Nothing makes me happier than when a band can seemingly appear out of nowhere and grab my attention like none other before them and have me hooked so quickly and so have such a firm grasp that I have to hold myself back every single day to not write on their Facebook asking them when they would finally be releasing something. The most recent band to have this effect on me? Hacktivist. Hacktivist is a five-piece rap / djent / progressive / metal and whatever else band hailing from the UK. Their first single, “Cold Shoulders,” is what got me hooked in the first place. I’ve always been very wary of metal and ‘core bands trying to infuse rap and hip hop into their music because half of the time it ends poorly and it upsets me because it’s hard to execute properly. I wish more bands would follow what Hacktivist is doing in order to avoid looking foolish. Hacktivist definitely knew what they were doing when they started the band because their blend of progressive “djent” metal mixed with the slick spitting styles of J Hurley and Ben Marvin is excellent. Unfortunately for us, the brand new self titled debut release from Hacktivist is only a mere nineteen minutes, which feels like nothing considering the wait for it felt nearly endless. Regardless, what they’ve left us with is a masterpiece in the ever so tiny “rapcore” community. The progressive sound they use reminds me of heavyweight bands like Periphery and Veil of Maya while the vocals give me sort of a Limp Bizkit vibe, which summons feelings of nostalgia. Throughout the EP, the band switches from quick raps and fast riffs to very calming instrumentals and softer spoken vocals which I thought was a really nice touch and helps make this release more original. I enjoyed how the lyrical content of the album was not cliche and had more of an Enter Shikari vibe to it. Kind of how they speak about the government, manipulation and self-fortification which makes me happy because it’s not very in your face, violent and cliche which sometimes is good but I’m glad I can listen to a band that doesn’t follow that sort of style and instead creates their own little niche. Overall, Hacktivist has released a damn good EP. Regardless of how short it may be, it makes up for that in quality of both sound and lyrical content. It’s incredibly catchy all the way through and that makes it one of those releases you’ll find yourself wanting to listen to randomly while you’re in the middle of something. Major props for helping reshape a dying genre.
Links: Facebook – Bandcamp
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