Review by Paul Monkhouse for MPM
London trio HAWXX are fearless. Building on their reputation as one of the fiercest bands out there, debut album ‘Earth, Spit. Blood and Bones’ fulfilled all the promise they’d built up as one of the most incendiary live acts out there and with sophomore release ‘The World Splits Open’ they’ve taken another quantum leap forward. Bristling with attitude and barely controlled rage, this second full length release is a ferocious and acerbic stand against some of the biggest evils society has to offer.
Lyrically and musically uncompromising, HAWXX have crafted something that’s a rallying call for revolution and a piece of work that that can stand against the classics by the Sex Pistols and Rage Against The Machine as world changing. Whilst that may be a bold statement, to dive into their world is to enter somewhere that righteous anger is the main fuel for the fire and this is handled with such cold, clear precision that the effects are never short of devastating. This isn’t noise for noises sake but more a laser guided sonic attack that destroys its targets utterly, reducing the whole to a pile of dust and blood, eviscerating and cauterising with every thrust and blow.
Confrontational and very fucking angry, opener ‘Resistance Is Justified’ takes its aim at one of the biggest targets of modern times, calling out of the destruction of the Palestinian people and shouting support for all those who would help and defend the innocent victims of war crimes. Never mawkish or full of false compassion, this is something very personal and written from the heart, the passion very real and visceral. ‘Macho Bullshit’ is as venomous, the whole coming over like System of a Down from their ‘Toxicity’ era but with more balls and edge, ‘Feral Mother’ urgent, driving and with a touch of mystery.
Whilst never holding back before, Anna’s vocals, Hannah’s fretwork and the drums of Jess all rage particularly hard, every note and phrase alternating between razor slices and punches to the solar plexus. It’s a jaw dropping display of muscle and with the crushing ‘We Are Nature’ and a riotous ‘Arm The Animals’, if you’re not already tearing apart your living room or planning to bring justice by overthrowing a corrupt regime then you may not have connected with the soul of the record. Things certainly don’t let up after the half way mark and both ‘Bind’ and ‘Sacred Water’ are extraordinary, both staggering in the scope and heft, their mix of soaring melodies and nuclear crunch making them highpoints in all the outfit has achieved thus far.
With a closing run of the blistering ‘Shriek’, the unsettling and haunting ‘Me Her and the Birds’ and a frankly apocalyptic ‘Be That Whore’, ‘The World Split Open’ more than fulfils the threat of its title. It’s been a far from easy road for the band but these struggles are proof positive of the old adage, ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’.
One of the most important bands around today, HAWXX genuinely deserve to be massive but you get the feeling that the stronger they grow, the more the forces against them will struggle against it. It’s not going to stop them though and ‘The World Splits Open’ stands to be the most important album we’ll hear this year. Lifechanging.
