“Virtute et Industria”—the motto of Bristol, a city whose industrial roots run deep, hides a biting critique when reimagined by The Malefic Grip. On December 6, the duo will release their latest EP, Virtue and Industry, five tracks that drag you through the unrelenting landscapes of both their psyche and the decaying systems we navigate daily.
The Malefic Grip—Helen Kinsella (guitar/vocals) and Liam S. Wolf (bass/vocals)—didn’t come to this sound by accident. What started as a sludge metal trio shifted dramatically when their drummer left during the pandemic, forcing the remaining members to lean into remote experimentation. Drum machines, synths, and layered samples became their new rhythm section. This evolution birthed Virtue and Industry, a grinding experiment to mess with your mind.
“I’ve always liked records that are a ‘wall of sound,’ so to emulate that I just threw in as much as I possibly could,” Wolf admits. The result? A suffocating soundscape, with no room for breath or silence. Kinsella elaborates, “The shift to a different sound lets us be a bit more experimental. The sounds we use for percussion don’t just have to be a standard set of drums…there aren’t really any limits.”
The EP explores aggressive and experimental corners, with tracks like “Unnatural Selection“, encapsulating its thematic heft.
Speaking about the track, Wolf says, “This is one of the earliest Grip songs, so it’s been through a few changes over the years. I think it has always retained a satisfying sense of creeping paranoia. The song is obviously about catastrophic events, as our choice of samples probably makes clear, but it’s more about the interior life, mental apocalypses that can feel just as devastating emotionally. It’s very much about scrabbling about desperately in the irradiated wasteland of my own psyche, rather than in Mad Max territory.”
Lyrically, the EP reflects Wolf’s controlled rage, written from perspectives that critique rather than directly emote. “I find that delivering lyrics from my own point of view can get ranty and dull,” he notes. Instead, he twists the lens, using sarcasm and unpleasant viewpoints to highlight deeper societal issues. “My lyrics then tend to come from quite an unpleasant place, but I try and hope I lace them with enough snark that people understand where the true spirit of the song is.”
Virtue and Industry feels deliberate not only in its sound but in its visual presentation. Wolf drew inspiration for the artwork from his day job at a food redistribution warehouse. “We have a collage wall of warnings and weird scraps… I picked everything that could be interpreted in a sort of ironically sinister way and put them all together.” The result mirrors the EP’s sonic chaos—sharp, grainy, and unmistakably industrial.
The title itself stems from Wolf’s fascination with hidden meanings. “‘Virtute et Industria’ felt like one of those phrases that hides a truth; the evidence of industry is undeniable, but it’s very debatable how virtuous the minds building it were.”
“This EP is just a taste,” Wolf teases. With an album in progress and gigs booked across the UK, The Malefic Grip is gearing up for a heavier, angrier 2025.
Catch them live on December 6 at The Nowhere Inn in Plymouth or December 14 at Fuel in Cardiff.
