"I've always liked the quote: "Sleep, those little slices of death - how I loathe them." So reckons Matt Baty of Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, vocalist and lyricist of a band as comfortable wading through the darker quarters of their subconscious as they are punishing ampstacks. Whether dwelling in the realm of dreams or nightmares, the primordial drive of the Newcastle-based band is more powerful than ever. Land Of Sleeper, their fourth record in a decade of riot and rancour, is testimony to this: the sound of a band not so much reinvigorated as channelling a furious energy, which only appears to gather momentum as the band's surroundings spin on their axis.

The intensity of feeling is writ large right from the pulverising drive of opener "Ultimate Hammer," and its rallying cry "I keep spinning out, what a time to be alive". Yet, whilst "Terror's Pillow" and "Big Rig" are rich with the band's trademark Sabbathian power, there's scope this time around that supercedes anything they've previously attempted. Matt's duet with the traditional folk vocals of Cath Tyler on the closing lament "Ball Lightning," for example, is one particularly potent illustration of their expanded horizons.

In terms of emotional impact, a pinnacle on Land Of Sleeper is "The Weatherman." Replete with devotional rapture and radiant intensity, the band's attack slowed down to a mantric and mesmeric crawl, it marks a collaboration with the ululatory tones of Bonnacons Of Doom vocalist Kate Smith and a choir including Richard Dawson and Sally Pilkington. The resulting tumult constitutes a sound not unlike The Stooges "We Will Fall," reinvented and adrenalised as an invigorating sermon for the zeitgeist.