Malevolence, formed in Sheffield in 2010, have released three studio albums and one EP and established their own record label called MLVLTD Music.
Sharing stages and touring with the likes of Obey The Brave, Dying Fetus, Fallujah and Goatwhore, the guys have turned the last decade into a plethora of hardcore, metalcore and sludge mixed together to create their own vibe.
Right before Malevolence’s absolutely stunning set on the Saturday of Bloodstock, I got a chance to catch up with bassist Wilkie.
Sheri: Hi Wilkie! How are you?
Wilkie: I’m very well thank you, thank you for interviewing me today on this sunny day at Bloodstock.
Sheri: Thank you for joining us! You’re on later Headlining the Sophie Stage tonight. It’s gonna be a late one!
Wilkie: yep, we’re on at quarter to 11 til 12am!
Sheri: it’s gonna get heavy!
Wilkie: normally we play like around this time and then we just drink beers in the sunshine and talk to people, which I’m very excited to do but by this evening by the time we’re done playing, it will be midnight so…
Sheri: Yeah, be mellow after that. BUT… literally, you guys are all over the place at the minute! I’ve seen recently you’ve got an Australian tour soon, no?
Wilkie: Yeah! So in about 4 weeks we’re going to Australia with Thy Art is Murder. Who are Australian so its gonna be fun to be with them on their tour in their country. It will be really exciting. We’ve been out there before in 2020 so it will be our second time going back. But yeah, really busy summer so it’s been the most festivals we’ve ever done, I think. We’ve been playing near enough every weekend since the Spring.
Since like early june/May. Which is awesome! The thing with festivals though is because a lot of them are far away, we have to travel a lot so it can be like three days for one show rather than it be a tour where you okay every single day so it’s a lot of stopping and starting but it’s cool to be at something like this.
Sheri: I can imagine the post festival blues doesn’t get a chance to kick in much! You’ve just released a new album Malicious Intent which is… mega.
Wilkie: Ahhh, thank you!
Sheri: Your new single (Higher Place) is actually a lot different though. So let’s talk about what went behind it?
Wilkie: Yeah it is different! We’ve always played like softer and gentler music in our practice room together when we’ve been playing and we’ve had Ballad stuff on our previous records, like there’s one called Turned To Stone on our first album which is a more gentle Ballad and The Other Side that came out in 2020 which is also a bit softer.
But yeah, we’ve always thought we were really good at making songs like that… and just because we can play heavy stuff the rest of the time, why not just like show a few different sides and a few different styles because you know, in metal music people don’t do that as much. People tend to pick a style and every single song is that on a record whereas in other genres of music, it just seems people play whatever they want you know.
Sheri: It’s beautiful, this is what I’m saying, I don’t really put you guys into a box, you’ve got a lot of tech, death core and things like that. Not a lot of bands within that calibre and genres do that. So it’s actually really refreshing. Do you song write collectively?
Wilkie: Yeah that’s exactly it. So in terms of song writing, to be honest with you, we do it collectively though Josh, our guitar player, i mean really the man that’s responsible for the music and the guitar, he writes all of the guitar parts. The riffs, the solos, everything, you know. Then he will present to us songs that he’s made and then we’ll generally sit together and we’ll take the ideas in there that we think is best and maybe change the structure up a little bit. Then put vocals on it together really so you know it’s a collaborative process but Josh is really the brain child of the operation. You know when it comes to the music and the guitars, it will be wrong for any of us to take any credit for that you know what I mean?
Sheri: Totally understood. It’s magic really! When you do come to that kind of process, do you guys sorta envision how you want your end product to sound?
Wilkie: yeah, I think we do though not necessarily on the record. But like particularly with playing the songs live. When we’re together and we’re sitting and writing vocals and the parts that involve singing and we think of a line and we’re like “yeah well have that there” and think it’s gonna be so good when we’re playing a festival and everyone knows it and they’re all singing along. That’s what we’re more envisioning in the studio is like, more ways of delivering that live rather than how it’s gonna sound on the CD you know what I mean? But maybe Josh, he might envision how it will sound on the CD but I don’t really haha. I think we’re all, most of us, just talking about live and actually playing it you know what I mean?
Sheri: it’s best to do that maybe because you kind of gel better, you know what I mean? So you need to be in a band with people you can do that with.
Wilkie: Yeah! Exactly!
Sheri: Apart from your Australian tour, whats after Bloodstock for you guys?
Wilkie: So we have Colchester, which is a bit of a random one but it looks like it’s gonna be sick! Then we’re driving to Paris, we got a day off as its Konans birthday. Then we play Paris and then we’ll be playing in Nürnberg with Lamb Of God then we’ll be Cologne with them again. And then we have done for the festival season then its Australia with Thy Art Is Murder and then about 3 months of no shows, where we’ll probably write brand new music. Then in January we’re touring Europe with Triviam and Obituary. So for like 40 days we’ll be playing like everywhere…
Sheri: That’s mega!!
Wilkie: 4 shows in the UK and then the rest of them in the mainland. Yeah pretty sick!
Tammy: You’ve proper taken off!
Sheri: Exactly. Since we’ve had to deal with the aftermath of the Plague, you’ve just gone boom and ita nice to see as a lot of bands have felt the sting of it.
Wilkie: I appreciate that. I hope the album does go far.
Sheri: It will!
Tammy: Can you give tips to any other bands that have rocketed?
Wilkie: Just keep going, you just gotta keep together as band. You say we’ve rocketed but we’ve been going since like 2009. So our first album came out in 2013, nearly 10 years ago. So we’ve been doing it, like it wasn’t something that just happened straight away, we’ve been doing this and even been touring Europe for like 10 years now… so it isn’t something that just happens, you have to keep going. And we always sorta believed, us a band we knew we were sick. You know even when people were like “you’re not gonna go anywhere” and we were like “well it will cuz our songs are sick.”
If you deep down believe that then it really does give you the confidence to persevere with it. So we put on our music and play it along side our favourite metal band and we’re like “yeah!” I think our shits just as good as this so… but I think that really helps a lot.
Sheri: it’s been a pleasure to talk to you, thank you so much!
Wilkie: Nice to meet you guys. Thanks for having me!
