HotWax has never been known to play it safe. The Hastings-via-Brighton trio, made up of Tallulah Sim-Savage on vocals and guitar, Lola Sam on bass, and Alfie Sayers on drums, have spent the past two years tearing up stages with Royal Blood and Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, leaving behind a trail of frenzied festival crowds from Reading and Leeds to All Points East. Now, they’ve distilled all that energy, chaos, and intensity into their debut album, Hot Shock, a searing collection of adrenaline-fueled fight songs about facing fear head-on and challenging the unknown.

Recorded live at London’s legendary RAK Studios, Hot Shock captures the lightning-in-a-bottle energy of a HotWax gig - sweaty, visceral, and electric. The band enlisted an all-female production team, working with Catherine Marks (boygenius, Wolf Alice) and Steph Marziano (Hayley Williams, Let’s Eat Grandma), with additional recording in the otherworldly oustskirts of Joshua Tree alongside Stella Mozgawa of Warpaint. That livewire spirit pulses through every song, built on a foundation of grunge-laced guitar hooks, non-stop rhythms, and Sim-Savage’s biting, fired-up vocals.

“It was the sweatiest gig we’ve ever done - packed,” Sim-Savage recalls of a Blue Basement show in July 2023, where [producer] Marks first saw them play. “Afterwards, Catherine said, ‘I need to record your album. It needs to feel like a party.’” And a party it is, the kind you feel lucky to have been invited to (but you’re also a little scared of some of the people there).

But beneath the wall of sound, Hot Shock pulses with a sense of vulnerability. It’s a record about abandon, yes, but also about finding power in fragility, about standing at the edge and refusing to be pushed… but choosing to jump. That balance, between cathartic fury and sensitive moments, is one of the things that sets HotWax apart. They’re here to make a noise, but inside that noise is a statement. And if this album is any indication, it’s one the world is about to hear loud and clear.