Listen to Benefits’ seething anti-establishment single Warhorse, from their forthcoming debut album Nails

Middlesborough punks Benefits have shared a new single, Warhorse, as the first taste of their forthcoming debut album Nails. 

The band, who describe themselves as ‘an issues based music collective from Teesside’ have signed to Invada Records, the Bristol label owned by Portishead/BEAK>’s Geoff Barrows, who will release Nails on April 21.

Speaking about the album’s first single, Benefits’ frontman Kingsley Hall says: “At some point if the boot continues to stamp on us, we’re going to react. Things bug me. They start as little irks and become fiercer. It can take days, sometimes minutes. The phrase ‘cost of living’ being blurted out by an MP when confronted with the poverty of their constituents. Simpering and grovelling to decrepit hierarchical systems. Pageantry and pomp in a time of austerity and cuts.

“Warhorse is a battle. It’s about being tired of being told there’s no options left – being told to bow and courtesy and to shut your face. Warhorse is about the need to push that boot back from our faces, raise our heads, stand up and fight.”

One furious verse from the single runs:

‘Those rusting fossils, sweating piglets, stinking broken relics,
Comfy seats, dirty sheets and repeated bleats.
You have the right to be disgusted,
To shun this pageantry,
Recognise your enemy, let them rot – the lot – let them fucking rot.’

Another verse closes with the lyrics, ‘Do not beg, do not bow, do not curtsey.’

Listen to Warhorse below:

The tracklisting for Nails is as follows:

1. Marlboro Hundreds
2. Empire
3. Warhorse
4. Shit Britain
5. What More Do You Want
6. Meat Teeth
7. Mindset
8. Flag
9. Traitors
10. Council Rust

In support of their forthcoming album, Benefits will head out on a headline UK/Ireland tour in April/May. They will visit:

Apr 21: Glasgow Rum Shack
Apr 22: Leeds Lending Room
Apr 23: Manchester Soup
Apr 24: Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach
Apr 25: Tunbridge Wells Forum
Apr 26: Brighton Chalk
Apr 27: London 100 Club
Apr 28: Hebden Bridge Trades
Apr 29: Birmingham Hare And Hounds
Apr 30: Newcastle The Cluny
May 03: Belfast Deer’s Head Music Hall
May 05: Limerick Dolans, IRE
May 06: Dublin Workmans, IRE

Source: loudersound.com