Feb 17, 2023
Web Exclusive
By Michael James Hall
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Newcastle, England’s finest purveyors of 10-ton riffola and overdriven doom, return with a third album of relentless intensity, unforgiving heft, and mesmeric miasma.
Its pounding power and stoner grooves are cut through by Matthew Baty’s hell’s gate vocals, offering intriguing, occasionally optimistic lyrics such as “Now that’s there’s love in our life/We’re finally feeling like we’re alive” on the rampaging “Terror’s Pillow” and “Before we go, here we will leave fragments of hope” on “Big Rig” (RIP Brodie Lee).
Obviously there’s plenty of taut aggression, Sabbath savagery, and cathartic brutality here, particularly on the racing, pit-ready “Mr Medicine,” but there’s also stylistic diversity, delicacy even, on “The Weatherman,” in which a choral chant gives way to a squalling scream of guitar, and closer “Ball Lightning,” which toys with a more improvisational, stripped-down dynamic built over a repeatedly struck piano chord.
Hypnotic, heartfelt, and cement-heavy, Land of Sleeper continues Pigs x7’s onward march to growling metallic glory. (www.pigsx7.com)
Author rating: 7.5/10
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