Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Death Hilarious Review

For days now, the Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs collective has hung around like a hangover. A grey tinge in a blue sky, for the guilt of not getting around to every contemporary release immediately is too much. A weekend of gorging on nice bread and coffee is spoilt when realising Death Hilarious slipped through the net. Rugby tackling it and dragging it to the office, taking kicks to the face from the stoner rock thrillers, is only fair. Death Hilarious is a release worth hearing as soon as possible. Pigs x7 proved their wonderful consistencies, their tone for guitar-laden thrill rides, on the preceding album, Land of Sleeper. How long ago it was. Two years, in fact. Death Hilarious does not look to continue anything but the taste of brilliance, the thrill of consistent, exciting rock music. Pigs x7 does precisely that. 

Where Pigs x7 utilises the hardcore motif of laughing in the face of death, the resolve heard on their songs could not be further away from the tough guy mentality. Staring into the darkness, not sure of what is happening out there, that is what Death Hilarious offers. Great thrills and instrumental spills on opening song Blockage sets the scene well. What Pigs x7 gets right is the spillover of heavy tones and heartbreaking meaning. They are subverting heavy metal expectations with microscopic comments, with the likes of Detroit showcasing the sincerity in the sinister. A phenomenal overlap which makes all the difference for the band as they search for a sound different from Land of Sleeper. Their commentaries are volatile and simple, and this is exactly what it needs to be. TikTok, depression, all of it interlinked with a few words, more focus on the heavy guitar work.  

Death Hilarious highlights the horrors of disassociation and does so by using the blanket terms, the knowable reference points in online culture. That is not to say the album revolves around cultural shame; Death Hilarious also asks us to look forward. Pointed guitar work and strums of rage are what guide us there. Lead single, Stitches, does a phenomenal job of this. Bleeding out like a stuck pig, the urge for reflection as a learning tool is right there. Do not bother, is the answer given. Stagnation is what awaits, as is the case for brilliant pieces like Glib Tongued. Necromancy, darker arts, and the performative nature of the world around us are under fire from Pigs x7, a confident continuation of their fundamentals, paired with a new rock sound. A delightful treat for returning listeners and new fans. 

Confident metal music with a tinge of fear to it. Not a fear of the genre or the tone set by Pigs x7, but by the conclusion they reach on the world around them. Fighting against the chills of the always online world with tremendous riffs and volatile sound is the rebellion we need. Death Hilarious is a treat. The rising instrumentals of The Wyrm are nothing short of brilliant, and even without the lyrical pangs of suffering in the face of a socially addicted society, there is much to love about Death Hilarious. Colloquial acts of saluting magpies are mixed in with the universal fear. No matter the location, an unsevered link between a populus and the drug-like qualities of social media are present. It has never felt better to touch grass, to walk through the park listening to Coyote Call. Pigs x7 do not ask us to disconnect but reconnect with what matters.