Photo by Patrick Moore

Season 3 of The Bear is about to drop, but the more intriguing side-plot happening this time around has nothing to do with the show itself. Instead, it’s that of star Matty Matheson coming together with Alexisonfire’s Wade MacNeil, who on guitar alongside a host of other Canuck scene artists in guitarist Daniel Romano, drummer Ian Romano, and bassist Tommy Major, have formed the brutal bastion hardcore band, Pig Pen, who are set to release their debut LP, Mental Madness on the great Flatspot Records, a day after the season premiere.

Built around themes of dealing with all of the ugly parts in the brainwave prison that is “mental health shit”, as Matheson straight puts it, its latest highlight “Venom Moon Rising” is a bad omen, with the listen lurching its way in through some heavy hardcore grooves and gnarly ’80s metal (proper) riffs that bring with them a shadow of darkness of something wicked on its way up. Whereas previous singles, “Rabid Beach” and “Mental Mentality” weaponized the ’80s tough guy D-beat aesthetic to disarm all of that darker matter, this listen plugs it right into its veins and becomes it. “The sun will never rise again!”

Pig Pen’s Mental Madness will be released June 27th on Flatspot Records.