Benefits distill more clarity and precision within their fury on Constant Noise

With that release screaming visceral, political fury and raw energy, the band exploded to wider attention against a backdrop of benign sounding artists. Let’s be honest, even with those who shared a similar attitude didn’t kick as hard. Nothing grabbed listener attention like vocalist Kingsley Hall’s fuck you, fuck me, fuck everything sloganeering. Whilst praised to the rafters by many, it was also seen as a very tough, unrelenting listen. Well, yeah! It was a Molotov cocktail down the throats of the people in power, their sycophants and their apologists.

Benefits have recalibrated. Perhaps enforced by personnel upheaval initially, the band now comprises just Hall and Robbie Major. Constant Noise is more measured, proving that evolution doesn’t mean softening but sharpening. The lyrics remain uncompromising, the urgency and contempt boiling at the surface, but the focus and delivery are more immersive. Major’s electronic wizardry pushes their sound into uncharted sonic landscapes and worlds. “Blame” draws as much from the groove-heavy electronic palettes of Underworld and Leftfield as it does from the confrontational punk energy of their debut. The single “Divide” – featuring Teeside rapper and DJ SHAKK – zings enthusiastically, and the collab rages, rightly seeing both sides elevating each other.

Benefits are not repeating themselves. Yes, “Lies and Fear” may reprise their earlier unfiltered anger and aggression. But it’s a brief interlude and departure from this album’s opening salvos. Hall’s subdued vocal matter-of-factly opines, ”I’m looking up in awe at a mountain of shit”. The album, and title track, has begun. Moody drones and Hall’s poetic, plaintive voice are held aloft by a hummed vocal choir and extended synth notes that bring to mind Radiohead’s “How To Disappear Completely” - a period when that group too pursued a shift away from guitar rock, embracing other tones. You may wonder if this is by design or coincidence, one has to believe that Hall’s literate writing is very much aware, particularly given the following Kid A sounding beats and glitches of “Land of Tyrants” with its “Hail to the thief” vocal refrains.

Benefits dig deeper: The personal, moribund texture of “Missiles” has a depth and cinematic atmosphere evoking the organic, minimal soundtracks of Popol Vuh and the space and claustrophobia simultaneously duelling within krautrock. Hall continues to wield language as both scalpel and sledgehammer and his delivery wanders from half spoken word to half impassioned sermon this time around. He draws from the lineage of poetic punk, akin to the politically charged musings of Sleaford Mods or even the sharp social critiques of Kae Tempest. The themes remain intensely relevant – political manipulation, the manufactured nostalgia peddled by those in power, the ever-present spectre of conflict and division – but amid the fire and fury, there’s also vulnerability, reflection on aging, grief, and the relentless passage of time, grounding this album’s anger with deeply personal stakes.

Following “Divide,” at the album's halfway point, the Pete Doherty-featuring “Relentless” serves as a perfect comparison of old versus new. The song trades in outright aggression for a creeping dread, carried by ominous synth waves and a restrained, smoldering guest spot from The Libertines’ singer. This subdued singing is embraced and echoed on the album’s closing songs “The Brambles” and “Burnt Out Family Home”. Benefits poignantly muse on nostalgia’s ambiguous pull, disillusionment and the deceptive glow of an idealized past. The final track’s hypnotic progression is emblematic of the band's newfound sonic depth. With production, handled by electronic artist James Welsh and James Adrian Brown (formerly of Pulled Apart By Horses) Constant Noise is a richer, more layered creature.

Benefits have taken their defining traits and expanded them immeasurably. With this album, they’ve crafted something that is still powerful, vital and confrontational, but balanced between fury and finesse. Constant Noise is more enveloping, mesmeric and, at times, beautiful in its mannered rage.