The Network

This is Your Pig’s Portrait (Black Market Activities)
by Hansel Merchor

Formed in 1999, The Network formed from the ashes of Fault and Ookla The Mok, two names that might not tell you anything, but the fact that this release is coming out on Guy Kozowyk’s (The Red Chord) label certainly should. Known for the extremity of its releases, this young label has been consistently dropping some really good stuff. Funny then how we find a line like “what if we never wake up? What if we never see the sun again?” here. It’s introspective and somewhat whiny. But that’s about it for tenderness. Musicwise, at least, this retains its brutality via jagged riffs, constant abusive tempo shifts, hyperfast passages that blur the lines of musical construction, and a vocalist who at times sounds like his head has swollen to impossible proportions and is about to burst like a bubblegum balloon in the face of a child. This is Your Pig’s Portrait is one of those complicated and technical extreme metal records that’s high in the ADD factor and whose only consistent trait is extremity.
(www.blackmarketactivities.com)