Malevolence: The Shape Of Hardcore To Come
Pre-doors at a MALEVOLENCE show doesn’t look quite like what you’d expect. There’s drones flying around, the merch table are showing off new bands they’ve discovered, and the band seem happy to basque in the ambience of solitude before it all goes haywire. The peace on show here is quite the opposite to the Sheffield metallers’ angst lead musical throes, but there’s a charming, approachable nature at play here that makes the five piece much more than a gang of talented bruisers.
This laid back mentality is epitomised by frontman Alex Taylor, who in fairness is most likely more used to tour life at his age than most. But don’t misunderstand this pre-carnage nonchalance as a lack of passion: there’s a glint in Alex‘s eye every time he mentions the band, or something they’ve achieved that you can’t miss. He even has a smirk on his face as he explains MALEVOLENCE were writing all time hits like Serpents Chokehold when they were teenagers.
2014’s Reign Of Suffering was a meteoric shift in metal that no one could have seen coming. Overnight five kids from the steel city seemed to have produced a record that took the low end of PANTERA‘s rhythm and matched it to the technical ferocity of SLAYER. It was as surprising as it was welcome – and from that point underground hardcore felt instantaneously more exciting. MALEVOLENCE waited four years to capitalise on their apparent overnight success from the first record though in the form of its successor – Self Supremacy. It was a wait that seemed unnecessary at the time – but Alex insists the band learned invaluable lessons in their time away from the studio.
“I think we learned about how the industry worked, and the things you’ve got to do to make the album a success. But also how we write as a band, we learned a lot regarding ourselves and how we worked together. The maturity on the second album is quite transparent I think, but that’s obviously going to happen – we moved on, and everyone’s personal lives have developed. We’re young adults now, so the things I was singing about on the first record, I wouldn’t sing about now.”
Maturity is an interesting concept when it comes to MALEVOLENCE, as there are some that would argue the band could have made a healthy career for themselves if they used the Reign Of Suffering blueprint for their next five albums. But Alex, to his credit insists his lyrics, and the bands style will change with the times, and have to mean something not only to him – but to the audience too. “I want them [my lyrics] to mean something, but also be open to interpretation for your average kid that’s coming to these shows. If a kid picks up a record, and listens to Self Supremacy – and then they want to go and smash their day at work or the gym because of that song, then that’s my job done.”
The bands nous doesn’t just end at their refusal to stay in the same musical mind space though. The branding of MALEVOLENCE has become as synergistic with the band as their music has. When you think of MALEVOLENCE there’s every chance the first image your mind will flash to might just be their infamous “Listening to MALEVOLENCE harms others around you” cigarette t-shirt spoof, or some of their products that embrace 420 culture. Alex and co had the foresight to make the band a business outside of what they do on stage, and he’s fully aware of how important its been to their lifeblood.
“It’s [branding] massive. We take a lot of pride in how we brand ourselves. We may not brand ourselves necessarily how people think we should as a metal band, but we do it our own way – we spend a LOT of time working on how our overall image is perceived, especially when it comes to merch. Wilkie [Robinson, bass] spends hours slaving away on photo shop till 2/3 in the morning most nights just to make something that we think kids will love.”
As the stock of MALEVOLENCE has continued to rise over the last five years though, you have to wonder how they handle the next stage of their careers. Tonight they find themselves sub-headlining on a sold out KNOCKED LOOSE UK tour, it’s indicative of the fact that the steel city rattlers are beginning to outgrow the underground scene. So do they stick or twist? Remain loyal to what bought them to the dance and risk stunting their growth? Or do they try and expand their musical horizon’s and risk leaving loyal fans behind?
Looking forward, maybe the concept of simply sticking or twisting is too simplistic for a band of MALEVOLENCE‘s intelligence. But Alex‘s response to where he sees the band going is fascinatingly centred on middle ground, he’s obsessed with writing what he feels are great songs, not the future direction of the band.
“Personally I feel like eight months ago, I might have been like: where’s this going? But I feel like if we carry on putting music out and we carry on playing to 200 kids a night who love us, then I’m happy with that. If we end up going to play festivals to 10,000 people then I’m happy with that, y’know? I’m just happy to be given the opportunities that we get, and I feel like we’d be daft to give that up: we’ll keep grinding away at this until we can’t.”
Part of the reason Alex has such faith in allowing the band to go with the flow of life events is rooted in his experience of the band handling everything themselves as we speak. Nigh-on every piece of success the band have achieved up to this date is down to themselves – they don’t have multi-million dollar executives making decisions for them. MALEVOLENCE are as ground level managed as you could possibly be in their position. “We’ve always done things our way, we’re self managed, we do everything in-house, everything is done by us – OUR WAY, and I think that’s one thing that kind of sets up apart a little, and I want to keep doing it that way.”
Anticipation towards what comes next for the band is understandably at fever pitch – and MALEVOLENCE have thus far expertly picked their timing to inject us with their creative beat downs. And as we near album three – the band are certain yet again, that now is the right time to move to the next chapter.
“We’ve got songs that we want to put out there. And we’ve got plans in place for early next year which I can’t really speak about, but we want to carry on keeping people interested. We like putting music out, we like the creative side of it – even creating the videos: I love all that stuff”.
Though Alex is understandably vague about what comes next, MALEVOLENCE are yet to make you do a leap of faith to believe in them. When we look back at the 2010’s decade – they’ll be one of the great finds in metal, and they know it (even if they won’t say it). It almost doesn’t really matter what comes next – we’ll flock to the new material by proxy. The shape of hardcore has rarely looked as promising – and these five Sheffield lads are a big reason for that.
For five/six years you’ve either been in the studio, or been on tour. Have you ever taken a moment to step back and think about what you’ve accomplished?
Alex: Not really, I feel like we have gaps where we don’t necessarily get much done in terms of the band, because outside of MALEVOLENCE we’ve all got busy lives as well – which is another reason why things take so long in MALEV. But that’s one of the things that I’m also proud of, we’re not one of those bands that can churn out music every two years, we’re very fussy with what we put out, and we want to make sure that we’re 100% happy with it.
Are you at a point where it feels like stick or twist now? Does it feel like there’s a decision that needs to be made where you either remain as underground hardcore kings or try and branch out to be something more?
Alex: Personally I feel like maybe 8 months ago I’d have been like ‘right where’s this going?’ but I feel like if we carry on putting music out and carry on playing to 200 kids a night who loves us: I’m happy with that. If we end up going to playing festivals to 10,000 then I’m happy with that. I’m just happy to be given the opportunities that we get, and to see the places we do, and I feel like it would be daft to give that up. We’ll keep grinding away at this until we can’t.
In a genre that has become quite saturated you’re a band that has always sounded unique. Who were you pulling influences from when you wrote Reign Of Suffering?
Alex: Personally, Randy Blythe (LAMB OF GOD) and Jamey Jasta (HATEBREED) but then also stuff that’s not in the metal world. I listen to a lot of rap, so I’ll kind of like listen to flows, and how the delivery sounds, I try and incorporate elements of everything I listen to. In terms of lyrical content though, Jasta is always going to be one of the best. I was saying to one of the other lads not so long ago: you can take something away from Jasta‘s lyrics and if I can do that with my lyrics then that’s what I aim to do.
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