Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs' Viscerals: where Sabbath and Killing Joke collide

Geordie doom-punk quintet Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs unpack thrilling third album Viscerals

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs: Viscerals
(Image: © Rocket Recordings)

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Pigs X 7 have reined in some of their more digressive tendencies of late, and this follow-up to 2018’s King Of Cowards does away with the superfluous fat to deliver a trimmer, more focused set of songs that, if anything, punch a little harder. 

The Newcastle five-piece are imposing at full tilt. On Reducer, over crashing chords and Christopher Morley’s battering drums, frontman Matt Baty yells: ‘I’m not here for my health’, suggesting there’s more to the band’s mission than mere noise. 

Indeed there’s a healthy sense of experimentation, peaking with wondrous prog-metal epic Halloween Bolson

There are hooks too, at their most potent on Crazy In Blood, which feels like a heavily accelerated cousin of Sunn O))). 

Guitarists Adam Ian Sykes and Sam Grant keep the riffs flowing throughout, bassist John-Michael Hedley adds a sludge-metal undertow, and Baty pounds along over the top, his highly physical vocals a stirring union of Lemmy and Jaz Coleman

In fact Killing Joke are as much a reference point as Black Sabbath on Viscerals, especially on the brutal World Crust. Utterly enthralling.

Rob Hughes

Freelance writer for Classic Rock since 2008, and sister title Prog since its inception in 2009. Regular contributor to Uncut magazine for over 20 years. Other clients include Word magazine, Record Collector, The Guardian, Sunday Times, The Telegraph and When Saturday Comes. Alongside Marc Riley, co-presenter of long-running A-Z Of David Bowie podcast. Also appears twice a week on Riley’s BBC6 radio show, rifling through old copies of the NME and Melody Maker in the Parallel Universe slot. Designed Aston Villa’s kit during a previous life as a sportswear designer. Geezer Butler told him he loved the all-black away strip.