Pitchshifter

"Peel Sessions 1991-93" (Album, 2025)

Cold Spring Records

I used to absolutely LOVE Pitchshifter, a great mash-up of Anarcho, Industrial and Metal (Death Industrial, as they would have it in their early days), they were seriously great live and made really fantastic records for several years.

They also never stood still musically, constantly changing and evolving as they assimilated new musical influences. As is often the case, they went badly off the rails when they lost original percussionist D.J. Walters, and guitarist/ programmer Johnny Carter around the time of the Deviant LP (2000.

This release catches them as they transition from the more ‘Death’ end of Death Industrial and closer to the ‘Industrial’ position, straddling as it does songs from Submit (1991) and Desensitized (1993).

The look and sound is spot-on, the design looking like an unused idea for Submit, and the tracks from 1991 - Gritter, Tendril, Dry Riser Inlet - are pretty much as they appear on the official release - maybe a bit more (ahem) gritty, with the bass pushed further forward in the mix.

The 1993 material - (A Higher Form of) Killing, Diable (Wayco Survival Mix), Deconstruction (Reconstruction) – appear is somewhat different versions, of interest to serious fans of the band; Deconstruction (Reconstruction) especially so, as it is an earlier song from the period when they had two guitarists, but played by the slimmed down line-up in what was becoming their ‘new’ stripped-back sound.

Many early fans of the band didn’t make the transition to the more polished material after 1993’s Desensitized, considering their developing style something of a betrayal. I still loved the later more groove-orientated albums right up to the previously mentioned Deviant, but Desensitized was always my favourite.

For those people who didn’t stay the course, this will be a welcome reminder of the time when Pitchshifter sounded like the looming apocalypse, and for people like me, it will be a welcome reminder of when they sounded like the looming apocalypse, but were about to sound like a single shot from a sniper’s rifle. 8/10

Nick Hydra (February 2025)