Standing at the nexus of doomy stoner metal, fuzz-blasted psych-rock, and bracing post-rock, Newcastle's
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs confront existential dread with creativity on the elemental
Land of Sleeper. Despite the discordant vibe and greasy garage patina, the group's fourth long-player harbors some weirdly unifying songs. "I keep spinning out/what a time to be alive," declares vocalist
Matt Baty on the blazing "Ultimate Hammer," one of a handful of cuts that evoke the early stoner metal emissions of
Sabbath-loving Austinites
the Sword. Oddly enough,
Land of Sleeper picks up momentum as it slows down. "Big Rig" takes an almost jazz-like approach, pairing abrupt tempo changes with textural shifts that straddle multiple hard rock subgenres. The unnerving "Weatherman" commences with a heady combo of feedback, pulsating synths, and a spectral choir consisting of
Bonnacons of Doom's
Kate Smith,
Richard Dawson, and
Sally Pilkington before exploding into a massive doom spiral. At least sonically speaking, things come back to earth on the hard-hitting "Mr Medicine," a seismic space rocker with nods to both
Mastodon and
Hawkwind. The slow-burning closer "Ball Lightning" hews closer to the dystopian post-rock of
Daughters, with
Baty's throaty wail echoing
Lemmy and
Jesus Lizard's
David Yow. Darker and more assured than its predecessors,
Land of Sleeper parses the outrage and catastrophizing of the social media age with gravitas, yet it does so with a watchful and curious eye. As the title suggests,
Pigx7 wants to wake the world up with more than just decibels. ~ James Christopher Monger