Benefits
Brutal. Urgent. Cathartic rage release in technicolour.
In March 2025 Teesside agitators Benefits will release Constant Noise, the follow up to their 2023 debut NAILS; a passionate expression of anger and disillusionment about divisive, xenophobic, and toxic rhetoric filtered through brutal, eviscerating music.
Before its release, the band generated a word of mouth following most artists only dream of. After getting high profile fans like Invada Records co-founder Geoff Barrow plus the late great Steve Albini, NAILS lived up to the hype. It earned widespread support, appearing in album of the year lists from Louder Than War (#1), BBC Radio 6 Music, NME, and more.
After their Glastonbury Festival debut and a UK/ EU tour, the question was “what’s next?” Benefits recalibrated as a duo made up of Hall and electronic virtuoso Robbie Major and moved in a new direction.
Constant Noise’s lead single ‘Land Of The Tyrants’ is the first taste. It introduces bass-heavy, dance inflected rhythms and subtle industrial undercurrents. More new tracks debuted on their latest UK / EU tour, when they supported Arab Strap in Glasgow and appeared Left Of The Dial and Iceland Airwaves.
Need to know
Venue: Sage Two Club Layout
Price: £13.50
Stage Times: Announced nearer showtime.
Age: Under 14s must be accompanied by an adult
“We’re still angry and Constant Noise is an angry album… 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.”
– Kingsley Hall, Benefits on Constant Noise
Watch
Watch the video for Benefits’ single ‘Relentless’ featuring Peter Doherty, a seemingly perfect fit with the band given the biting commentary on UK life in his earlier work. The video is directed by Teesside filmmaker John Kirkbride expanding on the visual themes introduced on ‘Land Of The Tyrants’, leaning into a gritty 70s/80s uncanny late-night aesthetic.
