The Chamberlains Releases Single Metropolis

by Damien Reid November 11, 2022

November 11, 2022

The Chamberlains Releases Single Metropolis

The Chamberlains is the project of Mike Stephens, a musician, and poet based in Sydney. They combine harsh and abrasive rock tones with darkly comedic lyrics, examining the ludicrous and horrific aspects of modern society.

Mike Stephens, a Sydney, Australia native and the younger of two brothers, grew up in a musical family and studied piano, guitar, and clarinet. After dropping out of high school, he enrolled in music classes at Sydney TAFE, where he learned to play the guitar, write songs, and develop a songwriting style in preparation for starting his own band. In the year 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he made the decision to resume a musical project that he had previously shelved and formally establish The Chamberlains. Two singles, Jas Vidal and The Most Innocent Times were released in the spring of 2020, and the debut album, Kingdom of the Swine, was released the following winter (2021). Ben Worsey recorded, mixed, and produced the album at Everland Studios in Sydney with the assistance of musicians Fabien Bethuizeau and Ralph Marshall.

The album is a bold and daring mix of rock that is inspired by garage and post-punk, as well as sardonic lyricism, and it explores topics such as youth, isolation, gentrification, hearsay, and masculinity. In 2022, the song called “Last Night in Norwich” was released, which was a nocturne-themed indie/alternative rock single. The second single “Metropolis” by The Chamberlains, is a remarkable sonic journey through the seedy underbelly of nocturnal life. The groundwork for a sleazy love letter to urban depravity is laid with a thick backdrop of creepy synths, guttural distortion, and thunderous percussion.