Here's what the press have said........
Birmingham trio HAQ123 embody the spirit of the home of metal whilst bringing a smile to grim faces
Their name sounds like a computer virus, their music like the creation of the last pure souls left alive. If preteen boys can ever be considered to possess pure souls. Probably not. Either way, Haq123 are a trio from Birmingham who feature Dave Kavanagh, also of psych-rocking rubber mask enthusiasts Evil Blizzard, and Zac and Millie, also of primary school. They set lyrics about Satan and rats and shrink rays and Judas Iscariot to impeccably wrong sludge punk that remains effervescent even when moving at a thudding snail’s pace (‘Judus’ is like the B-side of Black Flag’s My War if Rollins had let his unruly nephew sing, and inserted a reggae sample halfway through), and features groovy sci-fi electronics instead of a guitar. A British, millennial Old Skull, hopefully with a more positive future ahead. Alternatively, to quote Haq123, “THE BLACK DEATH IS BACK… AND IT’S GETTING INTO YOUR BISCUITS.”
The most remarkable thing about Haq123 is not that they consist of two under-12s and one of Evil Blizzard’s bassists. It’s that they’re not a novelty act – quite the opposite, in fact. That the trio hail from Birmingham, the city that gave us both Black Sabbath and the Supersonic festival, is immediately and abundantly evident. Vocalist Millie is unfazed at being without her voice-changing mic for Machines Don’t Bleed and singles out individual members of the audience with an accusatory finger during the brilliant Ugly Baby: “All of the mirrors in your house are cracked – why do you think that is?” Us parents in the crowd are left to wonder why our own offspring aren’t playing noise-metal in busy venues on Friday nights – where did we go wrong?
Raised on the industrial sounds emitted from Brum, this heavy trio have beats, wails and tempo shifts the older touring band would spend years crafting; front woman Millie’s effortless cool and powerful banshee voice, Zac’s wild drum fills and playfulness and Dave’s ability to sit back and compliment the two young stars talents is a warm reminder to us all of what playing in a band should be about.
Supersonic, are you ready to Rock?” Yes bab, yes we are. The atmosphere in Boxxed for today’s first set is pretty electric. Local youngsters HAQ123 are playing their first gig to a pretty full and expectant room. They’re so young two of the band are still at primary school. People have brought their own youngsters down to the show and Supersonic’s generally warm sense of communality has tweaked up a notch or two. They’ve an elderly bass player as well but it’s clearly a classic case of ‘in the band ‘cos they’ve got a van’. They’re brilliant. ‘Sabbath super charged on haribo’ is a fair enough description of their feisty punk doom. The faintest glimmers of any stage fright are soon banished by some foot on the monitors, pointing into the crowd, rock ‘n’ roll shape throwing. Their confidence can only grow and what we might see them bring to this stage in years to come is anyone’s guess but for now they’re huge fun and, as I’m told the youngsters say, they smashed it.
If I could rob the right banks, I would finance a gig or gigs for Haq 123 in the US…
It was the outer limits of their sound which they explore and expand on the brilliant and weird ‘Shrink Ray’ and the epic, crawling ‘Mind Control’. It’s up on bandcamp now, go get it.
Birmingham’s youngest exponents of metal, Haq123 bounced onto the scene a couple of years ago at Supersonic, winning the hearts and minds of the battle hardened and bearded… They’ve already turned out two albums, (the second Heavy Mess came out last spring, a third is already in the works), played on a variety of excellent bills and were apparently knocking ’em dead at Reading’s doubledotbash just the other day. Child’s eye horror and surprising blasts of filthy sludge is what they do well. Here they get the weekend off to a fine start by churning out the pre-teen drone-doom like Kids Kids Kids Kids Kids Kids Kids.
It’s HAQ 123 who bring our first visual treat. Despite two of their members being too young to get into most gigs with their ages combined, they play a sterling set of Sabbathy metal, enlivened by the presence of a fully berobed Death and some sort of rave Kermit. They then announce an official stage-diving section after the set has finished, a revolutionary step forward in gig efficiency only a genius could come up with; these kids will probably be billionaires by the time they’re 35.
Do not take their ages as a reason to think this is a novelty band, take a listen to their music and ask anyone lucky enough to have seen them live, HAQ123 are the real deal.
A power trio of bass, drums and vocals, Haq 123’s music is inspired by Sabbath, punk rock and unadulterated noise. Recently playing at the incredible Supernormal festival this August (run by some of the same team who bring Supersonic to the city every year), vocalist Miller Killer proudly announced to the crowd that ‘a lot more of our friends were supposed to come to this gig, but now they’re all dead’. Miller Killer is ten years old. Drummer Zacattakk is eleven, and they are joined by Dave on bass, who is apparently ‘old enough to know better’. Even if you’re unaware of this fairly unusual age bracket for touring musicians, their recent album Heavy Mess is an absolutely joyful mishmash of electronics, samples and solid riffs.
From Haq123 this is ‘ugly baby’ – a charm defenses down slab of hell spawned scuzzing and scabbing schizoid slow core boogie all at once wayward and wicked that comes flame frosted from extreme shreds of Earache styled sonic shrapnel all butchered, battered and grounded down into a wig flipped skin scorcher that scowls with a take no prisoners discontent.