UK grime-metal quintet HACKTIVIST have announced their eagerly anticipated new album, “Hyperdialect“, due for release on 18th June 2021 via UNFD. The band have also released a video for their brand new single “Planet Zero”.
Co-vocalist J. Hurley comments: “Look at the state of the planet at the moment and people are still ignoring it. It doesn’t make sense. There are all these homeless people on the streets, but there’s all this land and enough food to go around for everyone”. Co-vocalist Jot Maxi adds: “There are so many things wrong with the way humanity is. We’re self-destructive and everybody knows it. It’s in a lot of films, especially in science fiction. But that dark future is no longer fiction and it’s very clear that we’re on a downwards path. If I buy a bottle of something to drink, it’s going to be sold in plastic and I’m going to feel guilt about that. Take a look at any city around the world – there’s so much opulence and grandeur on show, but look closely enough and you’ll find people living on the streets, homeless. Where is this going? There are islands of plastic bottles in the sea now, but we only have this one planet. It’s mad. It’s all tilting downwards, and into the mouth’s of the rich”.
The news of Hyperdialect follows Hacktivist’s exhilarating return in 2020 with their single ‘Armoured Core’, featuring rising artist Kid Bookie, which saw support from Radio 1’s Future Artists with Jack Saunders, the Radio 1 Rock Show, Kerrang! Radio and more. Check out “Armoured Core” featuring Kid Bookie HERE.
Luckily, Hacktivist are back to help cut through the noise and bullshit, tooled-up and ready to attack with renewed vigour and reinforced ranks; with Jot Maxi and J. Hurley now sharing the vocal and lyrical load, drummer Rich Hawking and bassist Josh Gurner bringing the beats and rhythms, and guitarist and production don James Hewitt fleshing out the group’s genre-fluid muscle. With a brand new album in the works, scheduled for release in 2021, Hewitt played a very active role in Hacktivist’s writing and recording process, bringing a new and compelling dynamic to the table.
In 2016, when Hacktivist initially set sights on their enemies with debut album “Outside The Box”, the world wasn’t fully equipped to heed their warnings and pay attention to its timely rallying cries. They return into a very different one, however – a world that’s sadly now all-too-finely-attuned to the horrors they first forecasted four years ago. In the wake of a global pandemic that has sharpened collective senses and exposed the systematic flaws across society, these should be times primed and ready for the truth-bombs that Hacktivist are about to drop. But recent hardships only amplify the band’s messages – these dispatches from the edge were written way before a virus brought humanity to its knees.
If all of that sounds grim and miserable, fear not, because Hacktivist aren’t here for unhelpful told-you-so’s or sensationalist scaremongering. What use would holding a mirror up to all of this ugliness be if there weren’t some lessons to learned from the reflection, or at least to offer even the faintest glimmers of hope? “It’s becoming clear that we are on the brink of some type of revolution”, says Jot Maxi, with no small dose of conviction or optimism. “Hacktivist are here to bring truth and positivity – the silver lining of a society clouded in poisonous fear. Hacktivist also represents a voice that isn’t afraid of saying what needs to be said. We’re already living in the future. We have the choice to either be shaped by it or to stand up and shape it ourselves. Which path will you take?” .
It was with those battle lines clearly drawn and ambitions duly set that Hacktivist entered into the creation of “Hyperdialect”. Starting almost two years ago and developing on the acerbic sonic filth introduced by 2019 singles “Reprogram” and “Dogs Of War”, the five-piece felt fired up by their new working dynamic and the collective process involved, with each member actively encouraged to contribute ideas until the best outcome was reached. Unusually, for such a group of bloody-minded insurrectionists, this democratic approach worked wonders – a testament to how much they were all on the same page on these 12 tracks. Aside from guest spots from rapper Kid Bookie on the monstrous Armoured Core and Betraying The Martyrs’ Aaron Matts lending his vocal talents to the title-track, this was all Hacktivist: no filter, no frills, and no holding back.
LYRICS
VERSE 1
(J. Hurley)
Now great Britain’s hooked on love island
But don’t wanna show no love to the island
Plastic bottles get found by divers
Drastic time we are survivors
Ignored the sign they came back to bite us
Toxic waste it’s a spreading virus
We won’t silence, do the science
Everything digital analog and cyber
Its hybrid when I get hyper
Hit them hard hadron collider
Freedom fighter, see the light bruv
See a homeless man and give him a fiver
As we let nature take this course how
Long will we be around no one is sure
CHORUS
(Jot Maxi)
Homeless people on the streets
Plastic bottles in the sea
We call this humanity
I can’t take it seriously
Homeless people on the street
Plastic bottles in the sea
We call this humanity
I can’t take it seriously
VERSE 2
(Jot Maxi)
It’s all blown up
Gone so crazy I keep throwing up
We’re all ill, getting iller
Spiritual virus straight up killer
Oil spiller, volcano erupter
So much guilt on my stomach it’s ruptured
Interuption, I’m a schizophrenic bipole
But for years I’ve rolled
With a hectic pedigree flow
About to start letting enemies know
What’s ahead of me, what’s ahead of them
Break the cycle, stop pedaling
Got vomit in my mouth so I swallow it down
But I hate our destruction
Reurgh, we’re all just sick
End of discussion
MIDDLE 8
(Jot Maxi)
Bust my chin
Bust my chin
Cut my skin
Cut my skin
Take your knife and shove right in
Shove your knife in
I don’t want
I do not want
To live, in this world
To live in this world
Bust my chin
Bust my chin
Take your knife and shove right in
Take your knife
I don’t want
I do not want
To live
BRIDGE
(J. Hurley)
As we let nature take this course how long will we be around no one is sure
As we let nature take this course homeless plastic bottles just end up on the shore
CHORUS
(Jot Maxi)
Homeless people on the streets
Plastic bottles in the sea
We call this humanity
I can’t take it seriously
Homeless people on the street
Plastic bottles in the sea
We call this humanity
I can’t take it seriously
