More about: black midi

What to make of black midi? Since the release of their debut album Schlagenheim in 2019, popular coverage seems to take them very seriously, seeing them in a hopeful light as the allmighty second-coming of King Crimson, and looking to make theoretic sense of their maximalist math-rock persuasion. This is of course a fair impulse, but it’s hard to know whether it’s worthwhile. At times it feels like the quest to figure out whether black midi deserve their title as the Next Big Thing may well absorb a lot of the fun from the project in the first place. 

In fairness, the USP of black midi is certainly the intricacy and virtuosity of their music. Of course, they’re a band of very talented young musicians. But it’s perhaps more fun, now three albums into their career, to look at the broader picture of what that talent adds up to.

Enter Hellfire. The band’s third album is their most theatrical yet: imagine a sort-of rock opera version of Doctor Faustus. Oscillating between different depictions of hell and its inhabitants, in different parts it's reminiscent of Jeff Wayne’s The War of the Worlds, the hell in Futurama with the violin-playing robot devil, and a disorientating nightmare you once woke up from sweating. The album is loaded with cartoonish villainy, and maintains a frenetic, stormy energy from its opening seconds to its close.

With Hellfire, black midi’s knack for creating a cinematic fantasy stands out most clearly. Nowhere is this more evident than on single ‘Eat Men Eat’, which distills a gay Western epic down to a three-minute runtime. It tells the story of two lovers, lost in the desert, stumbling upon a mine where a secretly poisoned feast is prepared by an untrustworthy Captain. The two men eventually have a chaotic escape, arm-in-arm, while the Captain screams in homophobic fury. It’s the best track here: dynamic and energising, bursting with Spanish Flamenco influences and frenzied instrumentation. ‘Eat Men Eat’ is an example of black midi using all of their combined talents to orchestrate a genuinely captivating tale of danger and triumph.

‘Sugar/Tzu’ is similarly fascinating, peppered with surprising musical turns, from opening with a thundering stadium announcement voiceover to its bubbling rush of cymbals and drums which rise to a striking crash. The unifying sonic characteristic of Hellfire is that nearly all of its songs are this restless and dramatic. Once ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ begins to pick up pace it never really slows down again, and, elsewhere, ‘27 Questions’ is a chaotic closing victory march which zig-zags between different moments of musical tumult.

If there’s room to improve anywhere on Hellfire, it’s that at times it feels like this heavyweight album could do with a little more space to breathe. Where their previous album Cavalcade had a near-perfect push-and-pull pacing, balancing vicious shredding with sweeping ballads about Marlene Deitrich, Hellfire is nearly always full pelt. The main exception is ‘Still’, which contains one of the album’s few moments of extended musical calm, about half-way through. The quieter half of this track is beautifully organised, with a spacious composition complemented by bassist Cameron Picton’s soft, reserved vocals. Hellfire’s fast-paced intensity is no doubt entertaining, but moments like these feel uniquely endearing and bring a levity to the album which feels fleeting in such a small dose.

That being said, Hellfire is nonetheless another great album from a captivating band still very early in their career. So, what to make of black midi? Well, what Hellfire shows is that they are more than just a variety of individual talents; they’re a group capable of creating exciting, vivid theatre through their music. Hellfire is less instant than Cavalcade, and perhaps less tight than Schlagenheim, but sit with it for a little while and allow its story to unfold before you: if one thing can be promised, it’s that you will have plenty of fun.

Hellfire arrives 15 July via Rough Trade Records.

Grab your copy of the Gigwise print magazine here.

More about: black midi