Hellfire

by 
AlbumJul 15 / 202210 songs, 38m 58s
Avant-Prog Brutal Prog
Popular Highly Rated

The most jarring part about listening to the London band black midi isn’t how much musical ground they cover—post-punk, progressive rock, breakneck jazz, cabaret—but the fact that they cover it all at once. A quasi-concept album that seems to have something to do with war (“Welcome to Hell,” “27 Questions”), or at least the violence men do more generally (“Sugar/Tzu,” “Dangerous Liaisons”), *Hellfire* isn’t an easy listen. But it’s funny (main character: Tristan Bongo), beautiful, at least in a garish, misanthropic way (the Neil Diamond bombast of “The Defence”), and so obviously playful in its intelligence that you just want to let it run over you. The first listen feels like being yelled at in a language you don’t understand. By the third, you’ll be yelling with them.

black midi’s new album Hellfire will be released on 15th July. Hellfire builds on the melodic and harmonic elements of Cavalcade, while expanding the brutality and intensity of their debut, Schlagenheim. It is their most thematically cohesive and intentional album yet.

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7.8 / 10

The preposterously talented English band’s third record is pitched between clinical precision and crazed abandon.

9 / 10

9 / 10

On the theatrically devilish Hellfire, Black Midi are more maniacal than ever

Building on the dynamic intensity of 2021's ‘Cavalcade’, Black Midi's third album expands their intrepid musical universe

8.6 / 10

The London band's third album is a grotesque carnival of human misery that you'll never want to turn away from.

Halfway between unhinged madness and art rock precision.

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9 / 10

Two travellers are stranded in the desert, searching for water and lost friends. When they stumble upon a mine led by a charismatic Captain,...

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8 / 10

“And this is how I sometimes think of myself, as a great explorer who has discovered some extraordinary land from which he can never return to give his

The Londoners freely cram genres and ideas into their concept album about death

9 / 10

Hellfire, the extraordinary new Black Midi album, is absolutely full of wrong'uns. It's wry, exhilarating and frenetic stuff

Black Midi's 'Hellfire' engages with rock’s history while simultaneously taking it in imaginative new directions.

8 / 10

With their third LP Hellfire, Black Midi continue to put out adventurous and challenging music that keeps listeners on the tips of their toes.

8.5 / 10

Hellfire by black midi album review by Leslie Chu. The UK trio's new full-length drops on July 15, via Rough Trade Records and DSPs

From cocktail-lounge piano to thrashing drums, the British prog band make musical handbrake turns that are thrilling but hard to love

90 %

While black midi has only been around for five years, that’s all the time they’ve needed to become one of the most compelling noise rock bands of the moment.

Album Reviews: Black Midi - Hellfire

87 %

The first time I saw Hell was in Ridley Scott’s Legend. I can’t recall how old I was, maybe six? Seven? Likely too young, but what is the right age to be confronted with art or almost religious awe? Anyways: I deeply recall the unbridled fascination I had once Tim Curry stepped on screen as

3.3 / 5

Black Midi - Hellfire review: “I’m sorry," he told the alligator. He fired. The alligator jerked, did a backflip, thrashed briefly, was still. Blood began to seep out amoeba-like to form shifting patterns with the weak glow of the water. Abruptly, the flashlight went out.

Lizzo extols the virtues of self-love, Mabel hits the dancefloor, Beabadoobee rehashes the Nineties and Black Midi revel in the grotesque

An extraordinarily compelling third album by the experimental London trio

UK 3-piece tread the fine line between unlistenable racket and work of genius. Album review by Guy Oddy

8 / 10

Unique London outfit wrestle with chaos on their explosive third album and achieve precise mayhem