Rites of Hadda – Inevitable Machete

Rites of Hadda’s new album Inevitable Machete was originally meant to land on Samhain/Halloween last year, continuing the band’s habit of releasing records on pagan holidays. Instead, the album was delayed, and by the time October 31 rolled around I ended up writing about Occult Sex Worker instead. Not long after that, Grow Your Own Fest happened in Hastings, and after the organizational stress of the festival, GYO kindly sent over a promo copy of the new record. So here I am catching up. The only downside is that I still haven’t seen Rites of Hadda perform live. Everything about the London band suggests that they are meant to be experienced first and foremost on stage, with their full theatrical performance and punk cabaret queer drag’n’roll. The records, meanwhile, function more like souvenirs of the ritual. Nevertheless, Inevitable Machete offers a good insight into what makes the band such a unique presence on the UK underground scene.

As I mentioned when writing about Occult Sex Worker, the saxophone is a main part of Rites of Hadda’s sound. It immediately brings to mind the crooked avant-punk of The Cravats, and from the opening seconds of “Is Ross Woodward a Faggot?” that influence feels even more pronounced here. The sax slices with a sharp, almost mischievous energy before the rest of the band crashes in. Wasperella’s voice soars above the Dadaist chaos, delivering lines with theatrical flair that sometimes feel closer to music hall declamation than conventional punk rock shout-alongs.

And now is the time I’ll make you see your laughter, your jeers, your punches, my tears.

The only thing you couldn’t do was execute my queer!!!

You’re just the same as the filth and the fascists. You’re just the same as the teacher, the guard. You’re just the same as the butcher, the priest. You’re just the same as the state with their arms. You’re just the same.

That slightly twisted musical palette runs through the rest of the album. “Racist Bassist” rolls along with a steady drive while bringing the machete down on the reactionary attitudes still festering around supposedly progressive music scenes. “Middle England, Mate” turns its attention toward the suffocating conservatism of British social life, slicing at the petty authoritarianism that creeps into everyday culture. “Fuck Them” stretches things out into a slow-building, six-minute declaration that eventually dissolves into chaotic repetition, while “Lament” closes the main sequence on a darker note, staring at inevitable collapse of this polluted, plastic world we’re busy constructing around ourselves.

Rites of Hadda could describe themselves with a whole catalogue of labels: queer, pagan, gothic, psychedelic, witchpunk, and many more. But at heart they remain an anarcho-punk band, with their lyrics targeting political hypocrisy and dreaming of social, queer, and animal liberation. Even when the subject matter turns personal, the songs keep circling back to the wider systems that try to enforce those norms.

Once again the album was recorded by John Youens of the South London Punk Collective at Overdrive Studios. His approach suits Rites of Hadda well, and Inevitable Machete sounds rough, lively, and a little bit unhinged, as if the whole thing could tip over at any moment. Across the album that same spirit keeps resurfacing: everyday resilience, having fun amidst the dystopian hellhole, and the refusal to stay quiet about injustice. Rites of Hadda channel those impulses through flamboyance, humour, and a willingness to sound downright strange at times.

I probably should have seen them live before writing this. But if Inevitable Machete is anything to go by, Rites of Hadda are one of those bands who thrive on being unclassifiable. Up the queer pagan punx!