Delving into Darkness: An Exclusive Interview with BLACKLIST on 'With Murderous Intent'

UK thrashers BLACKLIST are back with their highly anticipated second full-length album, ‘With Murderous Intent‘, set to release on August 2, 2024. Following their acclaimed 2021 release, ‘‘Disciples Of Time‘‘, the new album promises to deliver all the intense riffs, solos, and aggressive energy that fans expect, but with an even darker twist. This album celebrates horror and the iconic murderers and monsters from cinema, blending classic thrash elements with a foreboding atmosphere and diverse metal influences. ‘With Murderous Intent‘ features powerful tracks like “Cannibal,” “Kill The Coroner,” and “Naturom Demonto,” each showcasing the band’s unique ability to merge thrash and black metal. With its brutal production and haunting cover artwork, this album is set to make a significant impact in the metal community. We caught up with BLACKLIST to discuss their latest project and the inspirations behind their music.

INFRARED MAG: BLACKLIST, thank you for taking the time to chat with us. Can you tell us about the inspiration behind your new album ‘With Murderous Intent‘ and how it came to life?

BLACKLIST: The main inspiration and idea of making the album horror movie themed came from the song “Naturom Demonto“. Matt (guitar) joined the band and brought the instrumental to that song to us and Tyler (guitar and vocals) wrote the lyrics about Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead, from there, it felt right to theme the entire album on horror.

INFRARED MAG: Your previous album, ‘Disciples Of Time‘, was well-received by fans and critics alike. How does ‘With Murderous Intent‘ differ from your debut album in terms of style and themes?

BLACKLIST: ‘Disciples Of Time‘ to us felt like it stuck to the one genre of Thrash Metal, whereas the new album has a lot of genres infused, such as thrash metal, death metal, black metal and some parts of the album are even quite progressive. ‘Disciples Of Time‘ was completely war themed, and ‘With Murderous Intent‘ is horror themed.

INFRARED MAG: Horror seems to be a central theme in ‘With Murderous Intent‘. What drew you to explore this theme, and how did you incorporate it into your music and lyrics?

BLACKLIST: All members of the band are big movie fans, especially horror movies, so when Tyler brought the idea of a horror themed album to the band, everybody thought it would be a great idea. Lyrically, each song is about a different horror movie, with the exception of the title track, which is about horror in general.

INFRARED MAG: The track “Cannibal” channels the spirit of early Exodus. Can you share more about the creative process behind this song?

BLACKLIST: Cannibal was written to be one of the most aggressive tracks on the album, it was never intended to be in the spirit of early Exodus as such, I guess this was just a happy accident! The chorus riff of this album is a variation of a riff Tyler wrote for a song that wasn’t included in the ‘Disciples Of Time‘ album.

INFRARED MAG: “Kill The Coroner” and “Naturom Demonto” blend thrash with black metal influences. How did you achieve this fusion, and what challenges did you face in the process?

BLACKLIST: Tyler’s harsh vocal style has always been in the style of black metal, so it came quite naturally for him to incorporate this style into Blacklist. The only challenges were making sure it didn’t cross over into black metal too much to the point of it not being thrash metal still.

INFRARED MAG: “Blood Baptism” and “Never Sleep Again” are standout tracks with intense energy and atmosphere. Can you delve into the stories and inspiration behind these songs?

BLACKLIST: Blood Baptism was originally written around the same time as the ‘Disciples Of Time‘ album but wasn’t included on this album due to it not fitting in with the war theme. The song isn’t necessarily about a horror movie but has slight nods to the conjuring universe. Never Sleep Again is about Wes Craven’s A Nightmare On Elm Street, and was written to be evil sounding and like it could have been used in the film series.

INFRARED MAG: The album artwork for ‘With Murderous Intent‘ is striking. How did the collaboration with Dedy Badic come about, and what was the vision behind the cover?

BLACKLIST: Dedy Badic’s artwork has always stood out to us, his art for the Skeletal Remains album ‘Beyond the Flesh’ is one of Tyler’s favourite album covers so it made sense for us to use him for the art! The concept was a lab that has had an experiment gone completely wrong, turning the main character (in the middle of the art) into some sort of monster.

INFRARED MAG: Your music blends elements from various metal subgenres. How do you balance these influences to create a cohesive sound that is uniquely BLACKLIST?

