Guitarists Josh Baines and Konan Hall first bonded over a shared love of heavy metal music while attending primary school in Sheffield,[1] beginning to perform live when they were twelve years old.

[29] Vocalist Alex Taylor described the band's sound upon forming as having "a weird, melodeath, kinda At the Gates vibe".

[32] Rob Barbour from Metal Hammer described their music as "evok[ing] the very best whisky-swiggin', weed-smoking bands that ever swaggered out of states like Texas and New Orleans.

Although their King Kong-size riffs are backed by brutal rhythms from the no-frills hardcore playbook, there's no mistaking their origin.

"[1] Writer Stephen Hill described their sound as "like Dimebag Darrell has joined Hatebreed to work on a sludge album".

[33] The Sound Board Review described how "Malevolence unquestionably shine, laying down riffs that switch between pounding metallic hardcore and filthy sludge-metal with consummate ease and equal proficiency".

[2] In an article for the Quietus, Dan Franklin described their music as "rooted in the beefed-up chuggery of the turn-of-the-millennium New Wave of American Heavy Metal – Chimaira's The Impossibility of Reason, Hatebreed's Satisfaction Is the Death of Desire and Perseverance, with a dollop of Crowbar's Sonic Excess in Its Purest Form".