I reckon I heard Days of Revelation's Neurophobic demo pretty soon after it came out back in January 2024 on the recommendation of my friend Kep over at Noob Heavy, and I thought it was pretty sick. But such is the march of time and the volume of new music that seems to fill it nowadays that the band had definitely slipped my mind until I stumbled across the Rennes, France-based band's new EP, Threatening Presence.
They've used the time well, though, crafting an impressively cohesive release complete with a collection of menacing ambient interludes to pace out the potent helpings of '90s-flavored metallic hardcore the EP serves up in abundance.
“The process between the two releases has been pretty chaotic,” the band explain to me via email. “We wanted to do something very complete and didn’t want to do things too fast. We also had lineup changes and many shows. You know how it can be, sometimes things are just going too fast, and you need to settle down with the band to start the production process, which we did at some point.”
All that experience in between has definitely had a positive impact overall, though, as the band acknowledge: “When you're used to playing with people, you just know how they are going to react and behave on stage, and it changes maybe some stuff in the writing process. We have been building this band together for three years now, and the final lineup is more than one year old now, with a lot of shows in the bag, so it really helps with every aspect of the band.”
“It’s crazy to think we did all of that with just our first demo because, with only this release, we had so many opportunities to play in places none of us had played before, like Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, etc. Doing all of that with just one demo, and not a perfect one in fact, aha, is huge for us. We feel very blessed, and it was very motivating. We felt like people were really expecting something new, and quickly.”
With that in mind, it’s exciting to see where this new one will take them. Threatening Presence is a natural step up from the demo, with a better sound, harder tracks—including a beefed-up version of Neurophobic highlight “Fatalis”—and a clearly refined vision that seems to extend to all aspects of the band.
Vocalist Tom explains that the main themes of Threatening Presence are “modern conflict imagery and God,” elaborating: “I like the whole ‘depossessed’ military imagery, which erases all ethical and moral values to highlight the total absurdity of modern capitalist conflicts. I feel like there is something almost mystical in the coldness of ops and military equipment, devices that are made to kill in the end.”
“I’m a believer. I value human life more than anything, and in these troubled times you just can’t sit still and watch the world collapse under fascist ideologies. We need to speak up and fight what is trying to eliminate human nature at its core.”
“I also speak about God a bit more on this one. I’m not a perfect lyricist. I try to express in pictures what I feel, which is maybe not something very common in the hardcore scene, but it’s the way I express things most naturally. Lyrics in DOR may seem like nonsense, but they are not to me, and writing lyrics for DOR is still a hard process for me in every aspect.”
Tom is also the mind behind those aforementioned interludes, which complement the overall vibe of the record brilliantly. “I was learning it while doing it,” he explains. “These are inspired by ambient projects such as Vatican Shadow or Alberich, who also use military imagery. I also listened to a lot of Call of Duty and Metal Gear Solid soundtracks, ahah.”
Given my general ignorance of it, including the fact that I didn’t even realize it was the home of the Superbowl of Hardcore—which, coincidentally, is taking place this coming weekend—I also asked the band to share a bit about the scene in Rennes as they have experienced it.
“We’ve been going to shows in Rennes since we were kids, maybe 16 or 17 years old. The scene here has been thriving since the ’90s. We had bands like Stormcore and Underground Society, for example, who existed at a very early stage of European hardcore, which is kind of crazy when you think about it. It may not show, but Rennes is very much an old scene.”
“Next, we had another generation with the Ultimhate and Hardmind guys, which was kind of the point when I started going to shows. These guys are still putting on the Superbowl of Hardcore every year.”
“And then there’s us next, BZHC, the new jacks, aha, with a label called Ar Mor Records. I want to shout out the scene in Nantes as well, since we have two people in the band from there. Nantes' scene is crazy old too. In fact, back then the guys from Nantes and Rennes used to hang out together and called themselves ‘KDS Crew.’ You may be familiar with the term.”
Turning to the future, the band tell me they are working on new material, and hopefully we won’t have to wait as long as we did for the EP: “We want to release a three-song promo by the end of the year or the beginning of 2027. We are also planning a lot of new things for shows, and we are eager to defend Threatening Presence live.”
As is customary, they conclude with some shout-outs: “RNHC, BUSTIN HEADS CREW, NORTHERN HARDCORE, BZHC da viken, shoutout to our brothers and sisters in Rennes and Nantes. We feel very blessed to have any of you in our lives. Thank you.”
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