Search - Thought Industry :: Mods Carve the Pig: Assassins Toads & Gods Flesh

Burning Kalamazoo to the ground with Zippo fluid

Erik K. Johnson | San Antonio TX | 09/16/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There seems to be little words can do to explain Thought Industry's second album "Mod's Carve the Pig". Their first album "Songs for Insects" left my jaw dropping at the convuluted lyrics and stop-on-a-dime-and-turn-the-bloody-song-around rhythm section. This album makes the tempo and rhythm changes of "Songs" seem a mere novelty, while the lyrics take you on a voyage no doped-up, acid-laced, shroom-swallowing rock poet ever before dared to venture. This album, like all of Thought Industry's albums, requires a few times through the player before you are over-whelmed with the need to simply leave it in at all times. Unlike TI's other albums however, there is very little on it the casual listener could ever be able to swallow, let alone consume in the fashion this album demands of it's listener. An absolutely brilliant piece of work, but make sure to dispose of all pre-conceived notions about how heavy metal, and music in general, needs to be played."

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Erik K. Johnson | 02/22/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Mods Carve the Pig is quite different from Thought Industry's debut Songs For Insects, but every bit as much of a classic. They trimmed down on some of the grandiose flare of the earlier disc, sharpened their sound a bit, and traded in the archaic and fantasy-like imagery of SFI for a more decidedly modern vision. The lyrics are still intense, tittilating hodgepodges of every word you never bothered to look up in the dictionary, but are now supplemented by a new fondness for references to booze, drugs, and current politics, and a strengthened fondness for references to TI's hometown, Kalamazoo. Mods Carve the Pig is a decidedly meaner, darker, more contemporary album, and vocalist Oberlin seems ready to prove that he's far more hardcore than Geddy Lee could ever hope to be. I really love this album because I grew up on it; in reality, there are a lot of rather silly moments and some of the singing, which was always a little off key, is downright difficult to take (see Patiently Waiting for Summer.) But Mods remains an album that is absolutely alive with personal vision and creativity, and there isn't another rock/metal/hardcore-prog album like it anywhere. A unique treat, and the last wholly worthwhile TI album."