PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS- “DEATH HILARIOUS” REVIEW
Written by Beau Croxton
Pigs (x7) expand their horizons in different intensities on the crushing and often thrilling Death Hilarious
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs (aka Pigs x7) debuted with Feed The Rats back in 2017 to offer some seriously appealing Black Sabbath-worship stoner metal. Since then, and especially on their fifth album, Death Hilarious, the English group has widened their scope, upping the tempo and finding variety. On their new album, they deliver a nice array of battle-ready stoner rock, doom and metal with shifting intensities.
“Blockage” opens hot with thrash-y riffs and great guitar tones. Singer Matthew Baty’s growling vocals sound like IDLES if they would have spent much more time belting along to Motörhead at the local pub. It’s a great and energetic opener and the Sabbath-esque breakdown in the middle features some choice harmonized guitars. The track closes with a solo that's somewhere in between space-rock and hair-metal. On the grim “Detroit”, down-tuned riffs play a game of call and response with conflicted vocals. The first half of the song is brilliant and the riffs are deep and nasty, setting a sinister tone. A beat-switch halfway through slows things down, which eventually (and unfortunately) leads to it feeling less heavy or effective; but nonetheless it's a solid song. ‘Collider” surprisingly thrives on upbeat, major scale stoner-metal riffs, which are a bit of rarity in the sub-genre. You can imagine a bar full of rocker dudes with their beers raised, singing along to this, with expressions that are half jolly and half raging. The second verse has calculated harmonizing riffs that expand the track nicely.
“Stitches” is a well chosen single, as it's an obvious standout. The halftime breakdown section has some fantastic and creative riffs. This track's great arrangements , double-bass drum blasts and scorching instrumentals cruise the song very comfortably past the 4 minute mark for one of the best rides on the record.“Glib Tongued” (featuring El-P) is a really cool and interesting moment for this band. If you're unfamiliar with El-P, his solo work, or his group Run the Jewels, you would be forgiven for initially thinking his rap feature may be a bit jarring right smack-dab in the middle of this mostly rock album. But if you are familiar with his work, you should totally pick up on the real magic at play here. El-P is no stranger to rapping in a scathing tone over some seriously crunchy bass and bombastic, heavy instrumentals. On Run The Jewels 2 he spits over aggressive Rage Against the Machine-style breakneck beats. Whether you are initiated or not, it can still be highly debatable if this uniquely rap-tinged track fits here in the middle of this record with all the other purely rock-themed songs. But for this reviewer, it’s an interesting and cool link-up that works cleverly and I applaud its inclusion in this batch of tunes.
Death Hilarious album artwork , out now on Rocket Recordings
“The Wyrm” starts out eventful and theatrical, but it does spend over 2 whole minutes on the same riffing with minimal changes. I can see the live appeal due to the more intense part that repeats, but on record it starts to feel like it treads water for a while . Luckily, the second half of the song is a ripper and brings forth a hell of a centerpiece to the record. A Lot of these songs feel like they could soundtrack a gnarly and violent battle scene in a movie. There are quite a few songs that get repetitive on this record, but since the chosen part on “The Wyrm” is very massive sounding, perhaps this is the most enjoyable section of repetition. “Carousel” is a clear Sabbath-descended stoner metal track that's gigantic in its riffs. Some tasteful synths buffer it out for a great atmosphere. This track does a great job feeding fans of the slow-burning doom that the band is widely known for. “Coyote Call” dials up the BPM to give the back half of the record a serious kick. Riff and arrangement wise, it sounds very much like a mix of “Do It Again” by Queens of the Stone Age and “Woman” by Wolfmother. The band provides some killer gang chants of “Nothing’s sacred from cradle to the grave!” to really drive home the bad-assery here. Of course, an album titled Death Hilarious revels in some more dark themes.
“Toecurler” is a 7 minute stoner metal closer that is very reminiscent of the band Sleep, or Pigs x7’s earlier work. At this point of the record, any slow and crushing magic had already “done its thing” prior, but it still has some great riffs and atmospheric elements that build nicely, making for a good closer. After all, that kind of material has been the band’s bread and butter.
Death Hilarious might be Pigs x7’s best offering to date. It’s a loud and unapologetic ripper that is often explosive. But even pretty great records can suffer from pacing issues; sometimes it runs in a repetitive fashion which makes for some much less exciting patches. The band’s earlier material was much longer, slower and drawn out, but sometimes in the newer material there is mixed messaging on the pacing. For example; the songs will be busy and gripping, and then the next minute the instrumental will find a little repetition cycle that doesn't go anywhere for a while. Switching things to a droning or repetitive nature after being so intense can result in a bit of a whiplash. Sometimes you're not sure whether to wig-out and hyperfixate, or head bang in slow-mo and zone out. Both types of energy are welcome and come with the territory, but due to the back and forth, it makes a few tracks feel like “growers” and not as strong as the others.
With that being said, Death Hilarious is mostly and largely a fantastic, sludgy, heavy and bad-ass stoner rock album with nice variety and some very big standouts. It’s a very good and reliable head-banger, and it's great to see this cool band solidifying their discography and sound by expanding their horizons.
Occult highlights: Stitches, Blockage, Coyote Call, Glib Tongued, Collider
(... But we recommend you play it front to back when your putting on your warpaint)