THE BATTERY FARM o god




THE BATTERY FARM
O God
Rare Vitamin
26/07/24

The Battery Farm find their gutter-punk vibe shifting slowly towards the nine concentric circles of Hell on bleak new single O God. It’s an unsettling listen that’s mired in existential dread, like Alice peering through the looking glass and realising all is not what it should be, or the protagonist’s inability to feel emotion in Camus’ literary classic, L’Etranger. 

Marching drums precede a stuttering beat that welcomes the listener with an implied death waltz, replete with snaking bass-line and stabs of dissonant six-string noise. Benji’s vocal exclamations pierce the trap-infused rhythms across the verse as he lures you into a conversation with his maker about purpose, meaning, and dogma. You can feel the unease as instrumentation pulls against vocal cadence before a dramatic pause provides just enough air for a whispered plea to escape the downward spiral. 

And then… the release.

Molten guitar tones smother a doom-laden riff as layman becomes lay preacher across the crushing chorus. Benji’s repeated mantra seeks to convince the listener, or perhaps convince himself, of the healing powers and reassuring safety of a deity.

The circles tighten and the mind spins faster and faster across the second half of the song, with lyrics becoming more desperate as chaos and confusion reign. What if God did not make man, or at least did not make me? What if there is no God? What if all there is left is dust and bones and a slow drift into everlasting nothingness? The music reflects this torment; confusing and awkward, yet somehow always pulling you back in to the gutter with its syncopated groove.

But what if we reject nihilism and embrace the absurdism of life? Or what if we accept blind faith? Either way, as John Lennon once said, everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay… it’s not the end. On this form, The Battery Farm have a long road ahead of them.




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