Four people in a practice space in Mabgate Bleach, Leeds, recording short, abrasive songs with no solos and fairly pessimistic subject matter — that’s Mass Hallucination at its most reduced.
The band formed in 2025 around Chris and drummer Tom, who already played together in the Leeds post-punk outfit Coded Marking. A previous project, Video Evidence, had mixed slower and faster hardcore, but when that folded, the two decided they wanted a band built almost entirely around speed. Bassist Tom Goodall and Will — who plays in the psych rock band Self Immolation Music — filled out the lineup, both pulled from the same Leeds circles.
Their demo landed in August 2025. The EP followed on tape through Makeshift Swahili, a Glasgow label run by Fionn, who also promotes shows in the city — everything from hardcore punk to noise rock acts like Shit n Shine. “We both knew him to be somebody who is extremely fair in his dealings with people and is involved in music purely for the love of it,” Chris says. The label has previously put out records by Bleaks and Louse. A lot of Leeds bands play Glasgow regularly, and after a Coded Marking show Fionn put on, the connection felt natural. “His label felt like a very safe pair of hands.”
Negative Approach, Gism, and Secretors come up as reference points, though Chris is quick to note the band doesn’t necessarily sound like any of them. “Negative Approach is one of my favourite bands ever — they have blistering short, catchy songs and John Brannon has one of the greatest voices in heavy music.” Gism, he says, were way ahead of their time, pushing boundaries while still writing genuinely catchy stuff. “Regularly when I’m walking around the songs from ‘Detestation’ will pop into my head and I will start singing the lyrics.” Secretors were a more recent discovery — “pure abrasive noisy hardcore which absolutely rips and is really really fun to listen to.”
“It’s more about taking the spirit of what they do and trying to put your own stamp on them, trying not to be an absolute rip off yet do something which pays homage to your influences.” Less obvious touchstones include Poison Idea and Killing Joke — the latter’s repetitive riffing a long-running thread through everything the band writes. “We’re big post-punk fans,” Chris adds.
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The EP was self-recorded at their practice space and mixed and mastered by Goodall.
Lyrically, it covers alcoholism (“Human Figures“) and technology as a mirror for human failure (“Dragging a Rope“). Chris describes the EP and the demo as two sides of the same coin — same approach to songwriting, same short and blunt delivery — but the EP aimed for slightly higher fidelity. “Sometimes lo-fi quality can squash the songs a bit, and the songs on the EP are a tiny bit more ‘songy’.” He’s happy with both. “I think we achieved what we wanted — write some tracks we’re really happy with, recorded in a way that serves the tracks.”
Leeds, meanwhile, has the infrastructure to match the bands. Heavier shows tend to happen at venues like Boom and Damaged Goods, drawing enthusiastic crowds. Mass Hallucination haven’t actually played Leeds yet — their first hometown show is May 1st, supporting Mother Nature and Pleasure at a release show.
Two Leeds bands Chris flags for anyone outside the UK: Mother Nature and Total Con. “I’ve picked these two because they both write great songs with really catchy hooks yet still maintain a kind of damaged, feral quality. I’ve seen Mother Nature live a few times and every time I watch them they just get better and better.”
Mass Hallucination don’t have social media. The Bandcamp page is the way in.
Mass Hallucination EP is out now on Makeshift Swahili. Stream it on Bandcamp. Tapes available via the Makeshift Swahili store.
