Pig Charmer

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.