Death In June - All Pigs Must Die

I clearly remember the day this album was released: I was living in Germany at the time, and I went to a shop in town where it was possible to listen to vinyls. "All Pigs Must Die" had just arrived, and I was dying to listen to it. No doubt I had that it was going to be DI6's umpteenth masterpiece in an already legendary discography.

I put the piggy pink vinyl (what a nice colour) on the turntable, activated it, and stood there with the headphones, ready to experience the magic. The first song, the title-track, sounded good, with Forseti's Andreas Ritter playing accordion, Campbell Finley's typical trumpet, and Doug's voice performing his anathema against the three piggies of WSD. Then it was "Tick Tock", introduced by Boyd Rice, more of less same formula, without significant variations. Third song, "Disappeared In Every Way", again the same. It was time for "The Enemy Within", a song many had already praised as a new immortal classic. Guess what, it sounded exactly the same as all the previous, and, honestly, rather boring. The lyrics were the worst part: "Piggy, piggy, pay me... The stolen riches are really mine... I have a fight with three piggies". I understand Douglas' frustration for the legal issue with WSD, but all this sounded truly embarassing in my ears.

The worst had yet to come: when I flipped the vinyl and started listening to side B, I discovered that, although there were other five song titles indicated, it had been filled with a big undistinguished soup of noise, samples and distortion. It was a great disappointment. Later, I learnt to appreciate some of the songs on side A, but this doesn't change the fact that "All Pigs Must Die" is DI6's less convincing album, unworthy of the poetry, intensity and beauty of the previous discography.

Fortunately, all legal issues with WSD are now over, and Douglas has just released "The Rule Of Thirds", which may not be a return to the best years, but undoubtedly to a more inspired songwriting.