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When they formed in 2012, Newcastle’s Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs hardly imagined they’d make it all the way to album number five. For a while, it looked as though they wouldn’t make it out of the pub. Since that debut did come out, the psychedelic metal outfit have been on an extraordinary roll. 2017’s three-song monsterpiece Feed The Rats was followed promptly by the next year’s rollicking King Of Cowards. A smorgasbord of heavy styles, Viscerals maintained the momentum, in spite of its coinciding with the 2020 lockdown. Back on the road for 2023’s Land Of Sleeper, Pigs saw their audience grow and grow, with the territories they’re able to play expanding likewise.

Whereas Land Of Sleeper was conceived as an immersive headphones experience, this time around Pigs strove for something more directly hostile with 2025’s Death Hilarious. “We wanted it to be a slap in the face. There’s a lot of aggro in it. It’s very angular and direct.” That came, in part, from playing so many gigs over the last couple of years. The band felt well-oiled and ripe to give listeners at home the kind of pummelling their audiences receive.

Death Hilarious is a diversely punishing record which shapeshifts through Sabbathian doom, grotesquely minimalist noise rock and cyclical post-metal fortissimos. Pigs continue to push themselves, too. Incongruous synthesiser solos appear where guitar histrionics would usually fit. Piano tracks lurk in the mix, adding near-subliminal depth to the maelstrom. ‘Stitches’ is like Motörhead trying to perform glam rock with a tipsy keyboardist.

The record also contains the latest moment that’s caused the quintet to pinch themselves in disbelief: ‘Glib Tongued’ has guest bars by El-P from Run The Jewels. When they unwittingly wrote what they considered their equivalent of a hip-hop number, Pigs set their sights high and secured a blistering contribution from one of the world’s greatest rappers.

Death Hilarious: two singularly evocative words that don’t obviously belong together. This signifies the gravity of life as well as its inherent and undeniable absurdity. Pigs have always toyed with contradictions and juxtapositions in their art, so the title fits perfectly. They play dark, heavy and aggressive music, and they do it in an uplifting way, smiles beaming across their faces. They are seriously and sincerely committed, yet they remain forever and wisely grounded by the ridiculous band name they chose over a decade ago, possibly while more than a little half-cut, when they really should’ve been rehearsing.

“They embody the theatre, camp, and sheer fun of all the best heavy music” - Pitchfork

“Doom metal mavericks” - Uncut

“A taut, well-honed machine that doesn’t fuck around” - Loud & Quiet

The Paranoyds have the kind of connection people only dream of: as non-biological sisters who have known each other longer than they haven't and speak a language that no one else can understand.

With a bond that began in preschool, Laila Hashemi (keys/vocals) and Lexi Funston (guitar/vocals) were always inseparable, so when they met  Staz Lindes (bass/vocals) in ninth grade, it felt like they had known her all along. After all, they were a “package deal.” In high school, they began making music together in a friend’s laundry room and their relationship just blossomed from there. When it came time to add in a drummer, David Ruiz, who joined the band in 2015, fit in like he had been there all along. It's that special bond that has solidified their relationship as bandmates who connect seamlessly to one another’s energy on stage—and best friends. And it's the one thing that has remained a constant throughout the past two years.Like so many others, the pandemic brought about unexpected change for The Paranoyds—both good and bad.Before the pandemic, the Los Angeles-based group was invited to perform at a Third Man Records showcase at SXSW. The opportunity ultimately led to the group signing to the label in 2021. The band's forthcoming release and first on Third Man, Talk Talk Talk, is rooted in the life-altering transformation they experienced since 2020. The process began back in April 2020 when they drove to San Francisco to record seven demos from the album at John Vanderslice’s Tiny Telephone Studios. There, the band’s unbreakable friendship was tested once again as they ended up crashing at the studio for a week with no air conditioning or showers.The time and space they were able to take (in and out of that studio) allowed them to grow and find confidence in experimentation. “You can tell the intention and the delivery is just a little bit more matured,” says Staz. While the foundational elements that have always been at the core of the band’s music—like tongue-in-cheek lyrics—remain, the band felt much more comfortable toying with experimental sounds, like sampling, setting up multi-layered drum tracks, and including tons of vintage synthesizers, for instance. It helped that the band enlisted Froth bandleader JooJoo Ashworth (Automatic, SASAMI, Dummy) as producer to re-record the tracks they initially demoed at Tiny Telephone. “He understood our band and the intention behind all of these songs--it was really just good vibes from start to finish,” says Laila. Their singular sound and ability to surprise listeners is something that has driven Talk Talk Talk. You’ll be hard-pressed to find two songs that sound alike. Considering each of the band’s four members are drawn to everything—groovier R&B, lo-fi punk, fun, fuzz-pop and jazz—they’re able to create a bold collage throughout their music.