Malevolence: A Friendly Community Of Moshers
The last few years has seen a meteoric rise of hardcore/metalcore music breaking into the mainstream. Over in America, we are seeing bands like KNOCKED LOOSE making waves and even appearing on major television talk shows, whereas on our little island, we have our own band that are causing up a storm on these shores, that being the mighty MALEVOLENCE from Sheffield. Their ascent in popularity in recent years has been incredible to see and following the release of their latest album; Where Only The Truth Is Spoken which we were treated to a taste of at a not so secret set at Download Festival last summer, you know something huge is brewing. We were lucky enough to sit down with MALEVOLENCE’s very own connoisseur of the skins; Charlie Thorpe to talk about all things MALEVOLENCE.
On a typically dreary British day, we chat with Charlie over Zoom, who is luckily in the south of France at the time of speaking. The conversation started off by discussing their latest album and how it felt any different to earlier efforts. It turns out, their fourth album had a completely different approach compared to the first three records, all recorded solely by the band. There is the typical side of recording where Charlie explains that guitarist Josh Baines is constantly churning out “sick riffs” that the band would play with for the writing process but this time round, they looked to producer Josh Wilbur (Grammy winning producer who has worked with the likes of LAMB OF GOD and KORN), who shook up the usual way of recording for the band.
“He switched the whole structure which did make us wonder if this would work and it all came to life which was awesome. It was nice having a sixth person in the room like a mediator that bridges the gap where we normally all are in a room giving ideas which are counter productive.” It also seems that Wilbur hit the ground running with the band, making an instant impact as Charlie recalls that he came “straight off the plane from LA, jet lagged out his head, he turned up and burst in with ideas and did a full eight hour session with us, the guy is mental.”
Whilst the band have made huge waves in the UK and have a solid fan base that continues to grow, MALEVOLENCE have looked overseas to take their music worldwide. Already this year they have toured the US, Canada and Australia, all of which are tough countries to crack. A rocky start to the US/Canada tour saw merch go missing, illness hit the band and misplaced passports. Despite this, Charlie describes the tour as a “fun one, we held it together. It was more of a hardcore tour than we usually do as we’ve been doing a lot more metal stuff in the past few years. Some shows weren’t as good but some shows were really sick, but America is a massive market so we’re still yet to crack it.”
Not long afterwards, MALEVOLENCE were jetting off to Australia for a tour with ALPHA WOLF. Whilst Down Under, it seems their popularity has spread to the furthest corners of the globe where each show as Charlie describes was “sick”. Despite being in the furthest reaches of the planet, they are still able to pull decent sized crowds, “we played to 600 people in Hobart which was a really fun show, to go there and still have a great reception was amazing. All this was going on in the build up to Where Only The Truth Is Spoken, so it was a super busy period being on the road and doing everything.”
The work didn’t stop there in terms of, as soon as the Australian tour was done. The band was in the UK on a giant chart push and one that continued to show the ever growing popularity of hardcore in the mainstream. “It was a crazy, busy week doing acoustic shows in record shops all week. For a couple of days we were No. 7 in the charts up against acts such as YUNGBLUD, AITCH and SABRINA CARPTENTER. We did eventually drop thirty places but we got the No. 1 rock album, we got sent a nice glass trophy in the post so that’s a good thing to tell your mum and neighbour about, makes it a bit more legit.”
Recent years have seen MALEVOLENCE play more intimate venues, but this winter sees them stepping up to huge stages in Manchester and London. Moving the conversation along, we spoke about how the changing in production when it comes to the bigger shows. Playing our hand, we asked what was in stall for any teasers of what lay ahead for fans attending the shows. “We always put on the best shows we can because you want to bring all your gear and put on an amazing performance. We’re gonna pull something out of the bag for the shows at the end of the year but we’re still working on that. In 2023, we brought fences and prison lights to look urban and scary and that was sick. The downside of all this though is that Konan [Hall, guitars] loves getting the production together but me and Wilkie [Robinson, bass] love saving money! So it’s a clash of heads when it all comes to that.”
As the conversation flows, we discuss how their home city; Sheffield, has an incredibly rich musical heritage. All kinds of genres have flourished from the city but the likes of BRING ME THE HORIZON and DEF LEPPARD are more in the ball park of MALEVOLENCE, asking if there is any pressure about being up against those sort of bands, Charlie explains, “I wouldn’t say there is any pressure, but it is nice to have the way paved by you by older bands. It’s cool because it’s a small city, and we need to shout out WHILE SHE SLEEPS. They were always older than us and doing a little better, so we’ve learnt so much from them and they have learnt so much from BRING ME THE HORIZON. We’ve all got a warehouse we share which is a nice little community of moshers. There aren’t many metal bands around so I think the reason Sheffield does it well is because it’s different to living in London where there’s a lot more opportunity down there. Up here is a cheaper place but it’s well connected, which is what it took for us and even DEF LEPPARD back in the day.”
Winding down the interview, we end on how genres such as metalcore and hardcore haven’t really been in the mainstream. However, in the last couple of years, there has been an exponential rise. Discussing what it is like to be part of that wave coming through, Charlie reflects by saying, “it’s nice to see, we spent so many years playing hardly to anybody and in the back of your head you’re like ‘is this ever going to grow?’. But when KNOCKED LOOSE blew up, we felt the trickle down of more people attending our shows, we even toured with them in that period. Our shows felt a bit stale and weren’t big at all, but as soon as we went out with those guys, all of a sudden more and more people started coming. Since then, it’s grown exponentially.”
It’s a refreshing take to see, there is no gatekeeping and you can tell it’s a blossoming community of support rather than rivalry with Charlie further explaining; “it’s nice to be part of something to be honest, because the more the merrier! The ceiling has been pushed much further than I ever thought and bands like KNOCKED LOOSE and TURNSTILE are now smashing through the ceiling for people to get into hardcore and being gateway bands for people to get into bands like us!”
There is no doubt, the only trajectory for MALEVOLENCE is upward. Whilst 2025 has been fairly quiet for the band than usual, it’s only just getting started. When asked what songs will stand out at the live shows, Charlie finds it hard to pick a few, eventually settling on “Counterfeit and Imperfect Picture, it’s a proper crowd bouncing one!”
If there is any band that deserves to be at the forefront of hardcore bands, MALEVOLENCE have more than earned their salt to be there. We will be ready and waiting in that pit!
Where Only The Truth Is Spoken is out now via Nuclear Blast Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS125 here:
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