Pig Pen (featuring Matty Matheson) announce debut album, sign to Flatspot Records

Pig Pen, the new hardcore group featuring Matty Matheson, has announced they’ve signed to Flatspot Records who will put out their debut album. ‘Mental Madness’ will drop June 27th and the self titled debut track it out now.

The band is made up of vocalist Matty Matheson (chef, restaurateur, and actor from FX’s The Bear), guitarists Wade MacNeil (Alexisonfire, Dooms Children) and Daniel Romano, drummer Ian Romano (Daniel Romano’s Outfit), and bassist Tommy Major (Daniel Romano’s Outfit, Young Guv). The music is tough, harsh, intense, noisy, soulful – a blitz of pure hardcore energy.

After spending months passing along riffs and playlists filled with inspiration, the ten tracks on Mental Madness were written in a day and recorded the next. With a band made up of career musicians, the do-it-yourself approach for the album was a no-brainer, taking the wheel by self-recording and producing. The tracks were sent off to Arthur Rizk (Cold World, Fucked Up, Power Trip) for mixing and Grammy award-winning engineer Alan Douches for mastering. The album packs grit and bounce, combining elements of ‘80s hardcore with true rock and roll flair. The subject matter on Mental Madness sticks to themes that Matheson describes as “mental health shit”: topics like isolation, loneliness, and “letting your mind destroy you.” 

“You can be having a beautiful day, surrounded by friends,” Matheson explains, “and your brain can continuously ruin it. No matter how good or bad your life is, you can still hate yourself. I’ve got to ask myself why am I feeling the ways I’m feeling?” 

Mental Madness is available for preorder now through Flatspot Records.