The Battery Farm: Darkish Internet

Venturing into darkers realms and rising in stature with every launch, The Battery Farm as soon as once more ship one other assortment of uneasy listening which doesn’t lose that punk chew, but borders on a brand new deep apocalyptic gothic sound says Wayne AF Carey.

The Battery Farm are not any strangers to ideas. Simply try their earlier output with the likes of Soiled Den’s March Of Struggling EP and the wonderful uncooked dirtiness of their nice debut FLIES and also you’ll know the place I’m heading. Extra of an interview than a evaluation, frontman Ben Corry explains every tune intimately matched with my sonic description of the entire shebang…

Beneath the Bomb

LTW: A mellow darkish gothic begin with Ben sounding menacing and maudlin with a Remaining Lower-esque bassline that’s unsettling and warped.

Ben Corry: “That is the very first tune I wrote for the album, again once we have been nonetheless recording FLIES. It was written within the early months of the Russian terror of Ukraine, when the spectre of the bomb started to rear its demise head once more in a method not seen because the first Chilly Conflict. The tune is about each what The Bomb takes from us now, and what it could take from us if it strikes. To dwell underneath the bomb is to dwell within the shadow of futility and concern, the data all the time underlying that in the future the previous, current and future might be worn out in an unfathomable apocalypse, all of us mud on the altar of warfare. It’s a stark topic, and I wished a stark association to begin the album boldly. Beneath the Bomb is just about unchanged from once I wrote it in my home, alone with all my fears.”

The Subsequent A long time

A rip roaring bass heavy quantity with Ben at his gnarly punkest finest backed with thundering drums from Sam and doom riffs from Dom whipping up a storm.

“That is the heaviest tune on the album, and definitely probably the most usually ‘Battery Farm’ tune on Darkish Internet. I can’t recall ever beforehand delivering a vocal with this degree of visceral depth – it’s a excessive bar – and I’m actually pleased with it. It’s a type of uncommon tracks that really sounds extra intense on the document than dwell. Lyrically, it observes the epoch of violence and geopolitical chaos we’re at the moment dwelling via, wanting on the worst case eventualities for what doubtlessly awaits us within the coming many years – the third world warfare, the rendering uninhabitable of our planet – and lashing out with wild desperation. It doesn’t provide options as a result of it could’t. It’s a howl of despair, as a result of that’s how I felt once I wrote it. Is that solipsistic? Sure, most likely. Typically that’s the one method to cope. Now we’re change into demise, certainly.”

Hail Mary

A belting journey into the darkish world of TBF’s noise. Ben is on high kind as standard, backed by the elphantine guitar sounds from Dom’s myriad results that he owns. It’s catchy as fuck and sounds huge and offended like they do finest. The entire dynamic shakes and roars with soiled attract.

“The songs on Darkish Internet have benefitted massively from a extra collaborative strategy to writing between the 4 of us. Hail Mary was the primary of a collection on this album we put collectively solely within the apply room. This extra holistic strategy, we’ve discovered, takes us in instructions that we wouldn’t have supposed to go in have been we being aware about it. In the end it opens us as much as everybody’s influences, with Hail Mary being utterly constructed round Paul’s mathy, angular bass riff. Principally, this tune completely modified our strategy to writing and greater than something actually crystallised the icier, extra reflective course during which we wished to take Darkish Internet. Lyrically – in a nutshell – it’s about doomscrolling. It’s a last, futile try to interrupt free from the oppressive, addictive terror of the 24 hour information cycle and the cacophonous fury and inanity of social media, each of that are slowly killing us and neither of which we appear to have the ability to flip away from.”

O God

A noodling bassline, machine gun guitar suggestions, Ben ranting like a preacher and gradual pumelling drums. What extra might you ask for with a formulation like this from Manchester’s best gutter punks? Oh God, which method is hell?

