Bendricks have spent 2026 turning heads, filling rooms and leaving festival crowds breathless. On forthcoming new single ‘Rise Above’, the Welsh firebrands capture that surging momentum in one exhilarating statement: a towering, chest-out anthem that sounds purpose-built for the bigger stages now coming rapidly into view.
The new single follows a triumphant festival season that has taken Bendricks to In It Together and the Isle of Wight Festival, alongside headline shows at Liverpool’s EBGBS, Manchester’s Off The Square and Le Pub in Newport. Already among the most talked-about bands emerging from Wales, their ascent is beginning to feel unstoppable.
At the heart of the group are brothers Mitch Griggs on vocals and Dom Griggs on guitar, joined by drummer Aaron Abraham and bassist Rhyd Greening. Their ranks have now been bolstered by Sam Stopgate, responsible for tambourine, percussion and full-time crowd-whipping duty. His unofficial job description? Self-appointed party starter. It is a role that tells you plenty about Bendricks: this is a band built around collective release, communal energy and the glorious disorder of a packed live room.
Rise Abovedistils all of that into three-and-a-half ferocious minutes.
Initially holding something in reserve, the track quickly gathers muscle as thick, surging guitars lock into a rhythm section carrying genuine physical force. Greening’s bass provides the underlying weight, while Abraham’s drums continually drive the song forward, giving it the breathless momentum of a band charging headlong towards something bigger. Dom Griggs’ guitar work supplies both the grit and the lift, its muscular chords opening into brighter, more expansive passages as the track climbs.
Above it all, Mitch Griggs delivers a vocal made to travel beyond the stage. There is hunger in his performance, but also defiance: every line feels propelled by the determination suggested by the song’s title. Rather than simply singing over the instrumentation, he pushes against it, allowing the tension between voice and guitars to give ‘Rise Above’ its urgency.
The chorus is where the track truly breaks free. Broad, infectious and unapologetically anthemic, it transforms the song’s sense of struggle into a moment of outright release. This is not empty arena-rock posturing; its scale feels earned, emerging naturally from the pressure built through the verses. You can already picture arms raised, tambourine shaking and Stopgate conducting the front rows while the words are hurled back towards the stage.
A more restrained middle passage briefly lowers the temperature, creating a pocket of space before Bendricks begin their final ascent. From there, the track grows progressively larger, its guitars widening and the rhythm section striking with increasing force until the closing stretch becomes a euphoric wall of sound. By its final moments, ‘Rise Above’ no longer feels like a title or even an instruction—it feels like the band’s entire trajectory condensed into music.
Bendricks are not waiting patiently for the next level. With ‘Rise Above’, they sound ready to kick the door from its hinges, drag the crowd through behind them and turn their gathering momentum into something impossible to ignore.
Rise Above is released on Friday 28th August and can be pre-saved here.
Bendricks appeared on episode 156 of the ThisIsTheMusic meets podcast. Available on Spotify and You Tube.
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