupt, Degrade and Devastate, but
a grotesquely exagerated gothic and almost criminal stance detracts from
the music.