“The album’s first single. Pushed ferociously by Paul and Sam’s elegant rhythm work and inventive ingenuity. If me and Dom had had our method it could have been a very completely different tune. We got here in with this sludgy, stompy factor that sounded nice simply the two of us, however actually was absolute swill within the room. After hours of making an attempt to get it to work, Sam took the initiative and launched into the beat that you just hear on the document, Paul pulled that bassline out of nowhere, and me and Dom reconfigured our respective elements to swimsuit the brand new rhythm. What resulted, out of nowhere, was primarily the completed article, resplendent with the right stress for a tune about being on the mercy of chaos in an unsentient universe. Magic.”

Darkish Internet

One other moody bastard which brings out the crooner loving parts in Ben’s vocals. The mellow clam earlier than the long run storm

“Darkish Internet is supposed to function the encapsulation of the album’s themes. The Darkish Internet exists on this tune – and certainly within the album – because the embodiment of the depravity, evil and ferality alongside which all of us, it appears, should dwell our lives. Slaughter, exploitation and dehumanisation shadow our collective consciousness, which chips away at our shared humanity and debases all of us. How do you push ahead, simply making an attempt to dwell your life, understanding that for therefore many who isn’t an possibility? How do you push ahead understanding that you just exist parallel to unspeakable struggling? Is making an attempt to push ahead finally probably the most wicked factor you are able to do?”

Stevie’s Ices

Dom will get carried away together with his bizarre results backed by psychological drumming from Sam and a doom bass riff from Paul complimenting the entire fucked up story telling from Ben. It’s a backbone tingling pay attention which will get higher each pay attention. Monstrous as fuck with ear melting guitar riffs.

“This tune was initially 6 minutes lengthy, with lyrics about an ice cream man who occurs to be the unwilling keeper of a titanic, lovecraftian beast who must be fed Human kids the entire yr spherical to stay docile. This was to be Stevie’s motivation for working within the winter – to make sure the beast might be fed its naked minimal, to spare the Human race its apocalyptic rage. Sure, this could consequence within the deaths of some kids, nevertheless it was crucial to guard us all from the monster’s unholy wrath. Stevie’s Ices initially stood as a rumination on meta-ethical ethical relativism, begging the query of whether or not there objectively are things like good and evil in a universe of chaos, the place no matter good we attempt to do is laced with somebody’s abject struggling. Are all of us simply making an attempt to protect ourselves? Anyway, that tune ended up being actually boring so I modified the lyrics, then we reworked the tune within the room with all 4 of us, and now it’s a grubby little quantity a few peeping, wanking ice cream man. So there you go.”

Icicles

The crew effort and the funkiest bastard on the album. Try the bass and the bizarre as fuck guitar sound from Dom utilizing his results to their potential. Ben goes spoken phrase to some extent and howls the refrain in solely the way in which he can. An earworm stuffed with worms.

“That is my favorite tune on the album. A very natural collaboration between the 4 of us. We got here into the room with nothing however a set of lyrics and a deadline to satisfy for recording and constructed this monster out of sheer will. We have been up in opposition to it all through the method of constructing Darkish Internet, and the reminiscence of placing this tune collectively exemplifies solely why I’m so pleased with it. We knew we would have liked a tune and quite than simply throwing one thing collectively everybody had sensible concepts within the second that meshed collectively completely. That comes from years of exhausting graft and the event of a mutual understanding and inventive chemistry that you just solely get by working exhausting collectively for a very long time. It feels just like the embodiment of what we’ve put into this album, what we’ve been via to get it made and what we’ve achieved in doing so. I completely treasure it.”

John Bull’s Arduous Occasions

One other exhausting hitter stuffed with Dom’s trademark squalling guitars and Bens fury lurching out of the audio system with spitting venom and crunching drums that cave your head in all revolving across the bass.

