I was already onboard for Death Hilarious, the new album by Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, when I heard the first single, “Detroit,” in November 2024. Then, they unveiled this wild album cover and I knew we were in for a(nother) treat from them.
The album begins with a song about a problem lead singer and lyricist Matthew Baty had going into the album – (Writer’s) “Blockage.” “I’m staring straight ahead, infinitely bored,” he sings to begin the track. He’s not sure what he has left to say. Thankfully for all of us, and his shredding / pounding bandmates, he realized a bit of Zen in that the emptiness of the universe (and his brain) contains everything.
The stomping anger of “Detroit” is like the sensation of watching a lit bomb fuse slowly burning toward its deadly payload and Baty tells us, “Everyone leaves. You’re all the same. I’m not the one to blame.” John-Michael Hedley‘s bass hits extra hard on “Collider,” while lead guitarist Adam Ian Sykes pays homage to his British heavy metal idols throughout it and Baty sings about existential dread.
“Stitches” has been compared to some Motörhead tracks, but it hits more like Blue Öyster Cult for me. It’s a ripper either way, with Sykes and producer / fellow guitarist Sam Grant trading killer riffs and Ewan Mackenzie nailing some of his biggest fills and cymbal crashes on it (His subtle ride cymbal hits will make you think, “Damn, dude, that’s not fair.”).
Just when you think you might have them figured out, they bring in El-P for a guest rap on “Glib Tongued” — quite possibly the darkest hip hop track you’ll hear this year. “The Wyrm” is one of the album’s longest track at just over seven minutes (which, compared to when the band was putting out songs three times that length, is a warmup for them) and crushes the entire time. It feels like a truck has hit you when it really kicks in around the 2:15 mark.
“Carousel” has Baty feeling like he’s spinning in circles and trying to get off the titular ride the world has become in the last few years. The guitars on “Coyote Call” rocket into cosmic rock riffs while the drums and bass are practically terraforming a new planet underneath you. As if that wasn’t heavy enough, the final track, “Toecurler,” is like an avalanche you first see at a distance and think is moving like a slow mudslide, but find out, too late, that it’s roaring down at you like a shattered ancient mountain…and the stoner-funk breakdown about seven-and-a-half minutes into it? Genius.
The whole album has this heavy FAFO sound to it. The band has said they wanted the album to be rougher and, no past-album-pun intended, visceral than their psych-doom album Land of Sleeper, and it certainly delivers. You can live, laugh, and love all you like, but the porcine septet are here to remind you that you’re gonna die, and it might be hilarious when you do.
Keep your mind open.
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