When Underdark first emerged onto the scene – and still, in some circles – they found themselves classified among the surging anti-fascist and anarcho-black metal scene of the mid-2010s. Although, vehemently, the politics of those bands aligns with theirs, they’re keen not to be defined as a ‘political’ band. “It’s quite strange,” nods Ollie. “None of our music is really overtly political. Most of Abi’s lyrics are about personal things.”
When your writing is based in harsh reality, however, it’s almost impossible not to keep it apolitical. Songs like With Ashen Hands Around Our Throats (a furious response to the Grenfell fire of 2017) and Coyotes (a rebuke of the humanitarian disaster on the U.S./Mexico border) mightn’t deal in the kinds of drum-beating calls to arms you get from a band like Dawn Ray’d, but they often provoke and even more powerful emotional response.
“I very much write about real shit,” says Abi, “whether it’s personal or something that affects people on a wider scale. Given the current climate, it’s almost fucking insulting to write a fucking love song and bury your head in the sand. Even outside military action overseas, there’s so much shit closer to home that it’s hard to know where to start, from the government trying to erode our freedom to protest, to public services becoming privatised, to fucking corporations steadily buying up more and more of our lives. If you’re not at least a little bit political, there’s something fucking wrong with your head.”