REVIEW: The Family Battenberg make their mark on music with 'Spider Rock Forever'

Allow me to introduce you to your new favourite genre: spider rock. Crafted by The Family Battenberg, spider rock can be defined as filthy and fuzzy psychedelic sounds, perfect as we descend into autumn. Already championed by the likes of Steve Lamacq, Amy Lame, Huw Stephens, and John Kennedy, the group are beginning to make their mark on the industry and rightly so. 

Spider Rock Forever is an independent release by the South Walian four-piece. It weaves mythology, love, and psychobabble with spacey vocals, blistering guitar, and driving drums. The band is reminiscent of Demob Happy and The Black Angels but still manages to carve its own distinctive, hazy sound. 

‘Foggy’ opens the EP, a song that encapsulates that feeling of being between awake and asleep, and was written after a prolonged state of sleep deprivation. Delivered with an appropriate lullaby-like nature, the backing vocals add to the surrealness with an unshakably condescending, mocking tone, only to be blasted awake by the tub-thumping-forward soundscape. 

In Welsh folklore, Gwyllgi is a ghoulish, mythical dog with red eyes that is an omen of bad things to come. The song is an amalgamation of mythical stories from Wales that singer, songwriter, and guitarist Eliot Jones was reading at the time. It’s clear how much love has gone into ‘Gwyllgi’, making it one of my favourites. 

‘Friend of Mine’ is a stripped-back tune, opening with the sound of rain and distorted conversation. It borrows elements of folk to lull you into a false sense of security, crooning at us to ‘leave your troubles behind’, before creepily fading out and into the slinky web of ‘Spiders’. Hailed as the ethos of the EP, ‘Spiders’ is laced with saturated vocals and a guitar which transforms into a crawling arachnid. 

‘Anteater’ is The Family Battenberg finessed, taking all their signature elements and showcasing them in one song. It ricochets from one extreme to another: spacey vocals contrasted with blistering guitars about to take off. Who knew a song that heavily features the anteater could be so infectious? 

‘Ghouls! Conga Line!’ takes the award for best song name of 2025 and finishes the EP. It’s rightfully haunting with dual vocals to begin: one vocal we recognise and another, distorted and spooky, following behind. We’re invited to enter the haunted house of The Family Battenberg’s design and asked to ‘Sway / Sway / Sway’ in the blurred mist of rhythmic guitars. 

In the age of weird girl fiction and A24 films, The Family Battenberg fill the need for a musical component by giving us spider rock.

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