Hacktivist are taking their next album in a heavier direction

At Sanctum Festival in Birmingham, Festpod’s Neill caught up with Hacktivist’s Alex Hek and Ste Cole to talk about joining the band, writing its next album and testing unreleased material in front of live audiences.

Festpod’s Neil with Hacktivist members Alex Hek (right) and Ste Cole (left) during an interview at Sanctum Festival 2026 in Digbeth, Birmingham.

Hacktivist have spent more than a decade combining rap metal with technical, djent-influenced riffs and two rappers at the front of the stage.

Alex and Ste are the newest members of the band. They joined at around the same time and have since been working on the instrumental side of Hacktivist’s next record alongside its two vocalists.

A large part of that process has involved working out how their own ideas fit into a band with an established sound and history.

“We kind of had to find our feet when we first joined the band and figure out what was going to work,” Alex explained.

Finding a new Hacktivist sound

The pair said the aim was not to abandon what Hacktivist had already built. Instead, they have tried to bring parts of the band’s different eras into something that reflects its current members.

“I think we’ve strived to incorporate elements of almost every era of the band into the new album,” Ste said.

That has taken longer than they initially expected, but they believe the extra time has helped them settle on the right direction.

The band have also been working with a new producer, who Alex and Ste said had helped them develop the songs and turn their collection of ideas into a complete record.

Instead of writing a group of unrelated tracks, they approached the sessions with the album as a whole already in mind.

“We wrote it with him with the purpose of writing a whole album, so every song has got that in mind,” Alex said.

The result, they told us, will sound different from previous Hacktivist releases. The production and mix are being modernised, while older elements of the band’s sound remain part of it.

Is it Hacktivist’s heaviest album?

One of the biggest clues about the new material came from the reactions of people who had already been allowed to hear some of it.

“I think quite a few people were taken aback by how heavy it was,” Ste said.

“I don’t want to say the heaviest Hacktivist album, but it’s definitely going that direction.”

The band have also started giving audiences an early taste of the record through an unreleased track called “Hack the Game”.

Hacktivist were preparing to play the song at Sanctum later that day, having already added it to their live set for several shows.

It was one of the first songs Alex and Ste wrote after joining the band and one that immediately stood out to them.

“We were instantly like, ‘Yeah, this shit slaps,’” Alex said.

They described it as a fast, high-energy track made for movement in the pit. Playing it live has also given them a chance to see which moments connect with an audience before committing the final version to the record.

For Ste, repeatedly performing the song has changed the way he plays it and given him ideas that may now make it onto the finished recording.

“Over the span of a year, you almost rewrite the song,” he said.

That opportunity is not available to every band. Modern records are often written and completed inside a studio before any of the songs reach a stage.

Hacktivist have been able to use the live shows as part of the writing process, making small changes as the track develops.

What comes next?

Hacktivist did not announce an album release date during the interview, although the band said plans for future live appearances were being put together.

Those plans will become clearer once the album schedule has been fixed.

For now, “Hack the Game” offers the first live indication of where Hacktivist are heading - a modernised sound, familiar parts of the band’s past and an album that could be their heaviest yet.

Watch the full Festpod interview with Hacktivist above.

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