Benefits

Due out 22nd March via Invada Records “Constant Noise” follows the band’s widely acclaimed 2023 debut album “NAILS”, which landed in April last year as a passionate expression of anger and disillusionment about divisive, xenophobic, and toxic rhetoric, told through the filter of brutal, eviscerating music. Prior to release, the band had generated a word of mouth following most artists can only dream of,
and after catching the ear of Invada Records co-founder Geoff Barrow (as well as other high-profile fans such as the late great Steve Albini), the band released an album which delivered on all that early promise and then some. “NAILS” not only earned widespread press support and radio playlist spots, but it also appeared in album of the year lists from the likes of Louder Than War (#1), BBC Radio 6 Music, NME, The Quietus, The Line Of Best Fit, Loud & Quiet, Far Out, God Is In The TV, and more.

After such an incendiary year, which has also seen the band make their Glastonbury Festival debut and tour across the EU and UK, the question facing both Benefits and their fans was “what’s next?”. “Maybe it’s better to just give up” muses frontman Kingsley Hall. “A year of endlessly stopping and starting, building up, getting knocked down, transforming, imploding.

I’m sure we split up at one point, but it just slipped our minds, so we carried on. We felt there was no point in just repeating the first album. We’ve never been ones for simply sticking in our lane, plus, it’s been a tough few years - I’ve forgotten how many times we’ve been praised and written off in equal measure. This band is a battle.

Rather than split up, what the band did instead was re-calibrate. After a going through a succession of drummers, Benefits have now settled as a two-piece made up of Hall and electronic virtuoso Robbie Major. “We’re still angry and “Constant Noise” is an angry album,” says Hall, “just angry in a different way to before. There’s plenty of bands around who are more overt and obvious in their rage - just as we were on our debut - and that’s fine, we just wanted to develop something beyond that. We wanted to create something almost joyous in its disgust at the world. If the previous record was black and white, we wanted this to be Technicolor.”

The first taste of this new musical direction came in the form of their recent return single “Land Of The Tyrants”, which saw the band delving into bass-heavy, dance inflected rhythms and subtle industrial undercurrents. The track reignited a flame amongst the band’s fervent fanbase and music press alike earning plaudits from NME, The Quietus, DIY, Dork, CLASH, Rolling Stone UK, and many more. Further new material was debuted to fans over the last month with the band having completed a headline UK / EU tour, as well as supporting Arab Strap in Glasgow, and appearing at the likes of Left Of The Dial and Iceland Airwaves.

The new single “Relentless” sees them move further into more ambient electronic
atmospherics, combining gentle yet ominous synth lines with reserved yet smouldering vocals that focus on spurious halcyon days. The track also features guest vocals from Peter Doherty, a seemingly perfect fit for a collaboration with the band given the biting commentary on the state of life in the U.K. in his earlier work. The track is accompanied by a new video directed by Teesside filmmaker John Kirkbride. The video expands on the visual themes of the last single, leaning into a gritty 70s/80s uncanny late-night aesthetic.

Age restriction: 14+ / 14 - 16s accompanied by an adult