Wild Beasts new album 2016: Boy King announced, lead single ‘Get My Bang’ posted

'I'm letting my inner Byron fully out'

Wild Beasts have announced the follow-up album to 2014’s Present Tense, an “apocalyptic” album exploring sex and death.

Boy King, which was written in London and recording in Dallas, Texas, has a release date of 5 August.

The first single to be taken from it, ‘Get My Bang’ was launched with a music video today - not seeing a huge departure in sound, but a little more emphasis on rock as opposed to Present Tense’s layered, dancefloor-orientated lead single, ’Wanderlust’.

"I think Boy King is an apocalyptic record," said frontman Hayden Thorpe. "It's about swimming in the abyss. When you think about sex, you've got to think about death, they're one and the same.

"It became apparent that that guitar almost became the character within the songs, that phallic character, the all-conquering male.

"I'm letting my inner Byron fully out. I thought I'd tucked him away, but he came screaming back like the Incredible Hulk."

Wild Beasts head out on a UK tour in support of the tour in the autumn, taking in dates at Bristol, Oxford, Sheffield, Cambridge, London, Newcastle, Glasgow and Manchester.