INTERVIEW: Splitknuckle on becoming the Essex Kingz, flying the flag at Outbreak, and riffing with the purest intentions
Splitknuckle have fought for their community since day one, and their vicious Outbreak headlining set proves they're the right band to plant a flag and say "fuck everyone else"
Say what you will about Outbreak Festival and its representation UK Hardcore, but right now, its focus largely rests elsewhere. It’s hard to call this such a terrible thing for the ever-growing festival - Northern Unfest continues to hold it down with bands that locals are desperate to see at major full-day fests, and we’ve known for many years now that if you want to see the very best that our isles have to offer, you’ll need to get to a local show. Outbreak has morphed into a different beast entirely, standing aside from even the US giants it may once have tried to emulate by introducing a twist on the Hardcore formula with more Hip-Hop and Emo acts. You might not kick someone’s head clean off every half-hour, but you will see Sunny Day Real Estate, so, swings and roundabouts.
This does mean that more international acts are called upon to take Outbreak’s higher slots, but the UK doesn’t go entirely unrepresented - Pest Control took the main stage of Manchester’s weekend by storm, and the third stage largely became a showcase for the United Kingdom, with Ikhras, Final Resting Place and Impunity delivering immensely memorable sets. 2025 had some treats, but largely struggled to give the UK’s greatest their dues. That is, of course, apart from a third stage headline slot that has been a long time coming.
Essex Beatdown innovators Splitknuckle have been baked into the festival’s code for some time now, performing back in 2017 and becoming a frequent flier since. 2025 was different, though, as the band who have been grinding since 2012 has made it to a headlining slot on the stage where the real UKHC heads gravitate, and the deadliest moshers take their opportunity to get scary. It might not precisely be a homecoming, but as the band speaks with Altopsy in the run-up to their set, it certainly feels important. It was time to show every Hardcore fan in the UK what the Essex Kingz were all about.
Shared Blood
When Altopsy sits down with Splitknuckle, it comes hours before their set headlining Outbreak’s third stage, stamping the festival’s representation of UKHC with a signature volatility. After many appearances at Outbreaks through the years, this one feels the most like it means something other than pulling up and throwing out some breakdowns. Vocalist Joey Drake sits back in his chair, a smirk stretched across his face. He knows exactly what this set means. “I’m feeling like we’re planting a flag,” he says. “No disrespect to everyone else, it’s like a ‘fuck everyone else’ type [situation].”
“There’s a lot of people who aren’s us who want to see us on a slot like this, on a stage like that,” interjects bassist Larry Statts. “They want to see Splitknuckle in the small venue, but they want to see that type of same Splitknuckle experience, but in that environment. I think a lot of people have been waiting for that.”
“I think it’s good because we’re in a position to have an almost ‘industry’ kind of spot, and hopefully educate people on the fact that this is what is in your local scenes, no matter where you, you, you and you are from, there’s bands like us,” Joey says. “We don’t have a responsibility to do that, but I feel like it would be the right thing to shout out smaller scenes and put more emphasis on that.”
There’s no doubt that this is a moment to remember for the band, especially as they largely stand as one of the most authentic bands on the UK Hardcore scene - they’ve made no secret of their roots in Essex’s hardcore scene, coming up alongside the greats of EBD and LBU up the road in London, and they’ve championed them at every step, not just because it’s where they came from, but because it’s a grand example of how vibrant and passionate any local scene in the UK can be.
“When I was younger, going to different areas that ain’t Essex, they would think it’s all TOWIE type shit,” Joey remarks. “Some of us grew up in areas that was mixing the people, it wasn’t all Range Rovers and false teeth and shit. It can be a little bit gritty and dirty, and we try our best to deliver that.”