“The ultimate single from the album and one other tune that roughly simply occurred on the spot, pushed by Dom’s ferocious, fuzzed-up guitar riff. John Bull is a cartoon character who was used primarily within the 18th and nineteenth century as an idealised, conservative personification of the UK. John Bull’s Arduous Occasions takes a take a look at what he’s now and finds him offended, drained, paranoid, despondent and poor. His present situation is the results of many years of neoliberalist managed decline and 14 years of vicious Tory assault. Johnny Bull’s not wanting good.

As I write this, we’ve simply had a mealy-mouthed finances from a cowardly Blue Labour authorities intent on sustaining the murderous Neoliberal establishment of the final 45 years that has failed everybody however probably the most rich. As I write this, Donald Trump has been reelected president of the US, in an instance of what occurs whenever you govern with cowardice, which Labour will little question study both nothing or all of the mistaken classes from. Whenever you govern with cowardice, you let the far proper in. Should you don’t stand as much as fascism you foment its rise. Johnny Bull’s so fucking offended. Johnny Bull’s so very drained.”

It’s a Disgrace, Thanks a Lot

One other bass pushed second with private lyrics as described under. It’s a coronary heart wrenching unhappy quantity that anybody who’s skilled psychological well being can relate to. A touching topic for a lot of labored into an awesome tune.

“In January 2023 I had a psychological breakdown and ended up in hospital. I’d have died if I hadn’t gone. Simply after that, nonetheless within the midst of a terror you may’t even think about until you’re in it, I wrote this tune on my piano. I wrote this as a way of laying all of it on the market with brutal starkness – the violence of all of it, the convulsion, the monstrous concern, the shortage of management, the sensation of absolute putrid hopelessness and helplessness. On the time, I wrote this tune to try to heal myself and purge all of the poison from my soul. It didn’t work as a result of it’s not that straightforward, nevertheless it did assist. And it continues to, despite the fact that it stays a tough pay attention. I hope it helps you too, in the event you want it.”

After the Bomb

One other nod to late Waters period Pink Floyd with extra nice guitar work from Dom and Paul, together with tight as fuck crystal clear drums from Sam. A Battery Farm masterpiece that explodes two minutes in like a ten tonne ultrabomb. Offended, bizarre and darkish in a single membership sandwich and an effective way to exit.

“I all the time wished to bookend the album with Beneath/After the Bomb, nevertheless it took ages to get it to work. This tune went via so many iterations that simply didn’t work – from Floydesque Prog torch tune to corny Glam stomper – that for some time we deserted it. I’m glad we didn’t, as a result of it’s an ideal finish to the album. One other instance of simply what a drive we’ve change into, creatively, as a unit. There are 4 or 5 songs on this album whose last kind simply occurred out of nowhere and that is one in all them. We completed this a few week earlier than we have been attributable to document. I don’t know the way we did it.

Lyrically, that is clearly a companion piece to Beneath the Bomb. Nonetheless, the place UTB displays on the private value of nuclear weapons, ATB rails in opposition to their very existence. This tune is in regards to the hubris and insanity of the very existence of those weapons. Nuclear Conflict will not be Sci-Fi. Nuclear annihilation is an actual chance. It’s not, nevertheless, an inevitability. Full nuclear disarmament is important to our survival. Each day that these weapons exist we’re, all of us, at risk. The Doomsday Clock is nearer to midnight than it has ever been. We will’t preserve this up endlessly. I’ll go away you with a quote from Bertrand Russell that underpins the themes of this complete album, and which adorns the again cowl of Darkish Internet – ‘Chances are you’ll fairly anticipate a person to stroll a tightrope safely for ten minutes; it could be unreasonable to take action with out accident for 200 years.’”

A not so tough second album from the North Manchester lads who by no means quit and create a bizarre loud fantastic noise of their very own design. Try their Louder Than Conflict Radio takeover with Iain Key to listen to extra…

Album launch twenty ninth November at The Deaf Institute Lodge. Tickets right here.

Fb / Spotify / Instagram

Phrases by Wayne Carey, Evaluations Editor for Louder Than Conflict. His writer profile is right here