After the release of their debut album in 2017, Newcastle's Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs were herded into the subcategory of "metal bands using Black Sabbath riffs," and it's a sound they've not attempted to downplay since. The trajectory to their fourth record — the theatrical, punishing Land of Sleeper — has seen the band refine their sound, shifting from an extended and trance inducing use of the riff as a kind of brutal minimalist foundation to an inspired cross-breeding experiment with the slinky rhythmic violence that the Stooges perfected in their heyday.
Where Sabbath and their ilk often channel their aggression through a tapestry of apocalyptic speculation or satanic codswallop, Pigs attempt to get at the bleeding heart of the matter in a direct, almost id-driven roar. Vocalist Matt Baty is a shouter extraordinaire in the mold of Henry Rollins, channeling a primal scream on opening track "Ultimate Hammer," with its refrain of "What a time a to be alive" delivered with an echo that suggests it's being shouted into a desperate void rather than after a particularly successful supermarket visit.
The stampede of the first three tracks takes a breath on "The Weatherman," featuring a kind of folk horror incantation courtesy of a guest choir including British avant music scions Kate Smith, Richard Dawson, and Sally Pilkington. Streaking above the circle are the guitars of Sam Grant and Adam Ian Sykes, rising and diving like twin spirits unleashed by the ceremony.
The Pigs formula, if there is one, is also challenged on closing track "Ball Lightning," which starts with a recognizable mid-tempo crawl that's especially ornate, topped by a single pulsing piano note. Baty's vocal is eventually joined and doubled by folk artist Cath Tyler's to create a kind of shared, doomgazing lamentation that's buoyed by the distribution of its weight.
Like their previous albums, Land of Sleeper transcends when taken in as a whole, with tracks that are perhaps individually a bit workmanlike but soar when plugged next to the surrounding pieces. It's another full-blooded addition to the band's increasingly impressive discography.
(Rocket Recordings)Where Sabbath and their ilk often channel their aggression through a tapestry of apocalyptic speculation or satanic codswallop, Pigs attempt to get at the bleeding heart of the matter in a direct, almost id-driven roar. Vocalist Matt Baty is a shouter extraordinaire in the mold of Henry Rollins, channeling a primal scream on opening track "Ultimate Hammer," with its refrain of "What a time a to be alive" delivered with an echo that suggests it's being shouted into a desperate void rather than after a particularly successful supermarket visit.
The stampede of the first three tracks takes a breath on "The Weatherman," featuring a kind of folk horror incantation courtesy of a guest choir including British avant music scions Kate Smith, Richard Dawson, and Sally Pilkington. Streaking above the circle are the guitars of Sam Grant and Adam Ian Sykes, rising and diving like twin spirits unleashed by the ceremony.
The Pigs formula, if there is one, is also challenged on closing track "Ball Lightning," which starts with a recognizable mid-tempo crawl that's especially ornate, topped by a single pulsing piano note. Baty's vocal is eventually joined and doubled by folk artist Cath Tyler's to create a kind of shared, doomgazing lamentation that's buoyed by the distribution of its weight.
Like their previous albums, Land of Sleeper transcends when taken in as a whole, with tracks that are perhaps individually a bit workmanlike but soar when plugged next to the surrounding pieces. It's another full-blooded addition to the band's increasingly impressive discography.