The Joy Thieves and Chris Connelly release ‘I’ll Be Your Hammer’ video
The Joy Thieves release “I’ll Be Your Hammer”, a single and video featuring Chris Connelly, from the album “Apocalypse Pending” on Armalyte Industries.
The Joy Thieves, the Chicago industrial collective, released “I’ll Be Your Hammer” on 7 July 2026, a single and video featuring Chris Connelly. The track is taken from the album “Apocalypse Pending”, out now on the London label Armalyte Industries.
Inside ‘I’ll Be Your Hammer’
The song reworks the title of The Velvet Underground’s “I’ll Be Your Mirror” into a line of resistance. Connelly sets the two against each other: “‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’ by The Velvet Underground is an introspective plea from one lover to another; ‘I’ll Be Your Hammer’ is written from the perspective of an individual standing up to a fascist regime. The more you suppress our rights, the stronger I get.” The video was directed by Joel Lopez of Lumbra Productions.
Dan Milligan places the track against the rest of the record: “‘I’ll Be Your Hammer’ probably sounds more like our past releases than any other song on the album.” It follows the earlier single “The Wrong End of Your Rifle”, also featuring Connelly, which previewed “Apocalypse Pending” in April 2026. The 13-track album is available on digipack CD and digital.
About The Joy Thieves
The Joy Thieves are a Chicago industrial-rock collective led by Dan Milligan with James Scott, working through Joy Thieves Productions. The project builds tracks from fragments contributed by a large rotating roster of musicians drawn from the wider industrial and post-punk scene. The group signed to Armalyte Industries in 2018, and “Apocalypse Pending” is their eleventh release for the label.
Chris Connelly is an Edinburgh-born singer and musician, a founding member of Fini Tribe who later worked with Ministry, Revolting Cocks and Pigface alongside a long solo catalogue. “I’ll Be Your Hammer” is the latest single lifted from “Apocalypse Pending”.
Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!
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