Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs- Feed The Rats

Artist: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs 

Album: Feed The Rats

Record Label: Rocket Recordings 

Newcastle sludge crew utilise sardonic wit and endless psychic riffing to glorious effect on their debut LP

The same sense of humour that seems intrinsic in the UK sludge metal scene permeates heavily from the pours of Newcastle quintet Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs. Despite front-man Matt Baty's admission that the name is "sort of a joke gone too far", it's the overall sense of fun and a sort of inward-looking easiness that makes their debut LP Feed The Rats such a blast. 

There is a sense of swirling, cavernous cosmology throughout the three tracks here, largely in part to the effects on Baty's hollering vocals. The riffs and grooves take hulking forms, but the down-tuned sense of grittiness means they feel as fitting an accompaniment to council estate Northern England as they might to acid-fried desert mishaps. 

The balance between character and enjoyment is handled superbly as well. 'Sweet Relief' is an almost deliberately Sabbathian ode, it's rollicking, fuzzy classicism acting as a bridge between two titanic slabs. The closing 17-minutes of 'Icon' is the highlight, engaging all elements of the band's hypnotic core to a life-affirming level. Baty's vocals also attain their most sardonically witty tone as the track reaches its thunderous climax with repeated yells of "come... Be a God in my church". 

Something telling about Feed The Rats is that Baty's keyboard only rears it's head for a brief moment during opener 'Psychopomp'. Pigs x7 are clearly a band with plenty of more sonic ground to tread and in that context, restraint is a tantalising stroke. 

8/10

Key Tracks: 'Icon', 'Sweet Relief'

For Fans Of: Eyehategod, Orange Goblin