It’s this persistent attitude that keeps Splitknuckle so endearing, despite their gnarly exterior - it’d be easy enough to feel jaded by over a decade in the industry without validation from the ‘powers that be,’ but in typically Hardcore fashion, Splitknuckle has never given a shit about that, and as a result, they still find their validation in the basements. It’s inspiring that the band’s attitude has remained the same while their beatdown stylings have been able to morph into a new, nigh-on unseen beast in Breathing Through the Wound, their 2024 album that fuses the vicious DNA of beatdown to technical riffs that twist, contort and dance around the fretboard. It’s like if your favourite local mosher became possessed by the supernatural spirit of a serial killer. It’s a technical marvel, and an exhilarating 41 minutes - 41 minutes that seemed to change a lot for the band.
Nothing Left to Destroy
Breathing Through the Wound catapulted Splitknuckle into the lap of Daze, and it’s what ensured that the band could earn the co-sign from bands like Torture and God’s Hate, as well as take them away on tours across America and Southeast Asia. And yet, bigger remains outside of their priorities. Better, though, is a different story.
“Pre-album, our response reflected our intention which was that we only really care too much about playing. We like shows, we like playing shows, we like Hardcore,” Joey says. “We get offered a show, we go and take the show. Obviously Lumpy from Daze wanted to put it out, and we never intended to take it a ‘step further’ or whatever, but whether we like it or not, it added another level on the top.
“Then going to America and doing our Southeast Asia tour, it added this thing… We didn’t really think about anything as an intended route. We used to practice in Matt’s little convervatory, fucking off everyone in a five-mile radius, and all we cared about back then was getting fucked and making music. Now we’re a lot older, things are a little bit different. There’s a bit more intention behind it, but the intention is more to make as good music as we can and play good shows.”
Ambition for Splitknuckle seems to be internal, but what’s most compelling about the band’s aims is that they seem to be considered not for the band itself, but for its scene. When the band speak about themselves, they appear to conflate Splitknuckle with Essex’s live circuit, and vice versa. It’s almost as though Splitknuckle is Essex Hardcore on the wider stage of UKHC, and though they might not admit it themselves, they’ve become pretty great flag bearers for it by keeping it as real as they have.
“Whether this today is the peak of what we’ve done with like Southeast Asia, America, whatever… We can always say that if we could do it on the most innocent and pure intentions, which it always was, that any man could do it, and I want to put that out there personally,” Joey continues. “If we can do that, anyone can.”
Parting Shots
Splitknuckle have earned the right to call themselves the shit. After all, Breathing Through the Wound is perhaps the grandest example that the UK has to share that beatdown doesn’t have to be meathead nonsense (fun though it may be), can come infused with a high musical IQ and a real snarl, and with the band’s persistence throughout the years, further prove that bands don’t actually have to gun for the charts for long-term fulfillment. If the band is in basements in perpetuity, it seems as though they’d be as happy as they would be headlining Outbreak’s main stage.
“We’re so blessed,” Joey says. “Unlike some other scenes where there’s a little bit of elitism from the OGs or whatever, we’ve always been embraced through kindness, through OGs, but also we’ve made sure we’ve always had a level of respect and tried to put on for the people who inspired us. I think that’s why we don’t feel any pressure with it. It’s never felt like we have a responsibility to [elevate the scene], it’s always been a choice.”
Touring sapping holiday hours at work and having families might be about to see Splitknuckle take a quieter approach to the remainder of 2025, but after shows like today’s, it’s a triumph rather than a forfeit. Exhaustion won’t be the death of the band yet, because more is already cooking.
“We did a lot with the album,” says Larry. “It was a bit of a showcase, a bit self-indulgent at times, but it was because we liked the music, that’s what we wanted to do. That’s the music we write. So [when it comes to new music], we’re just, like, trimming the fat. We’ve proved that we can do that kind of music, let’s…”
”… take it to the final form,” adds Joey. Whatever that final form is, it’s hard to imagine that Splitknuckle’s reign as the Essex kingz is about to come to a halt. With generational displays like their Outbreak stage headline slot up their sleeves, it’d take some toppling to tear them down.
Breathing Through the Wound is out now via Daze. Listen on Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp