Bleed the Pigs: political powerviolence "dream team"

Photo courtesy of Bleed the Pigs

Bleed the Pigs, a sludgy grindcore-powerviolence band from Nashville, Tennessee are a four-piece force to be reckoned with. Starting out as a two-piece with a vision in 2013, the band gives a ferocious voice to statements that are typically shut down and shunned. 

“The idea behind the band was to create intense, heavy and fast music that matched the intensity and aggression carried through by the lyrics,” says guitarist David Hobbs.

“I love having control over something that's typically white male dominated,” says Kayla Phillips, vocalist, on performing their music live. “I especially love it when black girls come up to me after a show and say that they felt safe being there because I was there. That's really important.”

Prior to Bleed the Pigs being formed, Hobbs had played with drummer Taylor Carpenter and bassist Christian Smith in another band for over a year, and describes their songwriting process as both easy and “pandemonium.”

“Taylor, Christian and I will jam on certain concepts for songs and Kayla always keeps us on task and focuses our direction. Sometimes songs come easily and the riffs just flow one after the other, while other times we spend a lot of time sculpting how the song will sound in the end,” he says. “All of our songs, though, are carefully scrutinized and altered substantially before being played live.”

“I’ll tell them certain things that I like, a faster part here, or a sludgy part there. It comes really easy. I think we’re a dream team,” says Phillips.

Their EP, Mortis Fatum, is tight and cohesive, using slightly different styles of metal on particular tracks to convey a message as hard and heavy as the sound. Songs like “Endless Void” and “May” are reminiscent of black metal like Gorgoroth, whereas “Scum Fucker” is a righteous shove to rapists. "I know what you are- a worthless piece of shit," snarls Phillips over furious riffs.

Photo courtesy of Bleed the Pigs

The band is influenced by a grab bag of other grindcore, hardcore, powerviolence and metal bands, including Neurosis, Converge, The Endless Blockade, Hatred Surge and Yautja, as well as Phillips’ favorite, Nirvana.

“They’ve been my favorite band since I was 10 years old and I still feed off of them,” she says.

Non-musical influences include Smith’s dog, Tyler Coburn and George Orwell. Aside from naming him as an individual influence, Smith cites his pet as his dream co-headliner on tour, next to Dave Grohl.

The band loves crowd interaction during shows, and the opportunity to "convey as much passion and intensity as possible,” says Hobbs, in addition to "getting to play loud and live and get pissed off and vent all the pent up aggression towards daily injustices. The whole endeavor is just a wash of emotion and excitement and passion… Beyond that, I just want to have fun and play hard.”

“My favorite part about performing live is seeing people head bang,” says Carpenter. “I want everyone in the whole room to be head banging.”

You can listen to their music on their bandcamp: http://bleedthepigs.bandcamp.com/ and check them out on Facebook.