Malevolence are gearing up to release a new EP on 24th April. The Sheffield shredders will release The Other Side as a follow up piece to 2017’s Self Supremacy.

The band have already premiered two of the three tracks from the EP which is available for pre-order through the bands well established MLVLTD MUSIC.

Here, we welcome vocalist Alex Taylor from Malevolence to share his love of one of his favourite, and most inspiring bands in the from of hardcore heroes, Hatebreed.

The band that drew me into heavy hardcore was Hatebreed. The first song I ever heard from Hatebreed was ‘To The Threshold’. The music video was included on an old Roadrunner compilation DVD and I remember being blown away by the passion and the aggression in the lyrics.

I felt like the raw energy was different to anything else I had been listening to at the time.

I immediately jumped on Limewire (old school heads will remember) and downloaded as many of their albums acquiring many viruses in the process.

Satisfaction Is The Death Of Desire (pictured) was a real turning point for me. The hard breakdowns, motivational lyrics and rough recordings were super appealing.

I’d walk around school blasting that from an MP3 player thinking I was untouchable!

My favourite album from them was Perseverance and I remember being in HMV and the flames on the artwork really caught my eye.

The songs on that record really inspired me to start writing lyrics that I felt could help people overcome whatever challenges they face. One of the best things music for me personally is it is for the listener to decide how to interpret and what to take away from each song. The same song can mean several different things to several different people.

For example, the song I Will Be Heard, for me, is pure motivational music, and I can still slap that song on now and get charged up from it. “Now is the time for me to rise to my feet, wipe the spit from my face, wipe these tears from my eyes”. The main hook is so simple yet catchy that it’s very hard not to get behind.

My second ever show with Malevolence was supporting Hatebreed at Corporation in Sheffield 10 years ago this year. It was my first time performing with a band in my hometown and I was super excited to be supporting a band that I had been listening to for so many years previously.

In the years following we would go on to play with them many times however one of my favourite shows was the Satisfaction Is The Death Of Desire anniversary performance at Ieper Fest in Belgium. Seeing them play them songs to a crowd predominantly made up of hardcore kids was special, and the energy was insane!

For me, Hatebreed is one of the sound tracks to my youth and I’m sure that I’m not alone in saying that.

If I can go on to write music that will inspire a kid just getting into our culture of heavy music to feel the way that I did when I discovered Hatebreed, then I have achieved what I set out to do.

Many thanks for Alex for taking the time to write for us. Be sure to check out Malevolence; they’re a devastatingly good band that graft hard and produce top notch music that gets your blood pumping.

Here is the bands latest video of Remain Unbeaten, taken from The Other Side EP (out on 24th April).

Malevolence: Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

MLVLTD: Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

Hatebreed: Official Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

Malevolence band picture courtesy of Kim Quint.