Viscerals

The album was recorded in October through November 2019 in Sam Grant's home studio, Blank Studios, in Newcastle upon Tyne.[1]

Dom Gourlay of Under the Radar described Viscerals as a "bludgeoning amalgamation of metal, punk, and experimental noise at its most brutal".[2] Critics have described the album as heavy metal,[3] alternative metal, psychedelic rock,[4] sludge metal,[5] stoner rock,[3] doom metal,[6][5] and noise rock.[2]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Album of the Year	79/100[3]
AnyDecentMusic?	7.7/10[10]
Metacritic	80/100[11]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[12]
Classic Rock	[13]
DIY	[14]
Exclaim!	7/10[6]
Kerrang!	[15]
The Line of Best Fit	7.5/10[16]
MusicOMH	[17]
Q	[11]
Uncut	[11]
Under the Radar	8/10[2]

Viscerals was well received by contemporary music critics. On review aggregator website, Metacritic, Viscerals has an average rating of 80 out of 100 indicating "generally favorable reviews based on 13 critics".[11] On Album of the Year, Viscerals has an average rating of 79 out of 100 based on 21 critic reviews.[3] On AnyDecentMusic?, Viscerals has an average rating of 7.7 out of 10.[10]

Alan Ashton-Smith, writing for musicOMH gave the album a perfect five-star rating praising the accessibility of the album, calling Viscerals a work of "a metal band that has succeeded in garnering appreciation outside of heavy subculture and appealing to a wider community of music fans".[17] Liam Konemann writing for Loud & Quiet gave the album four stars and said that Viscerals "is all guts and glory, tauter than before and all the better for it. It’s relentless; an all-out-assault of riffs and rumblings that pushes Pigs to new heights".[18] Mark Deming in a positive review compared the work of the band to Black Sabbath saying "as if Black Sabbath's younger brothers got ahold of some bad dope and decided it was time to punish the world for its mistakes".[12]

Max Morin, writing for Canadian publication, Exclaim! gave the album a positive review. Morin described the album has have the elements of doom metal similar to the likes of Black Sabbath, but said that their "grittiness to their heavy rock, a disregard for the rules of melody and harmony", makes the band sound more like the noise rock band Daughters than Sabbath. Specifically Morin said the sound of Viserals is "more like Daughters' terrifying You Won't Get What You Want more than Master of Reality."[6]

In a more mixed review, Sam Law, writing for Kerrang also compared the album to Black Sabbath, but also to Motörhead, Mastodon, and Idles. Law described Viserals as "are wilfully difficult to get a handle on. Melding the fuzzed-up, stripped-back muscle of heavyweights like Black Sabbath and Motörhead to progressive sludginess, then pouring on a generous helping of the wryly abstract humour of IDLES, this third album is a strange, unruly offering".[15]

The following individuals were credited with the production of the album.[19]

• Matthew Baty – Vocals
• Richard Dawson – Cowbell
• John Edgar – Backing vocals
• Sam Grant – Guitar, mixing, producer
• John-Michael Hedley – Bass
• Josh Ingledew – Assistant Engineer
• Max Löffler – Artwork
• John Martindale – Engineer
• Christopher Morley – Drums
• Adam Sykes – Guitar
• Christian Wright – Mastering

• Viscerals at Discogs