Masters of volume and impactful stalwarts REMOTE VIEWING return with their fourth studio album "State Violence" - their most direct statement as a band. An ode to loudness searing out of amplifiers pushed to breaking point, "State Violence" is an unapologetic reflection on the increasing levels of injustice, social division, extreme wealth and human atrocities we are seeing the world over. Across seven new tracks, Remote Viewing sharpen their explosive confrontational sound that resides between gritty sludge metal riffs and the ear-splitting power of noise rock. "State Violence" has been unleashed on Vinyl, CD, and Streaming on September 18th 2026 via Brighton based independent charitable label HUMAN WORTH (home to like-minded artists IAN, Lower Slaughter, Why Patterns et al). A portion of Human Worth's profits will be donated to registered UK charity TRUSSEL, working around the country to fight poverty and end the need for food banks.
Remote Viewing are formed from the ashes of Palehorse, consisting of current members of Million Dead, Sly & The Family Drone and Hands Up Who Wants To Die. To capture "State Violence", the quintet returned to Bear Bites Horse Studio in their hometown of London to work with long-time collaborator - producer, engineer and Petbrick musician Wayne Adams (who has helmed acclaimed heavy records by Green Lung, USA Nails, Vacuous, Kulk, and countless more). Remote Viewing made the studio feel like their home by bringing in all their own gear rather than the usual practice of utilising the in-house goodies. The band harness all of the volume, intensity, power and rawness akin to their rehearsals and live performances. Not just business as usual, the quintet divided their recording time into two distinct sessions made months apart; "We chose to not put any pressure on ourselves with self-imposed timelines, something we hadn't done before", confirms bassist John Atkins. The return session allowed time for reflection, scrapping one lengthy song in favour of two newly written pieces - epic opener of side B, 'HUMAN RIGHT$', and leading single 'Retrain As A Swan'. "We knew we could improve upon it", insists guitarist James Bryant, "working in this way became a new way of editing ourselves and really rounded out the album."
What was born out of two recording sessions is an album of two distinct halves. State Violence bursts into life with raging riff-centric face-melters. Opener '#makemoneymakelovemakemoney' is an absurd explosion of molten hot sludge, forged from amps so loud they sound close to imploding. Slabs of fuzz laden riffs claw through the speakers as hazy, visceral screams from vocalist Ed Dudley and guest Dan Jones (of UKAEA and These Towns) stumble in a maddened stream-of-consciousness. 'Straight To VHS' is a slow drag on a cigarette with rotten teeth; swampy and disorienting, the band capture that feeling of stumbling home drunk at three in the morning. 'Disrespect The Arts' closes a relentlessly suffocating first half. Flip the record and side B is a noticeably different affair. Remote Viewing slow down to a crawl with two extensive pieces observing a more staggered and spaced out approach. 'HUMAN RIGHT$' invites Human Worth labelmates and friends Ross Sergeant (of Pascagoula and Spree) to provide guest vocals, and Hannah Asprey (of post-metallers IAN) to add her mournful cello playing, adding a rare glimpse of beauty and melodicism within an album of ugliness and horror. 'Accidental Holiday' feels climactic and monumental, bringing their sludge metal influences to a harrowing conclusion.
Studying Remote Viewing's song titles and lyrics has always revealed a love for absurd self-deprecating humour and personal in-jokes, but the band are in less of a laughing mood on State Violence. "We’re aware of the state of the world around us and not everything is funny right now" laments Bryant. The London based noisenicks consider it difficult to pinpoint one single world event when there's such an overwhelming flood of global issues, but observe the exercise of control currently being operated over people, billionaires buying up social media platforms in an attempt to control the narrative, greater class division, authoritarianism, erosion of civil liberties, a rise in surveillance, the control of women's bodies, and the denial of climate change all as unwelcome inspiration points across this record. In particular, the band pinpoint our ease of standing idle to such colossal issues as the crux of things. "Many still believe the atrocities they see on their phone screens occur only in faraway places, maintaining an 'it couldn't happen here' mentality," explains Bryant; "when injustice and corruption are already occurring at home, not just abroad." Atkins sums it up even more bluntly, "The world is currently a veritable shit show of epic proportions." The cover art boasting State Violence enhances that feeling of uncertainty in the world today. Photographer Devin Lunsford has captured something ambiguous and understated yet thought provoking, completing the album and leaving an ominous feeling.
Remote Viewing have become both revered and feared for their loud and confrontational live shows, feeling at home on the smaller stages where no barriers separate performers from their audience. Never a band to be boxed into one scene, they favour diverse bills; "We're too weird for the doom/sludge scene, and too heavy for the art-rock scene," suggests Bryant, "we just exist caught somewhere between those worlds." Remote Viewing have shared stages with Thou, Moloch, Future Of The Left, Sugar Horse, Wren, Great Falls, Dawn Ray'd, and countless others. In 2024, Remote Viewing embarked on a tour with like-minded peers Pascagoula. The noisy quintet have appeared at Desertfest London, Chimpy Fest and Dreadfest, and will continue to march forth and bust eardrums to come.
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