Young Knives, brothers Henry Dartnall and The House of Lords, have released their fifth album, Barbarians. The band’s first full-length in seven years, following 2013’s acclaimed Sick Octave, Barbarians is a leap into both sonic and thematic experimentation by a band who love to confuse and entertain in equal measure.
“Young Knives are now light years away from pretty much every band on Planet Earth with their way way out there Barbarians” –Brooklyn Vegan
It was as the brothers ventured into philosopher John Gray’s 2002 book Straw Dogs that they were inspired to dial into the ultra-violent, brutal nature of human beings. Henry says: “I read Straw Dogs after having put it off for years because of the hype. It’s something you can’t un-read. Its key point is that no matter what scientific progress we have made, what advances we have made in our understanding of how the universe works, we have not become better humans, we are no less barbaric. I just thought that it was such an undeniable point; we are obsessed with self and social improvement, but we don’t get any better as human beings. What if cruelty to others is just part of who we are? How do we live with that?”
Written, recorded and mixed by Young Knives in their studio near Oxford,Henry says of Barbarians: “ We broke down all the barriers to creativity and made the most cathartic and noisy album of our career.”