black midi - Hellfire

Rough Trade

black midi return just over a year since their previous project with another offering of their enigmatic and hard to define brand of artistic rock. Their third album, succinctly titled 'Hellfire', roves with rabid and unfiltered creativity. Bordering on insanity the exquisite and twisted operatic rock that black midi produce stifles understanding. Keep your predisposed notions at the door.

Tenacious to a tee and irreverent in scope Hellfire encapsulates what we have come to expect from the black midi camp - unruly ventures into utter madness, boundary pushing feats of musicianship, and the duty to uphold, surpass, even, all expectations. Hellfire is home to a full-on cinematic experience - the ups and downs of a journey portrayed through aural means. The swoop and sway of the album cast sights on free-flow form - akin to waves the material elegantly, sometimes brutally, rolls to resolution.

As with all black midi material, the beauty is weaved within the beast, the sophisticated within the simple, the slow within the swift - sweet to sour, complex to clear, 0 to 100, and right back. Hellfire extends an arm towards the spectacle - the all-out bizarre. A feast for your ears and minds eye, Hellfire births images of a chaotic nature - refer to the albums artwork for further clarity on this. No other band on the contemporary scene can make music as challenging and forward thinking all the while remaining an absolute blast to experience. Having fun is a severely skipped over facet of innovation. Loosen up the boundaries a little - by any means necessary - and you never know where things will go.

Keeping up the pace and quality of these releases is something that we, as music fans, don't see often - few acts can defy the faucet running dry. Messianic levels of discipline and determination are necessary to thrive forth. The cutting edge requires a cutting sense.

There's always something.