Chaos, chaos, and even more chaos, even when it sounds like all the calamity and human destruction in the fantastical tale have reached cease fire. That’s black midi’ Hellfire, the latest album from the London-based experimental art rockers, who on this turn go all in on a glory of their their most unhinged sonic facets that have been steadily climbing over the course of their first two albums in the form of precisely meticulated post-punk of their 2019 debut Schlagenheim and last year’s cosmically imploded jazzist traverse Cavalcade without losing their grip.

Prostrated against an equally bonkers narrative constructed by vocalist Geordie Greep, we’re unsettled into a society in post-apocalyptic times where the life of a reluctant soldier and his encounters offers enough tension and drama to pipe in the flames which fuel the trio’s exacting frenetic overtures, the fury of riffs, brass, and percussion, and those reprieves when they disappear altogether in favor of a space of peace. There’s much to process in the ponder. The pacing is but a mirror to our own world.

Highlights: “Eat Men Eat”, “Welcome to Hell”, “The Defense”

black midi’s Hellfire is available now Rough Trade.

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