Despite not being halfway through 2022, this year is shaping up to be a massive one for Sheffield’s own, Malevolence. Having recently completed a tour with UK metal heroes Architects and the ever mysterious enigma that is Sleep Token, and with their third, highly anticipated album Malicious Intent out on Friday this is crazy time for the New Orleans sludge loving five piece. A bumper festival season lays in weight as the band are eager for all to hear their latest output, which sees them push their sound into an emotive and intense direction. Sitting in the back rooms of Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena, Wilkie Robinson (Bass) sat down with us to talk all things Malicious Intent, self-belief and the band’s journey over the last decade.
Related: Malevolence – Malicious Intent | Album Review
There is justifiably a lot of hype surrounding Malicious Intent, with the metal scene going into a frenzy when leading single ‘On Broken Glass’ was released. However, it is not something that Wilkie has noticed; “To be honest, it makes me very to hear that there is a level of excitement around the record but it’s not something that I’m particularly aware of. It’s not something I might necessarily hear about but if people are really excited to hear it that makes me really happy. We’ve been really stoked with the way it’s going and the launch so far, we’ve been playing these songs in the practice room for two year so for people to finally be hearing them is sick”. Even so, this album feels like the pinnacle of Malevolence’s ascendancy, it’s raw, uncompromising and brutally honest and just has an indescribably magical feel to it. When asked about how it differs from Self Supremacy and Reign Of Suffering, Wilkie stated; “It’s definitely more sing-y, straight up. The songs are more structured more traditionally, with more choruses and things like that, and in terms of songwriting we’ve taken some big steps forward with what we’re able to do. I’m really really proud of it actually, and alongside that the production is more modern and Alex [Taylor, vocals] has definitely come into his stride with his vocals”.
With this in mind, the band’s sludgier influence have been more prominent and when it came to writing the songs Malevolence’s guitarist and riff machine Josh Baines came into his own; “Honestly, Josh writes all of the riffs, he’s the riff guy. He’s so talented at writing guitar parts that there’s kinda no point Konan [Hall, guitar/vocals] and myself writing the riffs, he deserves all credit for that. Our songwriting process is basically he writes and records all the riffs and puts them in a dropbox folder. Then Alex and I sit down and try and put some vocals to it or think of some hooks to have, then Charile [Thorpe, drums] takes it to the studio and drums over the riffs that we have”. Even so, the band have embraced this new approach but haven’t forgotten their roots; “It’s a layered approach but for many years we were a band that wrote our songs together in a practice room literally jamming, Self Supremacy and Reign Of Suffering were both fully recorded like that, there was nowhere where the actual music was written down, basically if we all died one day all those songs would have been lost forever, the songs were all in our memories until they were recorded. Now it’s different though and more productive”.
“"To be honest, in the practice room we’ve always been doing softer stuff and that has involved singing."”
Malicious Intent also demonstrates the bands ability to channel difficult emotions deeply, with more complex and atmospheric songwriting that will resonate with many people as the band put forward the most honest version of themselves. “To be honest, in the practice room we’ve always been doing softer stuff and that has involved singing. Kon just likes to sing, so we’ll mess around with covers in the practice room and that’s the part of Malevolence we’ve always wanted to have and to showcase to people”.
Having done so successfully on Malicious Intent, Wilkie explained some of the thought processes behind this part of the album; “The main thought process behind is, that we like playing heavy songs and we will always play heavy songs. There’s always going to be beatdowns and blast beats, but then we also want to do soft songs to show that there is more than one side to the band. Personally when I listen to a metal record, I don’t want to hear 12 songs of blast beats, I want there to be a variety of different sounds and emotions on there. In the world of metal do one sound and they stick to it for the rest of their career, which we never wanted to do. Even though we have those different styles in there it’s still signature Malevolence, we blend them”. With that in mind, “I want people in the metal world to take us more seriously in terms of what we’re able to deliver, it might sound arrogant but I think the quality of the record is as good as my favourite metal bands, I think we’re as good as the people at the top of the scene”.
Over locked down Malevolence showed their hard work, drive and intent to succeed by refitting a warehouse designated for all things Malevolence to thrive; “That was kind of a lockdown project because we all live fairly close to one another and had no touring for two years, alongside The Other Side EP we needed a space to run our label from. Shipping merch, vinyls etc. out, we just love selling stuff online and we needed a bigger space to do it. In there we have a studio, a practice room and an actual warehouse space where we run our label from. It’s amazing and really transformed the band and how we see the product. The productivity now is so much better compared to what it was before without it. Having a space where we all want to be and to work is awesome and it has been very beneficial for our ethos and our morale as we have to pay the bills”.
“"There’s always going to be beatdowns and blast beats, but then we also want to do soft songs to show that there is more than one side to the band"”
With lyrics and merch that champion self-belief and individuality alongside the steel needed to confront your emotions, Malevolence lead the way in terms of positivity in hardcore and metal. As a band it is important for them to have the uniqueness, self-confidence and self-belief to succeed; “I think without it we wouldn’t have done anything close to what we’ve done now. We’ve done the long drives, van sleeping and small shows for years, so now it’s just getting to the point where it’s comfortable. In regards to those messages in the lyrics, I’m a grown man, I don’t want to hear metal songs about people getting chopped up. I like that music and I love death metal, and a lot of it does have nasty, shitty lyrics but I find it a little bit corny now. We did used to have kinda silly lyrics but we like to have different themes in our lyrics now as we’re over the fantasy thing”.
Malevolence have had a phenomenal journey over the last decade. With the label and their unique merch, the hustle has been hard but now it is definitely paying off for them, when asked about how the last decade has felt, Wilkie replied; “It’s been fucking amazing man. Seriously it’s been an amazing journey, it’s kind of like all I know now. It’s been the same five dudes for ten years and it’s all been our primary focus. It’s all I really know how to do unfortunately. Me and Charlie have been playing together since 12 and basically never stopped, even that first band we started is basically Malevolence now. It’s been amazing and I wouldn’t trade it for anything at all.”