Raymond Watts is <PÎG>. Plain and simple. Mr. Watts has been at this since late in the last millennium with more than 30 albums, EPs, and collaborations online. This industrial hellraiser has the corner on industrial creativity! Think Rob Zombie, The Prodigy, The Child, Caligula, Def FX, maybe even RAMMSTEIN, Megaherz, Eisbrecher, etc … and then forget them all completely! <PÎG> has been setting the standard for industrial noise and beats since the 1980s and continues to do so with his latest release, “Pain Is God”.
Formerly of KMFDM, his output under this nom-de-scène has been likened to … indeed, fans of metal, industrial, and heavy-rock artists would have these recordings sitting happily in amongst their KoЯn, NIN, and Ministry albums. But then you get a Latin attack in Salambo or the jazz-chord infused En Esch mix of Prey & Obey and you’re right back at forgetting them – every single one of them!
Like every other of his albums (full Soundcloud and Bandcamp discography listed below) this is a collection of 14 bangers (16 if you get the Deluxe Vinyl Edition), with emphasis more on guitars and throaty Rob Zombie-cum-Pinky Beecroft styled vocals with slower tempos and heavier, solar plexus-shattering beats. This is why <PÎG>’s disciples worship the Sacred Saint of all Seven Sins at the altar of the Lard Almighty. With tracks like Pain is God mixing Machine Gun Fellatio and Fonti-brothers-era Def FX, Cursed bringing back MGF with NIN and RAMMSTEIN, and Rock & Roll Refugee serving up Marilyn Manson’s Beautiful People in a RAMMSTEIN style (I love the smell of rock & roll but you can’t smell your own shit on your knees) this album would fuel a rave on its own!
Not satisfied? Try the old-school R&B-flavoured Badland with some jazz-horn over some driving beats; or the outright-Heirate Mich of Wages of Sin, the not-quite-chill of Deliverance, or the Mike Patton-era Faith No More of Kickin Ass — I legitimately found it difficult to turn this record off, and the volume at which this needs to be enjoyed this is beyond the personal pain threshold of this punter!
Convert to the church of <PÎG> and save your soul from cheap imitators! If Pain is God, I don’t want to be agnostic!
| <PIG> online releases 2002-2020* | <PIG> and other releases 1988-2018: | |
| “Genuine American Monster” 10/10/2002 | “A Poke in the Eye … ” (1988) | |
| “Pigmata” 8/11/2005 | “Praise the Lard” (1991) | |
| “The Diamond Sinners” 5/08/2016 | “Hello Hooray” EP (1992) | |
| “The Gospel” 9/09/2016 | “A Stroll in the Pork” EP (1992) | |
| “Swine And Punishment” 5/05/2017 | “The Swining” (1993) | |
| “Prey & Obey” EP 16/06/2017 | “Sin Sex & Salvation” EP (1994) (as <PÎG> vs KMFDM) | |
| “Risen” 8/06/2018 | “Red Raw & Sore” EP (1994) | |
| “That’s The Way” EP (with Sasha Grey) 31/08/2018 | “Painiac” EP (1994) | |
| “Black Mass” EP 7/12/2018 | “Sinsation” (1995) | |
| “Truth is Sin” (Soundcloud only) | “Wrecked” (1996) | |
| “Stripped & Whipped” 22/03/2019 | “Prime Evil” EP (1997) | |
| “Candy” 21/06/2019 | “No One Gets Out of Her Alive” EP (1998) | |
| “Stripped & Ripped” 1/07/2020 | “Genuine American Monster” (1999) | |
| “Sex & Death” EP 10/07/2020 | “Disrupt Degrade Devastate” EP (1999) | |
| “Pain Is God” 20/11/2020 14-track “standard” or 16-track Deluxe Vinyl releases | “Pigmatyr” (as Raymond Watts) (2004) | |
| “The Gospel” (2016) (co-written/produced with Z.Marr) | ||
| “Risen” (2018) |