In light of Relapse’s director of sales Pat Egan’s recent death, Pig Destroyer has released a two track EP in order to raise funds for Egan's daughter’s future college fund. Pat Egan has worked behind the scenes in bringing about the release of countless albums and Pig Destroyer’s efforts to release this EP in light of their recent dearth of releases is a testament to their concern in commemorating Egan’s legacy. These two tracks were recorded on the last day of sessions during the recording for Phantom Limb and was initially slated for release, but after band turmoil that almost resulted in Book Burner never being written and Brian Harvey leaving, the EP fell to the wayside till now.

Mass is a strange drone track that relies more on feedback than Sunn 0))) or GY!BE might be daring to attempt. The song is a nineteen minute stretch of only a handful of chords with only sparse seconds laced throughout of Hayes’ screams, more dissonant and muffled than usual. The distortion of the feedback comes to resemble the sound of a gong being hit and trailing off more than the power chord that it in fact is.

Volume will probably be the highlight of the album for most folks. As a more straightforward doom march, it is a much more digestible track than the previous one. For the most direct comparison of what this sounds like, it would probably be, for obvious reasons, Agoraphobic Nosebleed’s Half Dead, from the Despise You split. The riffing here is simply nasty; moments remind of everything from the chug of Ziltoid’s Planet Smasher to an elephant march that reminds me of a sedated Enabler riff. The song never drops in to any massive breakdown, but instead remains tarrying in punishing riffage. I don't think that either track touches Natasha in terms of quality, but both do brush against that lighter sounding PD that is never witnessed in the blasting violence of their LPs.

For most, this release is nothing more than a teaser for PD’s diehard fans, being simply too dissonant for the not already addicted listeners to really want to spend time with. If this release does anything for those Pig Destroyer fans, rather than satiating their thirst for blistering grind tracks that may or may not have been quenched by last year’s Book Burner, it instead rekindles a desire that 2007’s Natasha first lit and that is the desire for Hull and Hayes to write a macabrely beautiful doom album. Albeit this EP does not nearly come close to the majesty that track conjures, it still leaves a fan hoping.

You can stream Mass & Volume here, but if this doesn’t sound like your particular cup of tea and would still like to contribute to the charity fund, Relapse is also offering a compilation of classic and new tracks from their label’s acts for a small donation here.