Listen to Benefits’ powerful new “anti-war” single ‘Missiles’

nme.com:

Benefits have shared ‘Missiles’, a powerful new anti-war single. Check it out below.The track is taken from the Teesside duo’s upcoming second album ‘Constant Noise’, which will arrive on March 21 via Invada Records and serves as the follow-up to 2023’s ‘NAILS’.So far, they’ve shared lead single ‘Land Of The Tyrants’, as well as ‘Relentless’, which features Pete Doherty of The Libertines.Now, on Christmas Eve, they’ve shared their ominous, “wildly angry” and “anti-war” single ‘Missiles’.

Speaking on the song, frontman Kingsley Hall said they aimed to channel their message in an “unconventional way”.“There’s no shouting or obvious sloganeering here, yet it’s still seething with fury,” he said. “Lyrically it’s an attempt to look at our own comfortable, mundane, western lives and question why the terror and horror of others can fade so far into the background that it barely registers when it’s mentioned on the news or pops up on your phone.The experimental, six-minute track slowly builds to an intense finale, culminating in a harrowing atmosphere as Hall sings: “And the man says the missiles are firing again.”Alongside the track, the band have shared a dramatic video that features Hall performing alone in an empty theatre.

According to Hall, the video was an attempt to “mirror the glacial slowness of the song”.He continued: “There needed to be a certain level of intensity so we went back a little to the aesthetic of some of the earliest Benefits videos where next to nothing would really happen – just a lone figure in front of a static camera – in doing so, the smallest gestures become important.

I essentially play a fool – performing to no one, applauding myself, patting myself on the back by doing the bare minimum –.