Friday morning, and H from Acid Reign is sorted. “Very important tool of any interview,” he says, pointing to his coffee. Sadly, not the Raven coffee from Camden’s Raven Records, where H recently did an interview for his Talking Bollocks podcast, which, like all his interviews, is worth a listen.
We are interrupted by some drama on H’s balcony as a resident squirrel who often shares H’s breakfast with him is causing chaos. Drama over, we turn to the purpose of our chat. The fourth Acid Reign album, Daze Of The Week, due to be released on 15 May 2026.
Daze Of The Week is a ferocious blast of Thrash Metal, which is a breath of fresh air in a year when some of the legacy outfits have released albums that are uninspiring to say the least.
The album is pretty feisty. “That’s a great description of it,” says H. “I may as well wheel out my well-thought-out analogy for the album, which is, if The Age Of Entitlement [TAOE] was a follow-up to Obnoxious, this is a follow-up to the Fear. If TAOE and Daze Of The Week went to a gig, TAOE would stand in the back and Daze Of The Week would be in the pit.”
An interesting analogy, especially given the timeline involved. I ask H why some bands create their best work so early, given that in most jobs, you improve the longer you have been doing it.
“Firstly, it’s not a normal job,” he says. “It’s an art form, and people have peaks and troughs, you know. I think some artists improve, but there’s always a peak.”
H uses Metallica as an example. “There is usually a peak towards the beginning, maybe in the middle, and then you get bored with what you’re doing, and you want to do something else. You want to bring something else to the party. There’s an interview with James Hetfield when they made S&M, and one of their musicians was saying about The Call Of Cthulhu and described it as classical.”
It is clear H does not view his role in Acid Reign as a job. “It’s the same as working in a charity shop,” he laughs, but explains his view that he is in a great position. “I mean, it’s a privilege, it’s a privilege even now. I still treat it as a privilege. It’s incredibly important, especially at the age I am now. I get people saying, ‘Oh, why do you do that? Oh, it sounds like a lot of hassle.’
“But if you had any idea the amount of people that said to me over the years, ‘oh God, I’d love to do that, sign a record deal, being in a band and do those things’. If that’s something you’ve ever wanted to do, you’ll want to do that until you die.
“You know you could be in your ’70s. How could I not completely appreciate that? And that’s why we heavily curate every aspect of the band, including the lyric videos which you’ve just seen.”
H is on record as saying that Matt [Smith] is the best guitarist he has ever worked with. It is a reasonable statement given his position as the only original member in the band. He is also clear that since the band reformed in 2015, there have been some really tough times.
He does not see it as his band, though. “Other people call it my band, I don’t. Acid Reign isn’t my band. I hate to imply possession. I hate to imply they work for me. I hate to play any of that because it’s not true.”
Having said that, H is also happy to point out a comment on YouTube following the release of first single Fantastic Passion. “Everything’s been overwhelmingly positive since Fantastic Passion came out,” he says, before referring to the comment. “It said H is the most annoying front man in Thrash, and everybody, everybody leaves this band eventually.”
I laughingly point out that there is some evidence to support that. “Pete’s [Dee – bassist] been in the band for so long,” says H. “He intrinsically knows what Acid Reign is and what isn’t. And he also was a fan, you know, who was down the front. Literally down the front when we were playing first time round”.
Given that appears to be the way they have recruited new guitarist Darren [Mcgillvray – guitar], I point out that this does appear to be the new Acid Reign method.
H returns to the challenges he and the band have faced. “There were times when I did think if this is it. I was in a relationship, and that was offering me a future that I hadn’t sort of considered. I was looking at probably making this our last album, last tour, and then I was going to move back to Yorkshire.
“That relationship ended, and honestly, it’s kind of opened my eyes to, I don’t want to say the word, but I’m gonna have to. It’s what a gift being in this band is. It’s hard work, and you know it didn’t just fucking fall out of the sky. But it’s such a rare thing that I’m going to treasure it, and I’m going to do it as long as I fucking can. And if somebody wants to fit in with that lifestyle, cool. If they don’t, then cool.”
When it comes to the reaction to the album, then H is clear that I had given him exactly what he wanted. “I really wanted to elicit the kind of reaction from people that you just gave me, which is brilliant, so thank you. I wanted people to go fuck it. What are they doing? What the fuck! They’re not teenagers anymore. What they’re going to be able to do this live. What the fuck’s going on?
“I’ve been sitting on this album, where it comes from, and what I consider to be a surprise, because I think I’ve got a very good sense of what people are going to get out of it. I can be objective.
“I’ve been quite bold in the comments about the release of this album. I get that feeling about the production. Huge, yeah, slightly raw, but not as polished as The Age Of Entitlement. There are more harmonies on United Hate [from TAOE] than there is on this entire album. I’ve been there, done that.”
