Feeling blessed that ever since we anchored on the shores of the UK a year and a half ago, we’ve been able to to not only immerse ourselves in the fertile grounds of UKHC, but also befriend some of the best of the best.
Currently, the medal for the heaviest in the world of UK straight edge hands down goes to the dem dudes in HOUR OF REPRISAL. Fookin’ hell bruv…the mosh is HARD, the riffs are HARD, the lyrics are HARD, but the band NEVER shying away from political commentary goes the HARDEST. Respect to bands who match the heaviness of their music to heavy AF lyrical content…there should be a reason you’re picking up a stool and throwing it across the pit.
So how did this all happen?
“Mike and Joe had talked for years about doing a politically themed band (We’d both done other bands before but never touched on politics in our music). We finally decided to do it through the Covid lockdowns and brought out a small self recorded demo at the end of 2021 and a couple singles through 2022. Musically we’ve always been influenced by bands like Disembodied, Recon, The Acacia Strain, and Hatebreed, but lyrically I (Joe) have largely been influenced by bands like Catharsis, Earth Crisis, Most Precious Blood / Indecision. In May of 2023, we released our debut EP ‘A New World From The Ashes Of The Old’.”
Fast forward to 2025, the band have just released the first track off their upcoming EP to be released on both BOUND BY MODERN AGE RECORDS and BETRAYED BY LIFE RECORDS. Besides being a banger of a track, the first thing we noticed is just the insane CONSISTENCY in sound and messaging. The band knows clearly who they are and they stay firmly in that lane.
The single is entitled ‘Surgical Strike’ which should come as no surprise, addresses the horrific images the world has seen over the past 15 months or so.
“In the weeks after 7/10/23, Israel used an AI machine called Lavender to develop kill lists of Palestinians. Despite large error rates and a sketchy data set, its targeting system was used extensively as it worked significantly quicker than humans. It specifically instructed strikes to hit houses, after work hours, in order to have the maximum chance of success. Naturally, this meant huge civilian casualties, as the machine accepted almost any level of collateral damage as acceptable. The governments of the UK, the US, and Germany have supported Israel throughout their genocide, and their populations have largely accepted it too. We have allowed them to behave this way abroad, so why would they not bring it back? And when the war comes home, will we know when we’re marked for death?”
HARD.
Pre-orders for the EP are already live NOW – HERE.
https://www.instagram.com/xhourofreprisalx/
Cover Photo Credit: Tim Birkbeck
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