Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs

English rock outfit Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs (or “PIGSx7” for short) combine acid rock, psych-metal, and doom and stoner influences into a thick sludge of riffs and menacing bellows. Suggesting a meeting of the minds between Black Sabbath and Hawkwind under the influence of especially nasty hallucinogens, PIGSx7 generate a burly, hard-hitting sound that makes room for sonic experimentation and gargantuan guitar riffs, though the overwhelming heaviness of their sound is what rules the day. On their debut album, 2017′s Feed the Rats, the group built their music around lengthy performances (two of the set’s three tracks run over 15 minutes). By the time they cut 2020′s Viscerals and 2023′s Land of Sleeper, the songs were more compact, but the aggressive stomp of the band was still as brutal as fans could wish.
Hailing from Newcastle upon Tyne, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs were formed by vocalist Matt Baty, guitarists Sam Grant and Adam Ian Sykes, bassist John-Michael Hedley, and drummer Ewan Mackenzie. Influenced by Black Sabbath and Monster Magnet, the band shares a similar love for noise as contemporaries Part Chimp and Hey Colossus. They issued a split release with Glasgow band the Cosmic Dead in 2013, but their contribution, “The Wizard and the Seven Swines,” would be their only official output until four years later. Their debut LP, Feed the Rats (Rocket Recordings), arrived in 2017 and featured just three songs that clocked in at over 40 minutes. In May of the same year, Mackenzie parted ways with Pigs and was replaced by Christopher Morley. The band hit the road in support of the release, delivering their visceral, Sabbathian blast of noise rock to audiences across Europe and the U.K. In their downtime, the group focused on outside projects, with Baty running Box Records — home to Terminal Cheesecake, Lower Slaughter, and Luminous Bodies — and joining Hedley as part of Richard Dawson’s live band, while Grant built his own recording facilities, Blank Studios. 2018 saw the group enter those studios to record what would become their sophomore album. Recorded by John Martindale and Grant, King of Cowards — which once again delivered a hefty blast of gargantuan noise — was issued by Rocket Recordings.
With Pigsx7 becoming a familiar name in the rock media, the band rose from the underground scene, playing larger venues and selling out shows across the U.K. 2019 saw them channel their live energy once again in the recording studio. Setting a tight deadline, Pigsx7 emerged with the tighter yet abrasive and mammoth-sounding Viscerals. The album was released on Rocket Recordings in April 2020. Despite already having a reputation for blowing eardrums and acting slightly unhinged, the group mined even darker depths on their fourth album, 2023′s Land of Sleeper. ~ Neil Z. Yeung & Rich Wilson