Beyond Extinction – Interview with Jude Bennet (English)

Beyond Extinction: Final settlement of human life on earth

British deathcore band Beyond Extinction released their debut album „Where They Gather“. Let me say it upfront: The music is pretty heavy and the content hard to digest.

German Version

This concept album deals with a dystopian vision of humanity’s last days in decaying cities drained of life, while also describing the album’s difficult creation, marked by years of hardship and setbacks. After three years shaped by nihilism and struggle, the album has been released on September 26, 2025. So, let`s dig into it.

Beyond Extinction are now celebrating their debut with a special night in London, starting with an intimate pre-party at Raven Records and culminating in a full-album performance at The Black Heart. Of course, Metalinside will be there to report on it.

In this interview, Jude Bennet (guitar) talks about their meticulous preparations, their unconventional approach to debuting new songs live, and the creative push‑and‑pull that shapes their music. He also reflects on lineup changes, their collaboration with producer Andy Mallaby (Osiah), and the growing importance of the fan community in the band’s journey—while hinting that this debut is only the beginning.

Metalinside (Liane): 7th March 2026 / London: This is a major milestone for you. Your debut album „Where They Gather“ will be celebrated in style. There will be an album release show at the legendary The Black Heart club in London and a pre-party at Raven Records. How are the preparations going?

Jude Bennet: Like the album, we’ve put an enormous amount of effort, thought and love into this show and the meet and greet before. At Raven Records, we will be giving our fans an exclusive sneak peek into the making of the album, the art direction and what it means to us, plus answering questions live at the event. Afterwards at the Black Heart, we’ll be treating our fans to the amazing experience of Tribe of Ghosts and Mastiff before we hit the stage to play the album front to back, for the first and only time.

MI: You’ve taken a rather unusual approach. You already performed some of the songs live before they were officially released, and during that time you asked people not to share the music. Is that correct? How did this idea come about, and why did you decide not to release the album earlier?

Jude Bennet: From the earliest days in our band, we have always played unreleased music live. Originally, it was just because we couldn’t afford to actually record the music and put it out as a song, but with our new material, we made a conscious decision to begin playing it live to test the waters and see how people would react in the audience. We spend so long doing the process of making an album that the unreleased music is just too tempting not to play! We would never tell our fans not to share videos of us playing unreleased music, but it is nice for the people in the audience to think that they might be the first people to listen to an upcoming song.

MI: Have you ever had a creative disagreement that ultimately changed a track or a process within the band? What changed and why did it work?

Jude Bennet: Part of the reason it takes us so long to release music is because we are all perfectionists! Throughout the creative process, we constantly have minor disagreements about what our music should sound like and the feeling it should carry across to our listeners. Ultimately, we all make sacrifices on what our egos want to make, but that then creates something that is truly a joint effort that sounds perfect. For example, on the song „Traitors To The Ropes“, we just couldn’t work out why the song wasn’t working so I stepped out of the process and Jasper and Niall stepped in and ended up chopping and changing parts of the song and suddenly it just clicked. Having those different perspectives in a band and trusting your band mates to have the same shared vision as you is what ultimately makes for the most complete end product.

MI: Can you tell us more about your songwriting process in general? How did you integrate your new guitarist, Danny Russel? You also had to deal with a difficult situation regarding Zach Scott who sadly passed away.

Jude Bennet: Our songwriting process is a long, drawn-out process that can feel a bit soul destroying at times! But ultimately getting to a finished song or an end product for the album as a whole means that the whole experience is very enjoyable and rewarding. Typically, we’ll start with a riff that I have written, or Jasper will have an idea for a whole song structure and I’ll fill in the blanks or sometimes Jasper and I’ll work on something and I’ll come in later, it really depends on the song. Integrating Danny into the band was so easy because he had already come up with some great ideas. „Winter Sun“ was entirely his writing, and it fit perfectly into the album – we were really happy about that!

In regard to losing Zach, it was a make or break moment for the band and really impacted how we all approach life in general. Working through that loss brought us all closer, and adding Danny into the mix was the thing that really made us feel whole again. It’s nice that Zach’s riffs are prominent in the album as in a way, he gets to live forever.

MI: I read in an interview that each member of the band has different influences, which is quite interesting. You mentioned Depeche Mode, Faith No More and Northlane – quite a mix. To what extent do these influences shape your creativity when making music?

Jude Bennet: We all come from varied backgrounds, and I feel like we all have a slightly different preferred subgenre of metal. So, it means that we’re not all trying to write the same music and that there’s always a creative idea coming in at some point from someone that is different to how the rest of us are thinking. Now it doesn’t mean that we suddenly want to write a Depeche Mode song, but the sounds of electronic music and genres outside of metal definitely lend a hand to our experimental side.

MI: I am glad to hear that Andy Mallaby of Osiah worked with you on that album. Can you walk us through the recording process and tell us a bit more about the cooperation?

Jude Bennet: We are really happy to have worked with Andy as we have been friends for years and we’ve always been a fan of his mixes for Osiah and other bands that he’s done. We recorded drums and vocals at Rogue Recording Studios in London and then recorded guitar and bass and other things between me and Danny and then passed the tracks to Andy to work his magic. He really understood what we were going after in terms of the overall mood and the sound and we couldn’t have been happier to get the mix that we did. He was endlessly patient with our thousands of feedback points and mix changes and it really felt like he wanted to get the best out of this album himself which made all the difference.

MI: These days, it takes a lot of effort and creativity to get people interested in new music and upcoming bands. Discord is becoming more and more popular as a way for bands to connect with their audience. In general, apps and social media play a big role in building a community. Doesn’t all of this distract you from what matters most: making music? What’s your take on that?

Jude Bennet: Not at all. I think that building a community and keeping in touch with your fans and letting yourself be guided slightly by how they feel about things is an essential part of a modern band’s mode of operating. The human connection is why we do all of this in the first place – to get those positive reactions and engagement with our fans. We love our discord community and welcome anyone else who wants to join.

MI: You’re still at the beginning of your career if I may say so. What are your plans after the release of your debut album? Can you reveal anything yet? A tour? A collaboration?

Jude Bennet: This train has no brakes and we’re just getting started. Stay tuned.

Video Beyond Extinction – Winter Sun