Hamilton, Ontario band The Dirty Nil have shared a new single, ‘Spider Dream’, from their highly-anticipated fifth studio album, ‘The Lash’, due out July 25 on Dine Alone Records. Described by the band as their “most Beatles-sounding song,” their new single filters the torment of bad decisions through a dreamy and melodic lens.
“I woke up one morning, completely refreshed by a nightmare,” vocalist/guitarist Luke Bentham explains. “It was a strange feeling but enough to animate a song. I had also just watched the Beatles documentary that the Lord of the Rings fella made, so I was inspired to use more jangly chords than I usually do. It was a strange one to bring to the band but the arrangement came together instantly and it never changed from the first time we played it.”
All over their new record, The Dirty Nil dive headfirst into something far more visceral and back-to-basics. Without a moment to overthink, The Lash poured out of them, and they recorded the entire record in just over two weeks with up-and-coming producer and their actual front-of-house engineer, Vince Solveri. The result finds the band sounding more urgent and alive than ever before.
Everything about The Lash evokes a certain sort of brutality. During a trip to the Vatican, vocalist / guitarist Luke Bentham found inspiration in some of its forgotten art. “I was in a very dusty part of the basement, and they had these crazy bronze reliefs that were some of the most brutal things I’ve ever seen,” he recalls. “There was a particular one called The Horrors of War. It was two guys fighting over a knife. That image ended up guiding a lot of this record.”
From there, the band brought in UK designer Jack Sabbat for his acerbic, bootleg punk-flyer style, assuring The Lash would look right at home in a beat-up bin of old Crass records or in a Medieval torture dungeon.
Thematically, the album’s ten tracks trade Bentham’s usual happy-go-lucky romanticism for a cathartic vent session about everything from music industry bullsh*t to the dissolution of a relationship. Drummer and co-conspirator Kyle Fisher jokes: “I’ve been telling people that this is Luke’s therapy record.”
THE LASH – Tracklisting
1) Gallop of the Hounds
2) Fail in Time
3) That Don’t Mean It Won’t Sting
4) Rock ‘n’ Roll Band
5) This Is Me Warning Ya
6) Do You Want Me?
7) Spider Dream
8) They Won’t Beat Us
9) Hero Narrative
10) I Was A Henchman
Formed in 2006, The Dirty Nil have always leaned more towards the flashier side of punk, but The Lash finds them stripping everything back to what matters most: no frills, just playing like their lives depend on it.
For fans of bands like The Jesus Lizard, The Bronx, and Metz, The Lash is a high-stakes rock record from a group that’s spent over a decade delivering unrelenting live performances, building a global fanbase, and even winning a Juno Award for Breakthrough Band in 2017. They’ve played the game and done the dance for long enough; this is The Dirty Nil back on their own terms.
OCTOBER (with Spanish Love Songs + on the Common Thread tour)
09: VIENNA Szene
10: STUTTGART Club Cann
11: SCHWEINFURT Statbahnhoff
12: MILAN Legend 54
14: ZURICH Dynamo
15: WIESBADEN Schlachthof
16: HAMBURG Knust
18: OBERHAUSEN Common Thread Tour
19: BRUSSELS Common Thread Tour
20: HAARLEM Common Thread Tour
22: BIRMINGHAM O2 Institute
23: MANCHESTER New Century Hall
24: NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms
25: LONDON Common Thread Tour
26: LEEDS Common Thread Tour
High Fives & Stage Dives 