In Review: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Viscerals

With a name like Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs you can’t expect much subtlety and there certainly isn’t any of that on their latest album Viscerals. The Newcastle five-piece have gained a reputation for blisteringly loud live sets and have brought that reputation into the studio in a very forthcoming manner; with Covid-19 impacting on their now-defunct live schedule, it's important they did.

Opening with lead single ‘Reducer’ there's a relentless anticipation in Chris Marley’s pounding drums, before frontman Matt Baty bellows into action to burst the track, and album, into life. Followed by ‘Rubbernecker’ and 'New Body' - the latter of which details a drunk individual who is “dancing with the devil with his two left feet” - the opening three tracks give you a hard-hitting and fast introduction into an album where Black Sabbath sonically meets Killing Joke. 

The first half comes to an end with 'Blood and Butter' - a blistering sub-two minute track which introduces a devilish voice declaring the head chef is serving up a “poison made with the cheapest ingredients” - before bursting into ‘World Crust’ and ‘Crazy in Blood’ where Baty reaches his tormenting, pummelling best. 

Instrumentally, the album is filled with absorbing and hypnotic loops filled with bludgeoning guitar riffs and ubiquitous drums. 'Halloween Bolson', the album's unrelenting penultimate nine-minute track is the finest example of said hypnosis as it repeatedly chews you up, pulls you in, appealing to your primitive instincts all the while.  

Viscerals won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but from start to finish it's enticing and enthralling. What is important is that it'll impact on you. How severe an impact will depend on your personal taste. One thing is certain however - Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs clearly don’t care. Your neighbours might though.

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