Londoners Magazine

Artist: iLiKETRAiNS
Single: “We Go Hunting”
Label: Beggars Banquet
Released: 21 April 2008

The Leeds-based history obsessives’ latest odyssey takes us across the ocean to seventeenth century Massachusetts. Still awake? Then read on, writes Chris Lo.

Drawing inspiration from dramatic events occurring throughout history, iLiKETRAiNS are a rare lyrical proposition. Taken from 2007’s excellent “Elegies To Lessons Learnt”, “We Go Hunting” is a morbid examination of the 1692 Salem witch trials, during which 19 people were executed for witchcraft in Massachusetts.

A recurring line gives away the song’s fascination with religious paranoia: “If the demons divine, the demons will conquer / If you give them an inch, they’ll take a mile.” Behind the words, the band’s orchestral post-rock assault hammers home with characteristically grand fierceness.

“More Weight”, the single’s B-side, is an unexpected delight. Whilst “We Go Hunting”’s seething resentment thrashes and crashes, this track glows with otherworldly calm.

Sticking with the Salem trials, “More Weight” focuses on Giles Corey, a farmer tortured and killed for witchcraft. Corey refused to plead guilty at his trial, so was condemned to be crushed by huge stone weights until he confessed. He never did, and his last words were “more weight”.

The soft synths and gently humming guitars are a moving tribute to the doomed man’s bravery, as is the song’s most memorable line, concerning Corey’s spirit: “Though it bends, it never breaks.”