“The guitar players barely holding onto control as they go into the corners at top speed are my favorite players”: How the Dirty Nil’s sound runs on vintage Marshall power and a healthy serving of the Rat pedal

A black and white action shot of Luke Bentham performing with the Dirty Nil.

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 Bentham took of a bronze relief sculpture known as “the Horrors of War,” the band enlisted an illustrator to realize their vision instead.