Right-Hand Man

How the Dirty Nil's Luke Bentham serves up a vulgar display of power

- JIM BEAUGEZ

THE LAST THING Luke Bentham ever expected to find in his mailbox was a piece of Vatican stationary.

But as he and his bandmates in the Dirty Nil prepared their sixth album, 2025's blistering The Lash, the Holy See served them with a cease-and-desist letter. Guitarist/vocalist Bentham and the boys weren't looking for trouble — only for cover artwork vicious enough to represent the high-gain hard rock on their latest long player. So when the Vatican rejected their use of a snapshot he took of a bronze relief sculpture known as "the Horrors of War," though, the band enlisted an illustrator to realize their vision instead.

Fortunately, the brutal riffs and stark arrangements on The Lash survived the Vatican's inquest. Recorded quickly and without agonizing over multiple takes or overwrought production ideas, Bentham, who carries the band’s guitar-and-melody engine, found himself in a rare place of momentum and freedom. "This one just felt different," he says. "It's the most fun I've had in the studio."

Bentham says he was "on a heater," bringing in riffs with a gnarlier edge than he'd leaned into before. The band was listening to a lot of the Jesus Lizard, and he immersed himself in Duane Denison’s thorny guitar playing. Songs came together during hours-long jams where time evaporated.