The follow-up to Pig Destroyer’s 2018 album Head Cage is an EP comprising three songs not previously available on streaming platforms and three noise-inspired tracks. On The Octagonal Stairway, the Virginia-based grinders compile limited-release skull-smashers from the Decibel magazine flexi series (“The Cavalry”) and the Adult Swim singles series (“Cameraman,” the title track) with noise-based compositions like “Sound Walker,” which is an 11-minute cut-up/remix assembled by former Sepultura drummer Iggor Cavalera. For Pig Destroyer frontman J.R. Hayes, it’s all about the physical release. “I was lobbying for octagonal-shaped vinyl, but nobody listens to me,” he tells Apple Music. “But I’m just happy that these songs have a home now and people can enjoy them all in one place.” Below, Hayes gives us a look down The Octagonal Stairway. The Octagonal Stairway “The title is from one of the oldest buildings in D.C., called the Octagon House. The building isn't actually an octagon or anything, but that's the name of it. During the War of 1812, the British burned everything in D.C.—including the White House—but not the Octagon because that’s where the French ambassador was staying. So it’s really old and there’s a bunch of weird ghost stories attached to it. One of the people who lived there allegedly shoved a couple of his daughters down the stairway and killed them, under real mysterious and creepy circumstances.” The Cavalry “Decibel magazine was trying to get us to do a flexi for a while, and Scott [Hull, guitarist/producer] had the idea of us doing an old-school Napalm Death/Terrorizer type of classic grind song. I tried to spice it up and do my version of Barney Greenway political lyrics. I actually had the lyrics back when we did the Head Cage album, but I didn’t have a song that they fit at the time. And then I think Scott even edited in an old scream from one of the Prowler [in the Yard] songs as an Easter egg at the beginning.” Cameraman “This is another one of my classic ‘I'm depressed and addicted to everything’ songs. Like a ‘life is just a routine, put a bullet in my head’ sort of song. That's the best way I can describe that one. The title comes from the idea that you’re going through life observing all these things and you’re essentially recording them for posterity, but you’re not really in the shot. You’re at a distance, removed, just watching life happen while you’re in your little shit dimension. And you’re not able to turn it off. There’s no pause button. You’re just rolling all the time.” News Channel 6 “When Scott and [Pig Destroyer synth technician] Blake [Harrison] were working on the noise tracks, I was trying to come up with a theme, so I decided I was going to go with a newscast. I think I got the inspiration from Videodrome. That’s me speaking on this—I just tried to do my best Tom Brokaw impression. There are lyrics in the noise tracks, but they’ve all been cut up with the production they were doing. I didn’t put the lyrics in the liner notes, but there are actual lyrics in there somewhere.” Head Cage “The lyrics to this actually go back further than the Head Cage album. Blake and I cut a couple of noise tracks that I had two different sets of lyrics for, and this was the one that actually didn’t get used on the album. But I’m also entertained by the idea of the title track not being on the record. For some perverse reason that I could never articulate, I get some kind of weird satisfaction out of that.” Sound Walker “Our new bass player, Travis [Stone], played in a band with one of the Cavalera offspring, and we knew Max Cavalera was a fan of Pig Destroyer. Then we found out that Iggor [Cavalera] was a fan as well—and that he wanted to do a remix. And of course we all love Sepultura, so we were like, ‘Fuck yeah.’ I don’t know what Scott sent him for this or how much of it is our stuff cut up and how much of it is Iggor’s thing, but I dig the vibe. It’s really ominous and I think it’s a really cool closer for the record.”