Alternative artist Arankai is touring the UK for the first time, and we were lucky enough to be in the room to see the moment.
Hitting the stage first to warm up this packed room are Cambridgeshire alt-metallers HRTLSS. With their upcoming EP The Devil On My Shoulder set for release in just a few weeks, this tour has come at the perfect time to showcase their new music to a new audience. Playing three out of the four tracks from the EP, the room is treated to live debuts, the crowd bopping to the guitar chugs and riffs, and vocalist G’s screams. Filling out their set with some of their older tracks for some OG fans in the room, their new music shines through, giving a taste of what’s to come for HRTLSS.
The room is filled with anticipation ahead of Arankai taking the stage – and what an entrance he makes, booming on to the stage playing his latest single ‘I Hope It Hurts’, making the crowd uncontrollable. With this being his first night of his first UK tour, you never really know how these shows are going to play out. But as Arankai flows through the set, it’s obvious he is putting absolutely everything he has into this. Leading into one of his newer tracks ‘Playing God’, he shares notes from his past, how he prayed for things to get better and that he might not be here today if it weren’t for God, empathising as he says “if you relate to this song, I feel sorry for you.”
The crowd is fully on his side throughout the set, with members of the front row emotional and in tears, pits opening up in the centre of the room, it’s easy to believe you’re witnessing something special. With Arankai sharing “Bands don’t go overseas this early in their career”, and he’s right. The power of social media and an audience believing in him is clear here. A powerful encore sets the room back into a frenzy, with Arankai making his way into the crowd to join the party.
With a set full of brand-new tracks including ‘Choke’, and slightly older tracks such as ‘Dead Throne’ and ‘Contortionist’, it’s truly a packed set for a UK debut – Arankai bares all, and in his words “you’re changing my life”, and we believe it.