Teesside punk outfit Benefits have announced debut album ‘Nails’ and shared its first single, the furious ‘Warhorse’.

• READ MORE: Benefits: an instant punk battlecry against flag-shaggers (and Chris Martin)

The band, led by frontman Kingsley Hall, have signed to Bristol’s Invada Records, the label of Portishead and BEAK>‘s Geoff Barrow, for the album, which will come out on April 21.

“We could have released a record at any point over the last couple of years but held back because I wanted to wait until the right people came along,” Hall said of the signing and forthcoming album.

Watch him sign the record contract at Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium below.

Ok. Here's some massive news. pic.twitter.com/a8DVTSubDG

— Benefits (@Benefitstheband) February 27, 2023

Of first single ‘Warhorse’, Hall added: “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.”

Watch the video for the furious new single and the album’s tracklist below, and pre-order ‘Nails’ here.

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’

Around the album’s release, Benefits will head out on a UK headline tour, beginning in Glasgow. Dates in Leeds, Manchester, Cardiff, Brighton and more will follow, before the dates wrap up in Newcastle on April 30.

Tickets are on sale here and you can see the full list of dates below.

APRIL 2023
21 – Glasgow, The Rum Shack
22 – Leeds, Lending Room
23 – Manchester, Soup Kitchen
24 – Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach
25 – Tunbridge Wells, Forum
26 – Brighton, Chalk
27 – London, 100 Club
28 – Hebden Bridge, Trades Club
29 – Birmingham, Hare & Hounds
30 – Newcastle, Cluny

Reviewing Benefits’ gig in London last month, NME said: “For all the rage, there’s a lot of heart on display too. Towards the end of the set, Kingsley Hall speaks of years of being overwhelmed by “anxiety, stress and fear” and how the only way he can get over it is by admitting it.

““It’s a bit like Alcoholics Anonymous,” he says, but at more eardrum-threatening volumes. It may have been an exorcism for him, but tonight is a wake up call for everyone else. Stand out, stand up, be heard: don’t let the fuckers keep you down.”

Speaking to NME in 2021, Hall said that he didn’t want Benefits’ live gigs to seem “half-arsed” but rather “an explosion of power and anger”. He added: “We don’t have anyone editing us or telling us what to do.”

The post Benefits share furious new single ‘Warhorse’ and announce debut album ‘Nails’ appeared first on NME.