In the same way Gallows, The Ghost of a Thousand and others are now leading the UK assault on the world in terms of punk rock domination, I can see Hexes doing similar things. Their debut album is inaccessibly accessible – it’s a noisy din fusing Black Flag-esque punk rock with the spazzy nature of Blood Brothers or equivalent. The UK’s answer to Refused may be a little OTT, but it ain’t far off. The keyboards splatter across a scything vocal which will leave you feeling bloody and bruised well before you’ve reached the end of this 12-track album. It’s aggressive and brutal yet is underpinned with more than a healthy dose of melody. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking tracks like ‘Eyes Like Knives’ are nasty scream-alongs; underneath all of the aggression is a strong melody that separates this band from a lot of their peers.
‘White Noise…’, for me, makes a similar impact to ‘Orchestra of Wolves’. The two bands aren’t too similar in terms of sound, but both wear their hearts on their sleeves and both records are passionate beyond what you would expect. Hexes spit fury from every pore in a similar manner to that of Frank Carter. The riffs are also present and correct and should not be ignored. ‘Kiss The Guns’ is hard and heavy featuring a weirdly haunting synth part, while ‘Hey Drama’ kicks off with a kick-ass riff that builds up nicely before the inevitable explosion of drums and vocals.
Hexes are difficult to pin down. They’re all over the place as a bundle of energy and passion – and in a scene that’s saturated with bands doing it for the fashion, it’s refreshing to hear a band that means it. And then some.