Throttlerod
Pig Charmer
The Dreaded Press (http://www.rock-metal-musi..c-reviews.com/album-review..-throttlerod-pig-charmer/)
by Paul Graham Raven

OK, if you ever hear me say again that Small Stone Records deal exclusively in stoner rock, you have the right to rap my knuckles with a big bunch of rusty Allen keys until you can see the bones through the shredded flesh. However, if I say again that they deal exclusively in good records with flashes of genuine greatness, I will be speaking the truth – and here’s your point in case, in the form of Pig Charmer by Throttlerod.

Now, I was foxed by the album title, which I took to be a reference to the Jerry Cantrell song of the same name… and perhaps it is. But as a result I sat down to listen to Throttlerod expecting some slow Southern grunge, and while there are some elements of the stoner sound in Pig Charmer, they’re not the dominant aesthetic. Not by a long chalk.

No; it’s waaaay better than that. In fact, it’s a work of brilliance – and yeah, I know I’ve already accused one album of brilliance in the last week, but that was before I heard this one, and it’s not something I do often. Within the two lead-heavy minutes of opening track “Clean” you’ll hear elements of some of the best bands of the past couple of decades: Fugazi, early Tool, Soundgarden, Jesus Lizard… and (most clearly) Helmet. They also remind me of a UK band (now defunct, I expect) called Cortizone, and fans of These Arms Are Snakes will recognise the flavour of intensity here, regardless of the differing pallet of tones and rhythms. But in a nutshell, Throttlerod sound like a young and hungry version of Helmet raised on a diet of early post-hardcore – and I mean that to be about as strong a compliment as I can conjure.

So, what do you get? You get rock-solid drumming in jagged patterns and odd time signatures, monolithic gut-puncher hardcore riffs from a bass and guitar which might well have been welded together, and lyrics delivered with the kind of sneering raw-throated fury and disgust at humanity (not to mention existence in general) that only Page Hamilton and Maynard Keenan have ever managed to articulate effectively before now. I just can’t overstate the power and aggression of Pig Charmer; it’s as if Throttlerod made a checklist of the things I look for in a band and ticked every. Single. One.
Indeed, I feel sure there used to be dozens of bands that sounded just like this in the late nineties, but now I try to think about it I can’t seem to actually remember any. Perhaps it’s a form of wishful thinking, yours truly projecting some aggregate fantasy of the ideal album into a void where no such thing ever existed… but that’s all so much speculative bullshit, frankly. Let’s get back to the facts: Throttlerod will come to your house and whip your brainmeat with industrial-sized monkey wrenches, and you will thank them for it effusively for the rest of your life. Buy Pig Charmer immediately. I am not kidding.





Throttlerod
Pig Charmer
www.craveonline.com
by Iann Robinson

When a band has been kicking around as long as Richmond Virginia band Throttlerod they usually have two choices. They either call it a day or sink into the abyss of re-writing the same album over and over again in order not to upset the fan base. There is a third option, which is to re-invent yourself with every album and constantly push your band as musicians and artists. Few follow the third choice, which makes a band like Throttlerod that much more of an ass-kicking venture. The band’s newest studio offering “Pig Charmer” is a huge rock record, a weird indie album and a swirling noise jam being played on ten in an abandoned elevator shaft.

With Pig Charmer Throttlerod is essentially saying “We don’t care what you or the genre want, we’re here for the f**king music!!” The band kicks the album off with “Clean” a song that moves from noisy and chaotic to huge and riff oriented without ever sounding forced. Throttlerod seem to be able to play fast and loose with the rules of song writing and get away with it clean. Take a song like “Serenade” that sounds like something Killing Joke would play until it stops cold into a mellow spacey tune that invokes thoughts of Sonic Youth. Those two things shouldn’t work together but Throttlerod not only makes them work but makes them rock. No matter what they do this band can’t write a song that doesn’t rock your face off even with all the weird experimentation going on.

Two of my favorite songs on Pig Charmer stand at opposite ends of the musical spectrum as far as sound goes. “Baton Rouge” feels like Motorhead and Blind-era COC while “Buffalo” comes across with a furious Helmet meets Unsane vibe. With all of these varied sounds and influences the songs manage to always remain Throttlerod songs. No matter what their writing or playing the band puts their signature on it and make sure it always sounds like them. Pig Charmer is a personal statement from a band coming into their own not a batch of songs thrown together just to prove the can play.

The center of this storm is songwriter/guitarist/vocal..ist Matt Whitehead who holds the reigns of Throttlerod with great ease. Whitehead is a songwriter with an obviously large palette to draw upon. No matter what kind of fevered dream is happening inside his brain when he funnels it through his hands Whitehead is focused on creating Throttlerod music only. Take a song like “The Sweetness” which comes across like four different tunes crammed into one jam.

In the hands of a lesser songwriter “The Sweetness” would be a mess but Whitehead manages to bend and force it into a cohesive tune that stands out even against an album this complex. I also dig his voice which sounds like a grizzled old rock singer that only stops chain smoking in order to gargle with broken glass.

Producer Andrew Schneider (who also plays bass for Throttlerod) does a brave thing by allowing the production to be as natural and live as the songs themselves. Sometimes you can hear the amps crackle and fuzz out as they reach higher and higher volumes, even the vocals over-bias but all of it works, it all adds to the epic voyage that is Pig Charmer. With so many bands letting me down and so much music out there sinking deep into the bog of mediocrity an album like Pig Charmer and a band like Throttlerod are more than a breath of fresh air they are a revelation.




