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Mar 18, 2025 Web Exclusive By Andy Von Pip

HotWax don’t do half-measures. Since forming in Hastings, England and setting up base in Brighton, the trio of Tallulah Sim-Savage (vocals, guitar), Lola Sam (bass), and Alfie Sayers (drums) have spent the last two years in near-constant motion. With over 150 shows, opening slots for Royal Blood and Frank Carter, a U.S. run, plus festival sets including Reading & Leeds, All Points East, and Download, they’ve sharpened themselves into a formidable live act.

Their debut album, Hot Shock, reflects that intensity: a tightly wound collection of adrenalized anthems designed for maximum impact. The trio joined forces with renowned producers Catherine Marks (boygenius, Wolf Alice) and Steph Marziano (Hayley Williams, Let’s Eat Grandma), with additional recording from Stella Mozgawa of Warpaint in Joshua Tree, to craft an album that crackles and fizzes with the raw intensity of their live shows.
The band could have played it safe and produced an album that neatly fits into reductive genre boxes. Instead, they have fashioned a debut that navigates a more nuanced soundscape, drawing from U.S. alt-rock, grunge, and riot-grrrl influences like Sonic Youth, Hole, and The Breeders, while carving out something distinctly their own. HotWax certainly showcase their musical prowess, stretching wiry riffs around propulsive, groove-led structures that capture the feverish, in-the-moment chaos of their live performances, while Sim-Savage is a force throughout, her vocals veering from nettle-sting ferocity to bruised introspection.

To authentically capture the trio’s raw, unfiltered energy, they strategically recorded sections of the album in front of a live audience at RAK Studios in London—a potentially risky approach but one that succeeds on every level and serves to amplify the record’s sense of urgency. Bassist Lola Sam has described the album as “an explosion of color,” but it offers far more than that. Beneath the turbulent surface lies a complex emotional landscape. Tracks like “Wanna Be a Doll” crackle with self-destructive energy, the more stripped-back “Pharmacy” reveals a brooding sense of fragility, while “Dress Our Love” sounds like a relationship autopsy set to a mosh-pit soundtrack.

The album’s emotional centerpiece, “One More Reason,” captures both the heady thrill of devotion and the unsettling intensity of over-attachment. Ultimately, HotWax prove that their brand of grunge rock can simultaneously serve as an escape and an exorcism, which can be as messy and exhilarating as life itself. Hot Shock provides a snapshot of a band at that pivotal moment where potential transforms into power. (www.hotwaxofficial.com)

Author rating: 8/10