Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - King Of Cowards

The mighty Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs (Pigs x7) are back with their second album on the equally mighty Rocket Recordings. The well-connected and hard-working lads (label owners, backing musicians, several other bands) are joined on King of Cowards by the equally well-connected Chris Morley, ex-Gnod and Queer’d Science. As Iggy said, er….look out.

GNT starts with a few seconds of feedback before John-Michael Headley lays down a two-note bass riff that is periodically obliterated by the Now I Wanna Be Your Dog chords until the full band hit one of those lurching grooves that they are so good at. The superb Matt Baty then detonates a vocal. On the last album, he was somewhere between Lemmy and Ozzy, on King of Cowards there is a bit of Rollins too, showing that his voice is gaining even more power and authority. It’s a brutal, multi-part opener that rips into Trump.

A slow and filthy riff kicks off Shockmaster. It’s fairly Stoner until the rest of Pigs x 7 join in, all wailing. There’s a lull for a Sleep/Dead Meadow-like riff and then another pummelling. If anything, the slowness increases their power, with Morley hitting particularly hard. The pace increases on A66. Baty is at full throttle (he usually is). Multiple riffs smack the listener in the face until Pigs x 7 arrive at a particularly bouncy and brutal one to end it all as the sound slowly swallows a raging Baty. Hurts so good. By the way, the A66 goes from Workington to Grangetown.

Thumbsucker is a bit slower, but the drums are still being beaten through the floor like nails. When a band brings this level of intensity to an album, it can fly by leaving you bewildered and breathless by the end. Again, an album worth of riffs pass in one song. In this context, the single, Cake Of Light, is a bit of a three-minute banger. A lurching groove, a monster riff, and a vein-popping vocal; but they still find time to slow it all down and then kick like a young Steve Ovett at the end.  The pace slows once more for Gloamer, the album closer. Baty stops yelling at us, at last, to give us a bit of self-help, like a cuddlier Rollins. However, on the ‘choruses’ he is on the verge of an aneurysm. Halfway through, either Sam Grant or Adam Ian Sykes digs out a guitar solo that sounds like a fucked radio. ‘Hold On!’ screams Blaty like he’s volunteering for a particular gobby unit of The Samaritans. The rest of Pigs x 7 ignore him and slow down to nothing.

If any of you have had the misfortune to read my reviews over the years (formulaic, aren’t they?), you’ll know that I’m crazy for this shit. With King Of Cowards, Pigs x 7 have followed up an excellent debut with an even more intense and focussed second and they are now ready to join the grown-ups (Hey Colossus, Gnod, others that I’ve forgotten) at the big table for dinner. I for one can’t wait for these guys to come and destroy Reading in a few weeks alongside local heroes, Workin’ Man Noise Unit.