Album Review: Black Midi – 'Hellfire'
Black Midi’s all-encompassing, ever-changing, genre-defying ‘Hellfire’ is a hysterical masterpiece.
Some bands chart their genre progressions through albums and years, others are happy enough where they are. Black Midi, on the other hand, seem to change their mind song to song. Experimental post-punk? Hardcore? Noise rock? Some weird neo-funky jazzy smash stuff? I’m not sure. Either I’m very bad at my job or Black Midi are very good at theirs. Probably both if we’re fair.
The album lands somewhere between a military band parade and a sports event and somehow manages to make sense. Prior to the album’s impending release on the 15th, we have been treated to two superb singles: ‘Eat Men Eat’, a disturbingly anthemic storybook fronted by bassist Cameron Picton and ‘Welcome To Hell’ led by the recognisably frenzied riffs and lyricism of Geordie Greep and accompanied by a breath-taking video that is more than worthy of its master.
Before the two singles come along in the album, we are introduced to Hellfire by its namesake, a daunting melody alongside marching drums as Greep bemoans the relentlessness of menial pains: “when one is fixed another breaks, when some destroyed more await”.
Then comes ‘Sugar/Tzu’ where the songs announcer proclaims, “let’s see some thunder”, a dramatic understatement for what is to come. The song is piloted by the cajoling rhythms of drummer Morgan Simpson, who conducts the incalculable ebb-and-flow with consummate ease.
Despite the tumultuous nature of Hellfire, the album feels restrained when compared to its predecessor Cavalcade. Where Cavalcadeembraced extremity, their newest effort finds greater solace in jazzier influences in tracks like ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ and even takes us to the bright lights of American Broadway with the exhaustive ‘The Race Is About To Begin’.
But this album is less about its influences, and more about unique creativity. Rarely has an album been constructed in such a lawless way that feels simultaneously disorganised and perfectly linear. Of ‘Hellfire’, frontman Greep described it as “an epic action film” whereas “Cavalcade was a drama”. This album certainly feels grander and more comprehensive than their first two, both brilliant and curious projects in their own rights.
The album is a story of characters which lead direction, each “morally questionable” with their misery spelt out in no uncertain terms. “Almost everything I write is from a true thing” said Greep, “something I experienced and exaggerated and wrote down”. Greep doesn’t believe in hell, but he certainly knows how to make his characters endure it.
Black Midi continue to extend the borders on what is possible with their music. It would be lazy to compare or chart their progress within the burgeoning post-punk scene, as they are bigger and better than that. Theirs is a musical phenomenon, as honest and unnerving as it is alluring, produced by three virtuoso musicians who equally share the burden of creative drive.
‘Hellfire’ is special and so is the hand that feeds it. We don’t do ratings here, but this sun has gone to my head, so I’m giving it a 10.
Words by Dan Thompson
