Death and denial never sounded so happy. ‘Heaven’ the closing number on the Brute’s forthcoming album How The Caged Bird Sings sees the band go out in style with probably their catchiest chorus to date. The acoustic-driven track is a fine example of the band’s physical approach to their music, adding layers of vocals for some Suzie Sioux style backup and even a middle eight built entirely out of lead singer James Steel’s improvised vocals.

Lyrically it’s a downer as usual. “They locked the gates of Heaven on the day I was born and I won’t be going back there anymore…” points to a fatalistically declaration that it’s already been decided who’ll get in and who won’t and that no end of trying will change the status quo. Pretty strong stuff from the son of a preacher man, but his tongue seems to still be firmly in his cheek as he signs off with “…this ain’t no place to party, and you know that very well, if you want somewhere to party you can go to Hell”.

The Devil probably has better taste in music anyway.

How The Caged Bird Sings (TAPE) is due to drop on 13 September 2010. For more Brute checkout www.myspace.com/thebrutechorus.