LIVE FROM THE PIT: False Reality, Sovereign and Divine Hatred

“I shouldn’t have worn a tracksuit to a show!”, exclaims FALSE REALITY vocalist Rachel Rigby. Since the release of the London hardcore quartet’s latest record, Faded Intentions, the heat behind the band had been amplified tenfold, and the response sweltered - packing out the infamous Boom Leeds with a horde of sweaty moshers. With her head down and pacing the stage quickly, she has a moment to think before screaming that she’s lost a nail.  Joking that “you can’t take the Essex out of the girl”, Rigby sends the room into a blur with hit Reality Slips. 

This is the true nature of FALSE REALITY, polished to perfection and not meaning to do anything by halves. Tonight, on their album release show, they represent a cohort of shining talent in UK hardcore, supported by SOVEREIGN and DIVINE HATRED.  

Whilst this show was played for the love of the game, the hardest moshers that night were those in sports jerseys, throwing limbs and crowdkilling with a crazed look in their eyes. Openers DIVINE HATRED were no exception, with the frontman causing a ruckus in his Celtic shirt, prowling around the front of the newly relocated Boom stage like a panther. In the sweat-soaked chaos of their newly released record, Infections of a Pathogenic Message, their sound flayed with lashings of gut-punching guitars and abysmal beatdowns. Sludgy, snarling and cleaved close to the bone, the Sheffield heavyweights started the night off with a very warm welcome to all who wanted to have a moment to dance with the devil. 

In the havoc of this brutal evening’s proceedings, MLVLTD’s SOVEREIGN arrived at Boom to cause disorder. Rocking up to Leeds with a show already played in Hull, the band’s high energy and brutish attitude stormed through the venue like a bull in a china shop. With the rampaging alumni of HIGH VIS, SPLITCASE and ROUGH JUSTICE, the band has big boots to fill. With a sound reminiscent of the golden age of beatdown, the band had one intention - and that was to cause violence. Within the spirit of making love, not war, the audience had mixed reactions to the carnage that was unfolding on and off stage. 

In the thick of it all, the prevailing sentiment of the evening was that hardcore is finally getting its moment. Whilst the chaos can be seen on a larger scale with bands like TURNSTILE, SPEED and KNOCKED LOOSE on the path to world domination, the underground has never had this much audacity as it does now. Whilst the path is unprecedented and unimaginable, there is a real fear from local spaces that the genre could lose its authenticity due to the genre’s seismic rise. 

However, London’s FALSE REALITY proves that the genre can have its punch without losing its polish.  Harnessing this power with their latest album, Faded Intentions, has made the band one of its breakout stars. Released only last week, the record stuns with genre-infusing inflexions of thrash and the extreme. Whilst more can be said about this LP in our album review, their celebratory release shows last week lifted the lid on this damaging project to reveal the true humanity bleeding inside. 

David, Joseph, Louis and Rachel represent FALSE REALITY. Tight as a unit and potent on the packed Boom stage, they storm through Frozen, lacing the crowd with hard-hitting lines and even harder riffs. This is a track laden with cascading guitars, demonstrating Fading Intentions at its coldest. Whilst we didn’t have the brutal monstrosity of Taylor Holmes’ 1915 reading of Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Boots’, featured in the introduction to the record, or the full whimsy of the Planet Caravan-esque vocals during the sung lines on tracks like Reality Slips, what we were given was the ferocity behind the band, gnarly and stripped down to its roots. 

The breakdowns swung intensely, and the crowd absolutely felt it, scathing in the way they cauterised the skin. By no means was this a fast pit, but it continuously moved with intent and thrived under pressure. By the time they threw in favourites from outside the album, tracks like  Pay The Reaper and closer Opposites React, there is a real step up sonically. Complexity and nuance have their time to shine, especially in a live context. Here, the audience really threw themselves into the tracks. 

Boom has been infamous for being an epicentre of the extreme, and with it’s new location -less of a sweatbox and more of a rage room - it is a space to revolt. FALSE REALITY made no exception, standing up for queer and marginalised minorities.The band reach dizzy heights with the disorder of Snake Eyes and Mirror, an abbatoir of gory sounds There is nothing polite about the band, like the music the energy is close up and personal. 

Rallying on the UK and European circuit this summer, and adorning HERIOT and CKY with ample supporting artillery, FALSE REALITY have made a name for themselves cultivating the underground. 2025 will be the year of Faded Intentions. 

Words: Amber Brooks

Photos: Kieran Atkinson