“Race towards the sun, my crippled pride undone, and all that makes me real, secedes to stone and steel.“
In the harsh cold of January, the sweltering New Cross Inn beckoned for the second year of Reality Unfolds. Taking up the baton of the infamous Upsurge Festival hosted across three days, the weekender helps to make New Cross Inn the home of hardcore in South London. The fest dedicates most of its stage time to new acts, as well as established UK scene legends, such as No Relief and Shooting Daggers. Headline and sub-headliners are generally from overseas. This year’s visitors including Broken Vow, Wristmeetrazor, Stormo and Ringworm, providing a mix of hyped bands from the bleeding edge of the scene along with “your favourite band’s favourite band”. For those in-the-know, Reality Unfolds’ second iteration provided one of 2025’s strongest festivals before most had announced full line-ups.
The Friday didn’t attempt to ease attendees into the weekend, let alone act as a warm up. The line-up was full-blooded, with Closed Hands opening proceedings. Warming the crowd up for what was to come, their screamo-come-hardcore sound being a perfect fit for the event. Their first outing with a solo singer likely held a few suprises for the band itself as they figure out how to land it on a large stage. Hour of Reprisal moved in to bring Reality Unfolds fully into action. Fuelled by the flames of anger against injustice, and the hope that a better world could be built, they delivered some of the heaviest breakdowns and moments of the weekend. Tracks such as “Failed State” brought mic grabs aplenty too, showing early on that this wasn’t going to be a quiet weekend, or one for those worried about getting hit. Those after trem-riffs and dark atmospheres would be satisfied by Vicarage, who performed their excellent EP Perfect Hatred plus some unreleased songs.
UK upstarts Long Goodbye showcased why they’ve been one of the most exciting metalcore acts from these shores in the past twelve months, deserving of the prime slot for UK bands on the Friday bill. Donning solid merch from Vatican and Sanction, the Northwest unit performed the likes of “Simulating Respiration” from The Coming Strife compilation, and tracks from their debut EP i used to dream of drowning. The standout moment was their showcase of new tracks, containing some of the hardest material Long Goodbye have penned. We can’t wait to see Long Goodbye again, or hear both new tracks on record in full Coming Strife fidelity.
Portland’s own Dry Socket brought their style of hardcore punk, unapolagetically abrasive, like your face being dragged against gravel. The way they borrow from traditional punk and modern hardcore brought a different yet inspired sound to the Friday. Their rage gave birth to a feral energy that entranced the room, leading to some bonkers behavior including the most unusual moshes and army crawls. Dry Socket would have likely been a surprise to many there, yet most of those will exit the entire weekend remembering their set as an early highlight. Having crowned Wristmeetrazor‘s record as one of the best of 2025, we were delighted to experience their Y2K-core sound in the flesh. They brought material from Degeneration to the stage, with the likes of “Treprenation” and “Synthetic-51n” on the setlist, plus gems from their past “Goodbye Sweet Betty” and “Last Tango in Paris” returning to much joy and windmilling of the pit.
The earliest start of the weekend was felt by many on Saturday. Thankfully the area next to the New Cross Inn is populated with solid cafes, including Wakey Wakey was instrumental in powering many bands and punters through the weekend. The London straight edge unit Supernova sparked off the Saturday, and could be argued to be one of the standout acts of the day. Their natural stage presence melded with an enthusiastic early crowd. Their music contains many essential messages and people didn’t just agree, they sang the key messages right back to them, especially for “Text Me When You Get Home” and “Fence Walker“. Supernova deserve will become a staple of hardcore in the UK in the coming months and years.
The showcase of UK hardcore continued with Blood Gutter and AKU putting on a forceful show. Both acts brought a distinct contrast, demonstrating the metallic and punk sides of hardcore resectively. They equally rumbled the New Cross Inn awake in the afternoon with moshers still full of energy despite the proceedings the night before. The sheer noise of it all was enough to have a Just Eat driver peer through the window to see exactly what was going on. Supera Morza were a wild card pick for the day, bringing a post hardcore sound that wouldn’t be out of place on an Outbreak line-up. Unfortunately they played to a relatively quiet room as many attendees were simply in “fight music” mode, so it was not the best theatre for the band. Vaticinal Rites were another left-field pick, but their style of technical death metal was a sure hit, using short format tracks for high impact. Whether or not every band lands with all attendees, building variety into a festival line-up is essential, whether hardcore or any genre is the focus.
Next up, Birmingham’s Stranglehold mixed up proceedings with a melodic-leaning take on hardcore. For some this would have been a first impression, given they have one demo under their belts, but they more than impressed upon the New Cross stage. They emphasied their project was all an extension of the friendships they’d formed in the hardcore world. From the blackened and crust world came Final Dose, their frantic d-beats being much appreciated by a thoroughly battered crowd. Even though inspired some of the most dramatic mosh moves of the night, Saturday was only just getting started.
