black midi have returned with details of their third full-length. The trio will share new album Hellfire on July 15 via Rough Trade.
Written in isolation in London, UK, following the release of last year's Cavalcade, the nine-song Hellfire was produced by Marta Salogni and is said to build on the melodic and harmonic elements of its predecessor, while revisiting and expanding on the brutality and intensity that marked the group's acclaimed debut Schlagenheim.
Contrasting the third-person writing of Cavalcade, Hellfire's songs tell tales of "morally suspect characters" in the first-person. Frontman Geordie Greep notes of the album: "if Cavalcade was a drama, Hellfire is like an epic action film."
"Almost everyone depicted is a kind of scumbag," Greep continues. "Almost everything I write is from a true thing, something I experienced and exaggerated and wrote down. I don't believe in Hell, but all that old world folly is great for songs, I've always loved movies and anything else with a depiction of Hell. Dante's Inferno. When Homer goes to Hell in The Simpsons. There's a robot Hell in Futurama. Isaac Bashevis Singer, a Jewish writer who portrays a Satan interfering in people's lives. There's loads!"
The first of these tales to arrive is "Welcome to Hell," complete with a video directed by Gustaf Holtenäs, who previously helmed the video for the band's "Slow."
Cavalcade was named among Exclaim!'s Best Albums of 2021, while the album's "John L" was named among the Best Songs of 2021.
Following the release of Cavalcade, black midi shared limited 12-inch Live-Cade, and covered Taylor Swift, King Crimson and Captain Beefheart on EP Cavalcovers.
Hellfire:
1. Hellfire
2. Sugar/Tzu
3. Eat Men Eat
4. Welcome to Hell
5. Still
6. The Race Is About to Begin
7. Dangerous Liaisons
8. The Defence
9. 27 Questions
Written in isolation in London, UK, following the release of last year's Cavalcade, the nine-song Hellfire was produced by Marta Salogni and is said to build on the melodic and harmonic elements of its predecessor, while revisiting and expanding on the brutality and intensity that marked the group's acclaimed debut Schlagenheim.
Contrasting the third-person writing of Cavalcade, Hellfire's songs tell tales of "morally suspect characters" in the first-person. Frontman Geordie Greep notes of the album: "if Cavalcade was a drama, Hellfire is like an epic action film."
"Almost everyone depicted is a kind of scumbag," Greep continues. "Almost everything I write is from a true thing, something I experienced and exaggerated and wrote down. I don't believe in Hell, but all that old world folly is great for songs, I've always loved movies and anything else with a depiction of Hell. Dante's Inferno. When Homer goes to Hell in The Simpsons. There's a robot Hell in Futurama. Isaac Bashevis Singer, a Jewish writer who portrays a Satan interfering in people's lives. There's loads!"
The first of these tales to arrive is "Welcome to Hell," complete with a video directed by Gustaf Holtenäs, who previously helmed the video for the band's "Slow."
Cavalcade was named among Exclaim!'s Best Albums of 2021, while the album's "John L" was named among the Best Songs of 2021.
Following the release of Cavalcade, black midi shared limited 12-inch Live-Cade, and covered Taylor Swift, King Crimson and Captain Beefheart on EP Cavalcovers.
Hellfire:
1. Hellfire
2. Sugar/Tzu
3. Eat Men Eat
4. Welcome to Hell
5. Still
6. The Race Is About to Begin
7. Dangerous Liaisons
8. The Defence
9. 27 Questions