“I just want to fucking hit people between the eyes. On every song, because that’s what all these songs are going to do. There’s no let-up, well, there is in parts, but you know, he [long-time collaborator Jayce Lewis, producer/collaborator] was on board with that as well. That’s why I do it to be able to surprise people now and again. The reaction to Fantastic Passion has been great.”
It is fair to say that the social media reaction was impressive. As I say to H, I think it ripped a few heads off when it dropped due to the speed. H explains that the next single, Sorrowsworn, which will be out by the time this interview is published, was always going to be the lead single until their producer, Jayce, got involved.
“He was chipping away at me. He liked the chorus. I thought about it, the more I thought, it’s more representative of the album than Sorrowsorn. Bearing in mind that at this point, there was only going to be one single before the album. He won me over. And, the label were like, Charlie Griffiths is on it.”
H got Charlie [Ex-Haken] on board via the podcast. There was an exchange of music, and then they got in touch to do the solo.
We move on to what H thinks the Acid Reign fanbase might be expecting. Was he worried that they wanted an extension to TAOE? “It’s a good question. And this is why it’s best not to waste any time thinking about what people might be expecting, because, firstly, if anybody’s expecting TAOE part two, why would we do that?
“It’s a different lineup, so it’s obviously going to sound different. But also, when has any Acid Reign sounded like the previous one? The answer is never, you know.”
Without doing Acid Reign down, the speed on this album has possibly changed the view of TAOE. “If I’ve got one criticism of TAOE, it’s that it’s mainstream for an Acid Reign record. Possibly our most mainstream. If they’re kind of like in my life, TAOE is more of a wife. Daze Of The Week is more of an affair.”
One of the biggest things I’m excited to see is the full artwork of the album. There is a huge amount of work that has gone into it. H laughs as we talk about the details and comparisons because he says, “There’s a whole podcast coming out where Dan and I go through that.
“But basically, in my head, I was using the clown from the album, and putting him in the room. That was the room from The Fear, but without the old lady there.”
Given the resonance with Script For A Jesters Tear, I am unsurprised when H tells me that he sent the artwork to Mark Wilkinson, the artist who created the Marillion cover. “He messaged me back with loads of alternative titles for it. He really liked it. Which is fucking mental.”
For me, this is a demonstration of how hard H has worked in his career to establish such contacts. “Thank you very much,” H says. “He loved it, which is brilliant. But Pete said to me hang on a minute and this is what I meant about Pete being totally immersed in Acid Reign. He said, Acid Reign has never used the same character on anything. It’s always been something different.
“I was like, yeah, you’re right. He said, what about the jester mask on the floor. You mean the clown, I said. He said, yeah, because it’s just different because it’s him, but it isn’t him.
“The initial idea I had was the room from The Fear with the old woman’s chairs knocked over. Loads of pages from calendars all over the back wall, like the movie Seven, so light it looks like a serial killer’s house. All the days of the week of her life, pasted up against the back wall and the clown there on the floor with the crowbar in his hand that is in his band on The Fear.
“It does bring us back around to the beginning again. This is like, you know, it is a tribute to The Fear.”
There are possibly a couple of songs that could have been on TAOE, H tells me, “but the others are too ferocious to link with it in the same way The Fear does.”
I am glad H mentioned this because there are times when you want an album to be instant, other times when you really want to work with it. Daze Of The Week is a hybrid of that. Fantastic Passion sticks straight away. I probably only listened to it two or three times when it came out, but it’s already an old friend, a favourite that is sitting there already, and I am thinking, wow. I did not realise how much of a hook it has got.
Some of the other tracks will take more time, and I am slowly getting to them. Blind Lies has got a lovely big chug in the middle of it, and that is going to be fantastic. The combination means that people do have to actually work on it, but it will give them enough of a hook straight away that they want to go back to it.
I am happy that H agrees. “Yeah, I know what you mean. Even if it’s really intense, there’s a bit in each song that I can hold onto. I can grab holds for a minute before I get thrown off.”
By the time that we get to 15 May, where are H’s emotions? “It’s like Christmas morning,” he smiles. “I’m excited for everyone. I’m going to be doing a Patreon Zoom, and I’m going to open it up to all Patreons. We can have a release party of our own. And you know, I’m happy to answer any questions.
“But I am excited for the feedback. I’m excited to find out what people think. I think it’s going to go down well, obviously, and I’m excited about what songs people pick out. Initially, everybody’s individual experience of the album is what I’m excited about.
“I’ve already said to everybody in the Acid Reign WhatsApp group that 15 May is the day that the album ceases to be ours. So, we’re listening to it like mad now because it’s still ours. Come the 15th, it’s gone.
“It leaves home, and it’ll never be the same again.”
Acid Reign release Daze Of The Week on 15 May 2026 via Back On Black. For pre-orders, visit orcd.co/bobv1313cd.