No Relief took to the stage as part of Reality Unfolds and Upsurge for the third year in a row, and deservedly so. If anyone has been unable to see them by now, they’re absolutely nuts live and their members are all thoroughly embedded in the scene, being familiar faces on stage and in the crowd. Ethan Barry, as well as many others over the weekend, reminded the audience of the political side that comes with hardcore. Barry highlighted the current incarceration of Ola, best known for their work on Quality Control HQ, for their work in direct action against the occupation of Palestine, who has made a great sacrifice worthy of admiration. This prompted a ballistic set where the mic grabbing almost never ended.
The first overseas act of the day took to the stage next, offerer up a brutal dose of just sheer chaos. Malignant, a gem from Greece coming over just for this set, brought their beatdown style of hardcore to the New Cross Inn to put everyone to the test. Intent on splitting the room as many times as possible, Malignant shook off any dust from the mind that may have been setting in from the long day. Given the riotous response to their set, they’re clearly one that we look forward to seeing again in the UK.
The proceedings now led to a farewell for Broken Vow, giving their final performance this side of the Atlantic Ocean. This is a band that has more than grown on many of us over the years, most notably with their release of Anthropocene. It was a blessing to see the likes of “Propaganda of the Deed” and “Kingdom Dies” in a live setting. Tommy Harte gave a touching interlude chat into their meaning behind Broken Vow’s work, and how human’s connection with nature has been damaged for the worse of both. The melodic “No More Air” struck through following this message, and was perfectly performed by the backing band who were all in the pocket. While not wishing to write an entire obituary for Broken Vow, music across genres needs more bands like the New England unit, who can write eloquently and passionately with quality on such matters that impact us all.
Having the task of following such a set was left to Bitterwood. The slam act who were disrupted by a ‘tactical chunder’ struggled to continue the energy that had followed, leaving us with mixed feelings. But the expectation on another day that Bitterwood could light up a room is very much there. This only left Ringworm for the Saturday, returning here after nearly two decades. Seemingly masters of the stage, the Cleveland stalwarts powered through their wide discography with an ease that led to a crowd chomping at each moment, closing out the second day in a triumphant manner.
The Sunday of a festival weekender always hits a little sorely. Thankfully Reality Unfolds had pieced together a slightly more ‘chill’ day than that had come before, with a later start time. Grey Market, fronted by Theo of the brains behind Reality Unfolds, opened up Sunday. A joyous blend of genre, leading to the only sight of the weekend in which the crowd waved side to side to see out the set. Two of our favourite discoveries of the weekend came in the early hours of Sunday, in the form of Church of the Rat and Cady. The former brandish a punk rock sound with the swagger and style of an Every Time I Die, making for a captivating performance. The trio of CADY delved deep into a screamo style which we’re more than happy to indulge. They gave a caustic performance in the light of a Sunday afternoon. Those looking for another bleak screamo unit to add to their playlists should have CADY at the top of it, and another we hope to hear more from them this year.
Bringing their progressive post-hardcore sound to Reality Unfolds was Hidden Mothers, performing off the back of their highly acclaimed Erosion / Avulsion. A band who essentially never went out of step, they presented the album with a perfect rendition. The trading of vocals, the riffs and blasts from the drums made for an inspired performance that will have those hearing it yearning for more. Having conquered on stage and in studio, Hidden Mothers have little left to prove, except, of course, to keep aiming bigger and bigger.
Perp Walk of Bristol woke up the venue for a penultimate mosh before Shooting Daggers and Sorcerer entered, churning the room side to side. A pleasantly honest and comedic stage presence was commanded by Shooting Daggers and their more upbeat and joyous style of hardcore punk. They traded between fuzzy shoegaze and skateboard punk stylings from track to track, highlighting the variety that c can be found on their full-length Love & Rage. Still managing to keep the tempo and crowd enthusiasm throughout their set, Shooting Daggers have continually proved to us why they’re such a beloved act in the UK.
Now came French hardcore legends Sorcerer – Reality Unfolds had perhaps saved the best until last. The Parisian unit had dropped one of the most underrated records in 2024 in the form of Devotion, which will hopefully will see increasing merit as time goes on. Their set lived up to high expectations, landing with the presence and force of a headliner even though it wasn’t the final act. Running through the stunning “Fortress”, “Someone Else’s Skin” and “Badlands”, they were the perfect band for bringing tired minds and bodies to life for one last time. The battle instinct that runs through their sound translates effortlessly live, leading to spin kicks and mic grabs a plenty. Stormo concluded the weekend’s proceedings, with the air of a room in a slightly worn out haze, that even still led to a pit primed with push-mosh life. The screams of Stormo were a chaotic yet quaint way to close out Reality Unfolds.
Reality Unfolds is a festival grounded in strong DIY ethos and community, so all we would say is that it’s much better experienced in person. The New Cross Inn remains a top venue for this format, and to see so many acts who are the cutting edge of their genres is a treat that shouldn’t go unappreciated. If it wasn’t for Reality Unfolds and associated events by Real Life Presents, New Cross Inn simply wouldn’t be on London’s hardcore map in the way it is today. While Reality Unfolds deserves to become much bigger, no matter what form it continues in, it will remain one of our favourite weekends of the year.
Check out our full gallery from the event here.
You can view the full gallery of Reality Unfolds 2025 here.