"Getting Angrier with Throttlerod"
- H.P. Taskmaster
www.theobelisk.net

Sounds like a douchebag thing to say, I know, but whoever pissed off Richmond, VA/Brooklyn, NY’s Throttlerod, I’m really glad they did it. Their first two albums, 2000’s Eastbound and Down and 2003’s Hell and High Water get high praise because of their southern attitude and triple-hops rock, but with 2006’s Nail and now even more with their new full-length, Pig Charmer (Small Stone), they move into furious noise-laden riffs and a melodic catharsis that would make Unsane blush.

Bassist/producer Andrew Schneider, who joined before Nail, might have something to do with it. The Brooklyn contingent in the trio, his presence has lent new intensity and though their songwriting has managed to maintain its structure, Throttlerod sound like a band working out a heavy emotional release, with the vocals of guitarist Matt Whitehead alternating between a capable croon and abrasive shouts, all while Schneider gets the best of his six-string tone and of Kevin White’s drumming as he’s done for the likes of Cave In, Puny Human, Hackman and many, many more. Even the heaviest of the tracks, early cut “Hum” or the later, feedback-drenched “Dink,” keep their heads melodically and Pig Charmer is all the better for it. Without sounding overly commercial or falling into formulaic clean/harsh singing tradeoffs, Throttlerod offer ballsy sonic diversity in a skin-peeling context full of passion and densely pressed onto plastic.






Throttlerod
Pig Charmer (Small Stone)
By Craig Regala
www.lollipop.com

Wow…I didn’t really see this coming. I thought I had a handle on these guys, guess I wasn’t dialed in. It’s a good one, but shit, I musta been standing in a puddle of duh over here. Well, only knee deep. Maybe head down though. Previously, I took these guys to be a rough-cut kick-ass suvvern vs. biker-punk unit; like Zeke’s suckerpunch mid-tempo setting running through Blackfoot and Nashville Pussy tunes. Herein I find’m to be beholden to the rubbery overdrive David Sardy pushed through his own unit, Barkmarket, and various ‘90s production work with Quicksand, Orange 9 MM, and Cop Shoot Cop. Bump that into cool stuff like Fugazi, The Method, Below The Sound, and The Evil Queens and ya got the stuff Throttlerod grease down with those "Southernish" roots.

I went back and listened up and their "this" and "that" really isn’t that far apart. Seeing as I haven’t heard the middle record, this may be kinda obvious, but both ends can be traced back to the Stooges wild-ass overdriven carve-up of John Lee Hooker’s malevolent ‘50s stomp and holler. So onPig Charmer, they keep the tuneful grit of Hell And High Water’s Southern-punk fuel; and blow it through the mile-wide Sardy throb while waddling around in boxers with one leg labeled "Touch and Go"* and the other "Amphetamine Reptile." (Two great labels with bands that’ve bent many a mind and twisted many a stage when Obama was in law school. I didn’t see him at any shows.)

Look, there’s no bullshit here. The songs are trim and powerful and have enough clear no-bullshit live as fuck off-kilter slant to catch your ear and get many a head doing that drugged head bang sway you see at Melvins’ shows. My pick to click: "Hum." It’s got melodic vocal and riff hooks piled into an anthemic tune that should do for these guys what Helmet’s "Unsung" did for them. Load’m with the stuff mentioned above, rounded out with Hackman, Unsane, 50 Tons of Black Terror, The Beasts of Bourbon, and Killdozer.
(www.smallstone.com)


Throttlerod
Pig Charmer
Small Stone
by Michael Toland

Throttlerod has always been a sidestep away from its stoner rock brethren. Artier, more angular, often heavier, even more often just plain meaner, the trio doesn’t pound itself into a hash-piped bliss, but thrashes itself into angel dust fury on its latest spew Pig Charmer. Beggar’s Blanket, Hum and Where’s Josh? crush skulls from twenty paces, like everybody in sight owes the band money. There’s a strong postpunk vibe to Jigsaw, as if Jawbox lent the ‘rodders a few records before the tape rolled. Oddly, the band occasionally veers toward radio-friendly alternative metal – Buffalo has a distinct Nickelback whiff held at bay only by the dissonant bridge. But most of this record is as ugly as a full-grown bulldog - Down and Alabama Thunderpussy are better touchstones than anybody in the Kyuss family tree. In Throttlerod’s universe, it’s better to roar and rage than smoke and screw.



Throttlerod
Pig Charmer
www.allmusic.com
by Eduardo Rivadavia

Richmond, VA-founded Throttlerod have faced quite a bit of change and challenges throughout their decade-long career, including the not uncommon musician turnover, tour-induced dementia, and your basic indie existence starvation, of course, but what about moving to -- gulp! -- Brooklyn, NY, where all bands trendy and vapid seem to be dwelling circa 2009? The answer to this loaded question arrived via the trio's fourth full album, Pig Charmer, which emerged through longtime label Small Stone in 2009, and counted with the help of familiar producer Andrew Schneider (Cave In, Roadsaw, the Blue Man Group!), who had also helmed the studio for Throttlerod's prior outing, 2006's Nail. And, much to their fans' relief, Pig Charmer retained most of the group's core allegiance to thundering hard rock with Southern accents (see the hot, bluesy licks driving "Hum," "Baton Rouge," and "The Sweetness"), whittled down just slightly to reflect their new, more claustrophobic urban surroundings by way of a slew of dense, often disconcerting tunes curiously reminiscent of sludgy '90s grunge. Take the swirling feedback introducing misleadingly named two-minute opener "Clean," for example, which, before being rudely interrupted mid-scream, led the way to dirge-y riff vehicles like the haunting "Serenade," the grinding "Jigsaw," the Tad-esque "Where's Josh," and the Soundgarden-in-a-swamp of "Beggar's Blanket." Throttlerod's compositional quality control does slip a little during the album's second half, but Pig Charmer still challenges for the championship belt of the band's career, while leaving no doubt whatsoever about which is their darkest and most uncompromising effort yet. That's right, this one.