COVER: FALSE REALITY is the Out Of Rage Artist of 2025

As a band built from a wicked infusion of hardcore, thrash, and the extreme, meeting through shows in the London scene and creating a project that pulls together the best of the genres' abrasive foundations, FALSE REALITY are defined with Faded Intentions. Whilst the record has only been released in November, throughout 2025, they’ve sown the seeds to make this full-length debut a knockout for the UK underground.

After a year of making their presence known with the release of their 2024 Path Of Self Destruct EP, they set the movement in motion for a damaging roster of live shows that proved the band to be one of the best emerging new acts. To put it simply, their grit and determination have caught our attention, cementing their place as the first recipients of ‘OOR Artist of the Year’.

In conversation with the entire band - Rachel Rigby (Vocals), Dave Connolly (Guitar), Louis Dale (Drums) and Joe Cornwell (Bass) - we reflect on the trajectory of what has been a monumentally transcendental year for both the band and for the wider hardcore scene. 

Whilst Faded Intentions is a record built from personal experience, it deals with the very real feelings associated with the fluctuating state of change and those who choose to define it. In a roundabout way, it is the foundations of FALSE REALITY. Its namesake bleeds with the need for authenticity, especially as Rachel explains, in the same way that “people drift apart and how sometimes people aren’t always who you think they are.” 

Particularly, in the context of the first few released singles of this new cycle, these struggles are amplified as they root their sound in the discomfort and challenge of navigating unfamiliarity and exclusion. In Frozen, their dizzying first full track from the album, she continues, “it’s that feeling of someone changing and your own personal struggle with the process of that change. Suddenly, your world is turned upside down.”

In some ways, this record feels symbolic of the current state of hardcore. For the UK, there has been so much movement in a positive direction that for those in the scene that for those on a local level, it can be disorientating and dizzying. Whilst bands like TURNSTILE can dominate and dazzle, as a new champion of heavy music on the mainstream, it is uncertain where it leaves regional heavy bands and their venues. “It’s a really interesting time right now with the massive popularity surge that hardcore has received over the past few years.” Rachel begins, unsure of how to define it. 

With the band citing bands like NINEBAR and COLD HARD TRUTH as some of the best UKHC right now, there is no doubt that the scene is in capable hands. However, amongst it all, there is an emphasis on how much this translates to the entirety of hardcore. Perhaps it’s too early to see the full extent of the recent revitalisation of the genre in the mainstream yet, but the band emphasises the need for more people to attend hardcore shows to start a resurgence. Here, an influx of new blood may seem daunting, but as Dave states, “a good crowd is all you need to make one of the best shows of all time. If the music and the people are bumping, you have all the ingredients.” It seemed only fitting to catch the band at one of their album release shows, including at the newly refurbished Boom, where OOR took the photos for this cover.

Regardless, the band are aware that the next step is to take their sound further afield, as Joe says, “I mean, as it stands, the goal is still just to play as many shows as we can and get new ears on our stuff.” In France and Germany this summer, alongside MPF, No Play and Burn It Down in the UK, FALSE REALITY came into its own during festival season. No doubt this paved the way for their debut slot at HellFest next summer. 

However, the biggest wildcard booking came from the call from Pennsylvania rockers CKY, who were on the lookout for the best heavy live bands to tour with them across the country. Dave mentions the influence of the band growing up, “Like through the culture of skateboarding and Jackass, it’s a really exciting opportunity.” Again, the conversation turned to the influence of punk and hardcore on modern culture, with bands like DRAIN, END IT, and SCOWL finding their place on the soundtracks of the new Tony Hawk Pro Skater and Skate games.  What is evident here is that both hardcore and FALSE REALITY are measured in mentality rather than sound. Whilst some conventions shape the genre, opening up to experimentation is a key part of its tenacity and malleability.

So much of Faded Intentions is disordered by confrontational lyrics, divebombs and thrashing, the ferocity of the record is tamed by the impressive Sonder. Dead-set in the middle of the record, it unexpectedly throws elements of a shoegaze sound into a calming lull. Rachel says, “Sonder is a kind of love letter to the other adjacent genres of hardcore. Post hardcore, shoegaze, alt rock kinda vibe. We don’t necessarily wanna be pigeon-holed as one kind of sound, and it could definitely be a place that we visit again in future”. 

Working with Stephen Sears Jr., producer for the sound behind GALLOWS and TRC, the band entrenched their identity in the raw energy of the UK underground. Louis comments, “He’s one of those people who just gets what we’re about and the kind of sound we’re trying to go for. There were a couple of times through recording where he’ll bring an idea for us, and it made the final cut.”  

As hardcore lifers, with members of the band attributing parts of their trajectory from their time in hardcore staples, including IRONED OUT, 50 CALIBER and BUN DEM OUT, they know their sound and their scene from the inside out. Amongst it all, there is a real tapping into the vein of technique and taking no prisoners with their gnarly and uncompromisingly dirty sound. It takes real guts to make a statement of this magnitude; the overwhelming feeling of this record is to leave no holds barred. By harnessing, they are shining ambassadors for the future of the genre. 

In short, 2025 is the year of FALSE REALITY. You've heard it from us first: this is one of the artists you need to watch.

Words: Amber Brooks and Spencer Cunningham

Photos: Kieran Atkinson

Cover Design: Robert Halls

With Thanks To: Revenant Earth