Reading based hardcore death metal band Paresthesia have been around since the end of 2024 comprising of an idea that a couple of mates had at the University of Reading.

After playing a few local shows around Reading including The Butler & The Purple Turtle they starting diving into the capital, now look where they are!

I first caught them opening last years JoshFest back in November, where they blew the place up! They are a young band that you definitely want to keep an eye on in the scene.

I’ve been speaking to vocalist Brea recently about the band and their debut EP due to release very imminently.

FIRST OF ALL WHERE ARE YOU GUYS BASED & HOW DID YOU ALL MEET?

We are a Reading based band that formed through the University of Reading as we are all students! It began as an idea, jamming and writing sessions at the Uni practice rooms and then we started playing gigs beginning of 2025.

WHAT WAS THE SCENE LIKE WHERE YOU WERE GROWING UP & HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN IT?

The hardcore scene in Reading is pretty good; there’s a lot of good venues around and something going on for everyone whether you like a bit of indie or metal.

There is usually a hardcore show or at least hardcore adjacent show going on either at The Butler or Facebar thanks to some really sick promoters (Shadow Promotions, Repulsed Promotions and Joshfest) it’s cool to see people we know from other parts of the UK come down to these shows but also getting to see lots of new faces.

We also have bands like Detriment putting us on the map (big up Detriment!!!).

THIS MIGHT SOUND LIKE A DUMBASS QUESTION BUT HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE NAME PARESTHESIA?

The name no one is quite sure how to say or spell – Paresthesia.

We knew we wanted some sort of medical term as our name to fit that death metal vibe, but we didn’t want it to be too vulgar. We thought about the sensation of bugs under skin to be funny (super edgy we know), but upon looking at the medical term for it – Formication, we realised it sounded a bit too much like fornication and knew we would never live that down, but that then led us to find the medical term for pins and needles (Paresthesia) which just felt right.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR SOUND TO SOMEBODY WHO HASN’T HEARD YOU BEFORE?

We describe ourselves as hardcore death metal – hardcore with no real restraint on what kind, we have some beat-downy sections and breakdowns, but we also incorporate a bit of fast hardcore as well.

Our death metal influences come from our love of Bolt Thrower, Hatebreed, Obituary etc. to put it simply, imagine if Dying Fetus played slower and liked Arkangel.

WHAT HAS BEEN SOME OF THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES YOU’VE BEEN FACED WITH?

The biggest challenge we probably face since forming would be the fact that we are all busy people, we all are uni students with part time jobs and other bands, so sometimes getting everyone free on the same day can be a challenge but we always make it work cause we all are really committed to this band and where it hopefully will go.

WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR ALL TIME FAVOURITE ARTISTS?

Hard question, we’ve all got a lot of artists we love so we tried to narrow it down to a few each:

Brea: Splitknuckle, Crowbar, Whispers, Bodybag, Bulldoze, Bun Dem Out.

Nathan: Arkangel, Bolt Thrower, Bun Dem Out, Floorpunch, Cryptopsy.

Charlie: Necrophagist, Obscura, Vitalism, Animals as Leaders, Born of Osiris, Guthrie Govan.

Theo: Malevolence, Guilt Trip, Nasty, While She Sleeps, Architects.

Will: Queens of the Stone Age, Muse, Trapped Under Ice, Rifle.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE SHOWS YOU’VE REALLY ENJOYED BEING A PART OF & DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE VENUE?

Collectively we would have to say one of our favourites shows we have ever played would be the Southampton living room show (shout out Daniel Haywood) with Not Without Punishment headlining, it was absolutely ridiculous but so so fun. We also absolutely loved and felt honoured to have opened Josh Fest, an absolute dream for us. (and thank you!)

WHAT WOULD BE YOUR DREAM TOUR TO GET PARESTHESIA ON?

We’ve all got our own answers for this, and let’s emphasize on the word DREAM here too haha;

Brea: Dream tour for me would be to play with some of my favourite bands in Asia, especially in my home country Thailand.

Nathan: Dream tour would definitely be playing America and all the iconic venues from hardcore history especially with our friend’s band.

Charlie: Touring the whole of Canada in a massive tour bus would be a dream come true.

Theo: D.I.Y European tour in the civic. (most realistic one here)

Will: I’d love to do an Asia tour, it’s always nice to visit a place you’ve never been to and immerse yourself in the culture.

WHAT HAS BEEN SOME OF THE CRAZIEST EXPERIENCES YOU’VE HAD TOGETHER?

Honestly, we are always in a situation, we all hang out outside of being a band as well as the fact some of us live together so we have a bunch of stories we could spend hours telling you, we’ll give you a few snippets though.

One would be learning very quickly to NOT play drinking games with people you don’t know can or can’t handle their liquor (RIP our band shirts).

Playing strange but cool venues like a shopping mall, a living room and a hotel basement (we need more!) and honestly on a more wholesome note just going to shows, exploring new places and getting to see some of our favourite bands together is pretty crazy.

