IN REVIEW: black midi - "Hellfire"

 

If we're judging the impact of bands based on how often they're mentioned here at my blog, you'd be forgiven for assuming I don't pay much mind to black midi; sure, keen-eyed folks with good memories will recall a brief mention in 2019 as I was awarding the band's debut Schlagenheim my personal Album of the Year honours, but 2019 was kind of a spotty year here at the old SB. Worse still, their superb sophomore effort Cavalcade was released just last year, which just so happened to coincide with my year-long vacation from blogging (but, as a refresher, upon my return at year's end I gave that album my #3 spot). In fact, by the time I finish writing this sentence, I will have just about doubled my previous coverage of the band on this blog, and for that I am ashamed.

The release of their third album allows me the opportunity to right the wrongs, as it were; for the unfamiliar, black midi burst onto the indie scene with the aforementioned debut which, in addition to being utterly brilliant, was also as it turns out the opening salvo for a new crop of wildly experimental, wholly creative UK bands that have done more work than anyone in recent memory to reinsert some wonder and true forward thinking into rock music. Having established themselves as indie rock powerhouses based on Schlagenheim, black midi set out to obliterate expectations with Cavalcade; suddenly, there were grandiose and unhinged prog-rock flourishes, as well as increased orchestration and dabblings in lush, cinematic soundscapes. It was quickly becoming clear that black midi weren't simply here to challenge the status quo, they were content to ignore it completely.

With Hellfire, some of the half-joked parallels that were previously drawn between black midi and bands like Primus and Mr. Bungle have never been closer to the truth; there's a playful energy throughout amid the tension, violence and wild genre-hopping. It's also an album that rarely lets up in its mission to baffle and delight in equal measure; Hellfire may be less than forty minutes long, but it's exhausting due to the sheer flood of ideas brought forth, both musically and conceptually.

The gauntlet is laid down by the introductory title track, which features a warped instrumental that sounds like something that might soundtrack a Tim Burton-directed WWII flick and Geordie Greep spitting line after gnarled line of manic prose until the ringing of a bell directs the listener into Sugar/Tzu, which floats in on a jazzy, breezy melody before exploding into a furiously-paced and restless miniature epic that tells a story of an assassination at a boxing match (there's more to the story of every song and how it all ties together, but I don't have all night and don't want to spoil too much). It's followed by another pre-release single in Eat Men Eat, a flamenco-influenced and dread-filled tune lead by bassist Cameron Picton; there's heavy lore surrounding this tune, which ties into a place introduced on the previous album and is absolutely ridiculous in its details.

Lead single Welcome to Hell, meanwhile, is particularly bursting with creativity and sonic exploration; noisy, rocking and unpredictable, this one tells the tragic tale of a young soldier who is granted a night of shore leave and instructed to seek delights only to be haunted by the horrors of war, both committed and witnessed. As the tale unfolds, guitars slash and stutter, the tempo rises and falls, and the overall feeling of chaos that's been prevalent to this point in the album reaches its peak (for now). Still, another Picton-sung song, closes the first half on a somewhat quieter note, using elements of folk and a plethora of extracurricular instrumental activity, including a pretty and soothing midsection that's bookended by a sudden noise rock freakout and the sounds of birds.

The back half is no more conventional than the front, with a short and jarring interlude flowing into the jaunty, restless seven-minute blowout The Race Is About to Begin; here, we find Greep making rapid-fire references to many of the characters we've met thus far, then descending into a wholly chaotic verse that takes almost two minutes to play out and during which Greep barely has a chance to breathe amongst the words flying haphazardly out of his mouth (in the midst of this incredible feat a tongue-in-cheek "no end to this nothing nonsense non-song"). A quiet section mercifully follows, and persists through its conclusion. There's a more conventional sounding (comparatively, of course) introduction to Dangerous Liaisons, starting out light and jazzy before building in intensity; Greep's vocals grow more and more unstable as the song's story unfolds and the musical chaos unfolds around him.

The Defence ends up the album's most digestible song by default based on its more standard song structure, although even here there's a dialed up schmaltz in the proceedings that can't help but come off just a little off kilter, especially as the strings and brass get piled on thicker and thicker toward the song's conclusion. Then, we're left with just one more song to go; 27 Questions thrusts the listener back into the storm of sounds, slowly transforming from groovy prog into accordion and piano assisted lunacy. Here's as good a time as any to mention the third member of the band; Morgan Simpson makes a strong case for being one of the most exciting and promising young drummers going today, and his navigation through and/or around the sonic rollercoaster of this record is truly something to behold. His work on the record's final moments is especially impressive, the ever-changing time signatures and rolling fills handled with seeming ease.

First impressions of Hellfire can't truly be depended on to properly inform an opinion on it; I've tried to translate what I hear and feel while experiencing this album, but there's only so much that can be processed during my first few spins of it. It's certainly thrilling, especially to a lover of odd, against the grain artists such as me; there's a very short list of bands who could successfully pull off such a staggeringly inventive mix of styles and sounds. The lingering question that stays with me, however, is the question of whether or not black midi have steered too far into pretense with Hellfire. As impressive as it is to see them spinning so many plates, I feel as though there are perhaps a few risks here that were taken for the sake of risk taking, or maybe an overabundance of brains that belies much of the heart.

I'm not here to tell black midi how to make their music, and I definitely won't fault them for challenging themselves or their fans; I just hope they haven't put themselves on a trajectory where they sacrifice quality in pursuit of difficulty. Make no mistake, these are incredibly talented and creative people, who have made a rewarding listening experience; however, there's a fine line between reward and alienation, and an album as thorny and nigh-impenetrable as Hellfire may yet prove them to be too talented and creative for their own good.

July 15, 2022 • Rough Trade

Highlights Welcome to Hell • The Race Is About to Begin • 27 Questions