Malevolence have responded to The National Trust’s demands that they take down a music video that was filmed without permission.
‘Salt The Wound’ is taken from the Sheffield band’s upcoming album ‘Where Only The Truth Is Spoken’. Set for release on June 20 via MLVLTD and in partnership with Nuclear Blast Records, the track followed on from previous singles, ‘Trenches’ and ‘If It’s All The Same To You’.
However, shortly after the video for the single was shared on YouTube, the band were forced to take it down due to threats of legal action from The National Trust.
“Sadly our latest video for ‘Salt The Wound’ has been forcibly removed from the Nuclear Blast YouTube channel due to threats of legal action made by @nationaltrust… Apparently pretending to play the guitar for a couple of hours on a public path that thousands of tourists walk up every single day is a criminal offence worth pursuing,” wrote Malevolence.
“Attempts were made by our team to find a resolution for the situation, which have been entirely refused,” they shared, before pointing out that there is another way to watch the music video online.
“The video is a celebration of where we come from and we’re proud of what we made. Fortunately… Someone has anonymously uploaded a version back to YouTube. You can watch it now at the link in our bio. Thank you always for the support.”
The re-uploaded footage is available on a new YouTube channel called ‘Trust Issues’, and is available to watch below.
The footage was shot entirely in the band’s Sheffield hometown and surrounding areas. Speaking about the inspiration, frontman Alex Taylor said: “’Salt The Wound’ is the product of us making a conscious decision to bridge the two faces of Malevolence. On one hand, we have the heavy aggressive side, and on the other, we have the slower melodic songs, so we wanted a song that could combine the two.
“From the industrial depths of Sheffield, a 900-year-old ruined Abbey, to a perfect sunrise over some of the incredible hills of Derbyshire, there is some incredible scenery in the north of the UK which we sometimes take for granted, so this song felt like the perfect opportunity to showcase some of that,” he added. “From the moment I heard the guitar solo Josh had written for this song, I pictured him on a mountain top doing the solo, so we made it happen, Malev style!”
The singer has also gone on to share a series of meme responses to the action taken by The National Trust on his Instagram stories. These include a clip of the Queen in a Range Rover with the caption “Me looking for a National Trust ranger on my next countryside walk”, a video of someone with the National Trust logo put over their face, shouting at a man in his car, aggressively accusing him of being on private property, and footage of a man getting mad and hitting a tv, alongside the caption ‘National Trust employee when they saw the latest Malev video”.
Other responses shared by Taylor include an AI-generated clip of a police officer coming to arrest him during a photo shoot with the band, and a photo of someone being arrested by numerous police officers, with his face photoshopped over the top and a caption that read: “What are the charges? Being on a hill? A very pleasant hill?”. Check out a couple of these above.
On the official National Trust Instagram page, fans of the band have been taking to the comment section of some of the latest posts to call out the decision. “You have effected my wellbeing. Being petty over air guitar. I don’t want to be a member anymore. Am I being petty? Shame,” one wrote. Another shared: “Take notice of nature’ unless it’s in a music video”, while a third added: “In Malev we Trust”.
NME has reached out to The National Trust for comment.
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