Following a hugely successful UK tour which saw British punk legends The Damned rev up 2018 by playing to over 23,000 rabid fans, including two back-to-back sold-out London shows, the band return this month with a double A side single available to stream/download now on Spotify.
Culled from their forthcoming Evil Spirits album, released April 13th via Search And Destroy/Spinefarm Records,the band have released two new songs, ‘Look Left’ and ‘Devil In Disguise’ that perfectly represent the albums’ many shifting moods and styles.
Look Left is The Damned at their most epic and grandiose; a sweeping sugar-coated mind-grenade, addressing post-millennial society’s “media-induced coma” over lush vocal melodies and show tune theatrics. Written by drummer Pinch as a love song to the human race, the lush balladry holds a heavy lyrical theme within.
‘While everybody’s looking left, what the hell is happening right? Tough subject matter is easier to digest when coated in honey rather than vinegar and the message in this song is so important, I couldn’t risk it being a throw away aggro punk tune that was immediately overlooked,” explains Pinch. “The future is here, and until you awaken your mind, I’ll wait for you.;
Next up, Devil In Disguise is an energetic garage-punk monster, replete with Monty Oxy Moron’s era-specific Farfisa organ, a raunchy Vanian vocal attack and classic Sensible guitar chimes. Again, written by drummer Pinch, he explains ‘people gravitate towards blaming individuals rather than the systems they are part of. Figureheads are only puppets. It’s the puppet masters we should be concerned about. The enemy of our enemy is our friend, apparently.’
Recorded by famed producer Tony Visconti, Evil Spirits is the result of a frantic, high-energy burst of creativity at Atomic Sound studios in Brooklyn in October of 2017, with ‘Black Album’ and ‘Strawberries’ era-bassist Paul Gray back in the fold.
You can catch the band live in the UK next in June when they tour as support to the Hollywood Vampires (Joe Perry, Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp) at the following dates:
June 16th Birmingham Genting Arena
June 17th Manchester Arena
June 19th Glasgow The SSE Hydro
June 20th London The SSE Arena, Wembley
And at the following headline shows in August:
August 22nd Southampton, 02 Guildhall
August 23rd Holmfirth, Holmfirth Picture House
August 24th Warrington, Warrington Parr Hall
August 25th Belfast, Belsonic Festival (*main support to Still Little Fingers)
Look Left:
Devil in Disguise: