The Family Men harness controlled chaos on industrial rock single “Luxury”

Coiling samples and looping breakbeats underscore loose, raucous chugging guitar riffs with waves of broken power electronics striking the ears. At the same time, pensive words are screamed ferociously in an attempt to tower over the heavy abrasion. It sounds like Ministry or Pitchshifter rejuvenated for the modern age, but with the freneticism dialled up. It’d seem disorderly, yet it’s everything but. The careful construction of this chaos is never overwhelming, which is how The Family Men’s “Luxury”, and their upcoming second record, Co/de/termination, plays out.

Founders Gustav Danielsbacka and Nils Lindgren met as young kids in music school, bonding over nu metal and writing songs together. Eventually, the line-up expanded into a four-piece, Vidar Nilsson and Valdemar Wickelgren Löthman. Getting to the present iteration of The Family Men was quite a metamorphosis, as Danielsbacka reveals: “We played pretty straightforward garage-y punk, up until 2020 when we started messing around with synths and samplers. That’s when we started writing the first songs that turned into [our debut] No Sound Forever.”

This striking sonic identity has made them a standout in Gothenburg’s underground scene, which has totally diverged from the city’s Balearic indie pop of the 2000s. Nilsson cites the band’s knack for collaging tape loops to local artists like Neutral’s elongated, experimental noise and Monokultur’s psychedelic, hypnotic droning. As Lindgren notes, when Nilsson eventually brought an 808 drum machine to their rehearsal room and fed it through distortion pedals, that’s when the immense The Family Men sound was born.

Musically, their inspiration draws on somewhat obvious touchpoints, such as Skinny Puppy and Slipknot, but they also mention Steely Dan. “The perfectionist method they brought is a big influence,” Danielsbacka says of the latter. Indeed, that attention to detail is felt. The songwriting and structures are tighter than ever on Co/de/termination, due 8 May via Welfare Sounds & Records. “For this album, we approached the electronics first, then built the songs around them instead of adding them in after, like we did on the first album,” Lindgren says. “It feels like a more natural incorporation,” Danielsbacka adds.

“Luxury” booms confidently in this way. Its barrage of calamitous instruments is tied together by Danielsbacka’s stream-of-consciousness catharsis on a world veering towards its destruction, this alone encapsulates the album’s aesthetics. “One of the main differences of this album is that it’s a lot heavier than the last album, but also poppier,” Lindgren explains. They’ve struck the balance of both extremes – dark and light – incredibly profoundly in the studio and also live, which is where their intensity truly heightens.

Partly a mantra embodying their music, The Family Men self-describe themselves as purveyors of the “Total Harmful Sound,” a reference to Danielsbacka and Lindgren’s defunct label. “I really like the idea of giving every last bit in the live performance, even if it’s harmful,” Danielsbacka says. “It can be harmful in the poetic sense of totally draining yourself, but also it relates to the volume aspect, you know, harmful sounds.” Evidently, the band are fired up enough to command the stage with their new material.