BLACKLIST: We like to use all of our influences in our music and make music that sounds good to us. For example, Tyler and Curtis are big thrash metal, death metal and black metal fans, whereas Matt (guitar) is a huge extreme metal and industrial metal fan, and Matt (drums) is a big rock and progressive metal fan, so we try to include all these genres in some way.

INFRARED MAG: Can you describe your songwriting process? How do you approach writing lyrics and composing music for such intense and dark themes?

BLACKLIST: It’s quite hard to explain! Most of the music is written by Tyler and Matt (guitar) by just sitting in the recording studio and writing/recording demos until they’re happy with them. The lyrics are mainly written by Tyler with the exception of some tweaking by Matt (guitar). These lyrics are usually written before the music so that we can imagine the music by reading the lyrics. The content of the lyrics usually comes to Tyler by thinking of a concept first and writing the chorus before expanding around it.

INFRARED MAG: ‘With Murderous Intent‘ has a raw and aggressive production style. How did you achieve this sound, and what was the recording process like?

BLACKLIST: Everything we do is self-produced, which makes it easier for us to get the sound that we want. This also means we have more time to get things done as we have our own recording studio so there’s no time restraint. The sound we were going for was a modern update of 80s thrash and death metal, and I feel like we captured that sound well!

INFRARED MAG: As an independent band, what challenges do you face in producing and releasing your music, and how do you overcome them?

BLACKLIST: The main challenge we face is a lack of deadlines. We sometimes find it difficult to get things done in good time as we’re not working to deadlines, but we try to overcome this by splitting the year into sections where we’re gigging and sections where we’re working on new material.

INFRARED MAG: You have a dedicated fan base that eagerly anticipates your releases. How do you engage with your fans, and what does their support mean to you?

BLACKLIST: We try to stay active and engage with people on social media, and at the merch table at our gigs. We love staying in touch with the people that support us because without them, we wouldn’t get the opportunities that we do!

INFRARED MAG: How has the metal scene in the UK influenced your music, and how do you see BLACKLIST fitting into the global metal community?

BLACKLIST: The UK metal scene has been the most fantastic thing we’ve ever been a part of, and we’ve met and played with some amazing bands and people due to this. We hope that eventually, we can do the same on a global scale!

INFRARED MAG: With the release of ‘With Murderous Intent‘ on the horizon, what are your plans for promoting the album? Can fans expect any live performances or tours?

BLACKLIST: We’re currently in the middle of planning a UK tour for the album, with the first leg of this being later this year! Stay tuned for updates!

INFRARED MAG: Your debut album, ‘Disciples Of Time‘, set a high standard. What are your expectations for ‘With Murderous Intent‘, and how do you hope it will be received by listeners?

BLACKLIST: Whilst ‘Disciples Of Time‘ was our debut album, we feel like a lot could’ve been done better with it, so we’ve used that experience to try and do better with the new album. We’re hoping everyone can see that and appreciate the difference for the better!

INFRARED MAG: Are there any particular tracks on the new album that hold special significance for you? If so, why?

BLACKLIST: We put our absolute all into each and every track on the album, so this is a hard question to answer, but the title track would probably be the one for this. It’s an eight-minute-long thrash/death/black/prog metal track with something for everyone in, and we hope everybody loves it and doesn’t skip after 3 or 4 minutes ha-ha.

INFRARED MAG: What message or experience do you hope to convey to your listeners through ‘With Murderous Intent‘?

BLACKLIST: Watch more movies and listen to more metal!

INFRARED MAG: Finally, what message would you like to share with your fans and supporters as you release ‘With Murderous Intent‘?

BLACKLIST: We’d just like to thank everyone that’s supported us and a special thank you to everyone that has pre-ordered the album and/or merch for the album! We hope you love the album as much as we’ve loved writing and recording it!

With their new album ‘With Murderous Intent‘, BLACKLIST continues to push the boundaries of horror thrash metal, blending intense riffs, dark themes, and a raw, aggressive sound. As they prepare to unleash this powerful album on August 2, 2024, fans can look forward to a thrilling musical journey that celebrates the macabre and the sinister. Keep an eye out for live performances and more exciting updates from BLACKLIST.