HOW HAVE YOU FOUND THE HARDCORE SCENE CHANGE IN RECENT YEARS?

The scene has definitely become more diverse in sound, while there’s still a lot of sick beatdown and metallic bands there’s also a more traditional hardcore and revival sound going on as well.

The scene has also become so much more welcoming to all kinds of people so actively getting to see new faces come to shows and stay so often is brilliant.

HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU THINK FEMALE REPRESENTATION IS IN THE HARDCORE COMMUNITY?

Representation in general is super important to the hardcore scene, its always sick to go and see a band and see people like you on stage but also just watching people be unapologetically themselves and letting their voices be heard – Mashaal is a band I would say is the perfect example of how important representation is and a band you must check out if you haven’t already.

I think female representation (trans incl.) in hardcore is super important cause while it is an open and diverse scene, its still a male dominated space, and I know that some girls feel a bit unsafe or unwelcome at shows because of it – which is why representation is important! Seeing that yeah as a girl u can do exactly what the guys are doing and hey sometimes even better is powerful! My favourite part of this whole music thing is having people come up to me after a show whether it be one I’ve played or I have been at and tell me how they want to get more involved – and the thing is you can!! Some awesome bands that inspire me and you should know by now are impunity, pest control, basement torture killings and sanity slip.

WHO HAS BEEN SOME OF THE LARGEST INFLUENCES IN YOUR SOUND?

A lot of our influences come from the music we listen to individually so it’s a pretty big mixing pot but we would say some of our largest influences would have to be, Hatebreed, Bodybag and Cryptopsy…big fans.

WE CAN’T ALL BE MUSICIANS 24/7 SO WHAT JOBS/CAREERS DO YOU GUYS HAVE?

Other than being full time students, we work very mundane jobs;

Brea: I work in retail and do art commissions.

Nathan: I work at Mcdonalds.

Charlie: I work at Mcdonalds during the Univeristy holidays.

Theo: I work in land and planning for a small housing developer.

Will: I’m a full-time cocktail bartender.

HAVE YOU GOT ANY HOBBIES/INTERESTS THAT YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE WITH THE PEOPLE?

Brea: I do my own art stuff which I sometimes post on Instagram – @eyes.of.abomination, I like watching films and sometimes I play guitar (not very well).

Nathan: I write horror fiction and play Warhammer 40K.

Charlie: Guitar is my main hobby I spend majority of the time doing, but outside of that I enjoy long hikes, parkour and playing Geometry dash.

Theo: Outside drumming, I also like playing guitar and going to the gym.

Will: Aside from bass I like sewing, writing fiction, anything D.I.Y like building things and painting models. I’m a big fan of Rugby and ice hockey and I also love to cook.

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT TO SEE FROM YOUR UPCOMING EP, WHAT ARE YOUR INFLUENCES FOR THESE TRACKS?

Our EP is a 5 track EP including our intro and 4 original songs that we began writing from when way back when the band first started in late 2024 – early 2025, the songs are all quite different in a way but stem from us developing our own sound as a band.

I think our favourite song we have on the EP is probably Surgical Malpractice, lyrically it’s such a stupid song but musically it’s got a bit of everything in it and breakdowns galore.

We’ve got the one and only Luke Walker doing all the important stuff like recording and mixing so big big shout out to him.

HAVE YOU GOT ANY SHOWS COMING UP THAT YOU ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO PLAYING?

We’ve got a few shows we have agreed to play this year (some in the next months actually) that haven’t been announced yet so keep an eye out for them and come say hi.

On top of this we have been announced to play Catastrophie Collective’s first show in Guildford and most recently The Black Heart for Smoke Over London.

We are always eager to play more shows and visit new places so promoters get at us! 

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT TO SEE FROM YOU GUYS IN 2026?

Our EP should be released in the next couple of months so keep an eye out for that, we know we’ve been teasing it for time but we just want to make sure it’s actually listenable and hopefully enjoyable for those interested, in the meantime and moving forward we are hoping to write a bunch of new material that will be a lot more death metal influenced and work on some new covers (no more inflict my will sorry guys).

We are super open and keen to play more shows this year, so promoters hit us up!!! Excited to see new places, new bands and make friends with new people. Much love.

FINALLY, HAVE YOU GOT ANY OTHER ARTISTS/FRIENDS YOU THINK THE PEOPLE SHOULD CHECK OUT?

You should defo check out some of our friends bands – Arbiter, Warden, Big Smoke, Kilfash, Bullet, Dear Diary, Skunkworm, Barbed Wire, Backbone and Skunk.

You can catch Paresthesia across the next few months at multiple shows. Including Hour of Reprisal in The Black Heart Camden, Insurgent at New Cross Inn. Show posters are below and can link you to tickets!

Until next time, I’ll catch you in the pit!

If you’re interested in writing for us or have a show announcement you’d like to be featured on our site please email us by using our ‘Contact Us‘ page! If you are an artist that would like to be featured please give us a message!

Never miss an article we post by signing up to our newsletter below!