Political punk metal band HAWXX are known for their wild performances and songs of rage, love and resistance. The London based progressive trio have created their most devastating and beautiful work with their second full-length album, “The World Splits Open”, which is available today. In celebration of the release, they’ve shared a music video for the focus track ‘Arm The Animals‘, which targets those who take pleasure from bloodsports.
On the inspiration for the focus track and video for ‘Arm The Animals‘, the band state:
“This is a song for animal rights that pictures a world where animals take revenge for the cruelty they have endured. This song starts the war cry for the cows, the pigs, the birds, the foxes to rise up with, and take revenge on people who take pleasure in hunting animals for sport.”
This new release untethers HAWXX from the uniformity of modern metal production, abandoning click tracks, quantizing and vocal automation. What you hear is intentional, expressive and fierce. The band’s music is inseparable from its feminist foundations and their activism around Palestine, climate catastrophe and trans and queer liberation. Rebellion is at the heart of all HAWXX do, as they carve out a unique and brave space within the heavy music scene.
On the release of the new record and what it means, vocalist and guitarist Annouli shares:
“We are so thrilled that The World Splits Open is finally out. Writing and recording this album has been an anchor in this last year, a place to embody our rage, to find our healing. The title comes from a lyric on the closing track of the album, ‘Be That Whore’. We made this music in a time of emergency where it felt like the world is splitting open and collapsing on both a societal and ecological level.”
She continues: “How do we unlearn the systems that divide us? How can we tap into that pulse of belonging that exists in the natural world, calling us to new ways of being? To hear that song the earth is always singing, the song that splits the world open in revolution. These are the questions we are asking in this album. From our hearts to yours, here is The World Splits Open!”
Order “The World Splits Open” HERE.
After their ‘first-wave’ of live announcements, HAWXX have added an additional set of gigs to their expanding autumn tour. You’ll be able to experience the unity, acceptance, and catharsis of a HAWXX performance in all its chaotic glory this coming September and October on the following dates:
Tickets are available now from: https://www.hawxx.co.uk/tour.
“The World Splits Open” is HAWXX‘s response to the world right now. Songs of resistance, grief, rage, hope, hopelessness, queer love and revolution. The 10 tracks were written as a way of keeping their souls alive in a dying world, as a way of building resilience in themselves, in our communities and on our streets. This record weaves alternative metal, punk, and traditional Greek music from Annouli’s heritage.
“This album is the rawest thing we’ve ever made,” confesses Annouli. “We spent three weeks living at Middlefarm Studios in Devon with our producer Pete Miles. Every song was recorded in a room all together, a process that brings out the fire of our stage performance, where we can absorb each other’s energy and capture real magic. You can pre-order the vinyl with a beautiful booklet with lyrics, the stories behind each song with photographs of our time in Devon all beautifully designed by Milk & Bone.”
In a world where musicians, artists, and creatives are increasingly finding their platforms and livelihoods at risk of being stripped away from them, HAWXX‘s fearlessness only fuels their mission to give a voice to the voiceless in the face of adversity. ‘Arm The Animals’ closely follows previous singles “Feral Mother’, ‘Macho Bullshit’ and the politically-charged ‘Resistance Is Justified’, a track that documents the arrest and detainment of The Filton 24, including Annouli’s close friend Jordan. What sets HAWXX apart from their peers is that they’re proactive about their beliefs, which saw Annouli perform ‘Resistance Is Justified’ outside the courthouse in amongst other protesters fighting, marching, and showing support for Palestine.
HAWXX – “The World Splits Open” Track Listing:
2. Macho Bullshit
3. Feral Mother
4. We Are Nature
5. Arm The Animals
6. Bind
7. Sacred Water
8. Shriek
9. Me Her And The Birds
10. Be That Whore
HAWXX make songs of protest, feminist resistance, grief, ecological catastrophe and queer love, they write songs to keep the soul alive in a dying world, to carve a way through the terrifying times we are in. Due 26th June, their upcoming second full-length album weaves alternative metal, punk, and traditional Greek music from Annouli’s heritage.
The band’s debut full-length album, “Earth, Spit, Blood And Bones”, spawned the singles ‘Death Makes Sisters Of Us All‘ (a track tackling the heartbreakingly ever-relevant topic of global femicide), ‘Embrace The Ugly‘ (a call to arms in finding beauty in disobedience of everything that’s expected of you), ‘Soulbreaking Machines‘ (with lyrics forcing us to question the blind and mislead lives we lead at the direction of the powerful and greedy), and lead single ‘The Worst Thing‘. The debut record was heralded by Metal Hammer as “the righteous racket heavy music needs right now” and nominated for their Album Of The Year, whilst Kerrang! called them “the peak of rock n’ roll, Hawxx play like they want to start a revolution’, and Distorted Sound labelled them “uncompromising, outspoken and poised to take on the world.”
HAWXX have taken their rage to stages across the country, straddling the heavy community at festivals like Download and Bloodstock and opening for the mighty Tremonti and The Raven Age, but also staying true to the topics at the root of their music from Brighton Pride, Boomtown, and GrrrFest across the pond on the continent.
HAWXX‘s line-up is:
Annouli Papadimitriou – vocals, guitars
Hannah Staphnill – guitars, backing vox
Jessica Dann – drums, backing vox
NEW ALBUM “THE WORLD SPLITS OPEN” OUT TODAY ORDER YOURS HERE
