It doesn’t take long to get through Pig Pen’s debut EP Mental Madness; 24 minutes, to be exact. It takes even less time to come to the conclusion that this isn’t some thrown together hardcore group with a celebrity name. It’s a real, down-and-dirty, two-step worthy, breakdown heavy, punishing project that earns its place in the playlist. 

The Toronto-based hardcore outfit, slated to make an appearance at the Las Vegas edition of Sick New World on April 25, is made up of longtime friends who united in the Niagara music scene. 

Matty Matheson, a boisterous online star known for his acclaimed chef-tivities, delectable restaurants and role as Neil Fak on FX’s hit dramedy The Bear, handles vocal duties. Wade MacNeil, a longtime guitarist for post-hardcore band Alexisonfire, reprises his role in this band, while brothers Daniel and Ian Romano (Attack in Black, The Outfit) play guitar and drums, and Tommy Major (The Outfit, Young Guv) handles bass. 

The proof is in the pudding for these dudes, who’ve relentlessly conquered and grown within their respective scenes over the years—including Matheson, who fronted the hardcore band Hanging Hearts back in the ’90s. 

“We’re all over the place with what we’re into, but the sort of common place would be mid-to-late ’80s hardcore, getting into early ’90s hardcore,” says Ian Romano.

That influence is clear on tracks like “Rabid Beach” and “Venom Moon Rising.” The former, one of the band’s first singles, leans into fast, thrash-driven punk with a distinctly old-school backbone. 

Part of what makes Mental Madness stand out is how quickly it came together. After months of throwing around riffs and playlists, the band wrote all 10 tracks in a day and recorded them the next. And with Matheson and the Romano brothers living so close by, with a studio ready to go, the process felt natural. 

For a group of seasoned musicians, and a vocalist who naturally spits out the kind of raspy, sludgy barks a band like this requires, that speed is less surprising than it sounds.

Beyond its making, Pig Pen is as much about connection as it is about sound. 

“This band exists as a really good excuse for us to all hang out and hang out with our friends all over the world,” says Romano. “And the fact that people are showing up and are excited about the songs, you can’t really pull that off unless people actually want to hear the music.”

PIG PEN April 25, 4:45 p.m., Diablo Stage, sicknewworldfest.com.

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