Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Death Hilarious
Release Date: 4th April 2025
Label: Rocket Recordings
Bandcamp
Genre: Stoner, Sludge, Krautrock, Psych, Doom.
FFO: Torche, Melvins, Orange Goblin.
Review By: Paul Franklin
Geordie stoner metallers (and probably the only band who threaten writers with a very real risk of RSI), Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs (Pigs x7) have decided to go for the throat on their fifth album. Describing their more directly hostile approach guitarist and producer Sam Grant states “We wanted it to be a slap in the face.”, although that’s a bit of an understatement, as in reality Death Hilarious floors you with a brutal rabbit punch then wades in to deliver a good old-fashioned pummelling.
Opener Blockage crashes through the speakers like the big bad wolf driving a JCB through the smug third little pig’s house, nicely setting the tone for the pacier tracks (Stitches, Coyote Call) that come later.
Second track Detroit is a cacophonous, collision of angry punk and psychotic noise rock. A nightmare of jarring guitars and discordant drum beats that addresses some of the issues around male rage.
The track that has garnered the largest interest is the bands ‘equivalent of a hip-hop number’, Glib Tongued, which features El-P from Run The Jewels laying down some bars over the noise rock grind.
The Wyrm is Pigs x7 putting it all in one basket (trough?), groovy psychedelia, heavy riffage and pounding doom all in the same track.
The bluesy feel of eight minute long closer Toecurler soon gives way to something far more sinister and disturbing as you become aware of unsettling piano interludes lurking in the background, before easing you slowly back to more comfortable surroundings.
Death Hilarious has been getting rave reviews, with more than one writer declaring it their best work to date. Personally, it’s not my cup of swill, a bit too off kilter and nihilistic, but, if you dig the Pigs (x7), you’ll be in hog heaven!
(3 / 5)
