HIRAX Hard At Work On 'El Rostro de la Muerte'

Following last year's release of HIRAX's highly acclaimed EP "Assassins Of War", the Long Beach thrashers have recorded six new songs with producer John Haddad for their upcoming album, "El Rostro de la Muerte". This will be the band's first full-length since the 2004 release "The New Age Of Terror". The album will also include re-recordings of classic HIRAX tracks "Broken Neck" and "Blind Faith" as well as the bonus track "Chaos And Brutality" from the European EP released last year.

"Some of the song titles are inspired by the religious fanatics in the United States and the hypocrisy surrounding church and state," said HIRAX vocalist Katon W. De Pena. "There are tracks which deal with morals of mankind, and there is a bit of war influence; naturally, because there is so much of it still going on all over the world. There are a lot of dark subjects on this new album as well, which reflects the overall concept of the music. The title of the album is 'El Rostro de la Muerte', which in Spanish means 'The Face of Death.' I have no doubt in my mind that this will be our heaviest and most intense record to date!!"

HIRAX is in the process of writing of five more songs that will be recorded after their return from an appearance at the Long Live Metal festival in France on May 10. "El Rostro de la Muerte" is expected to be released in August 2008 on Black Devil Records and Deep Six Records.

"It has been a great writing process so far, but a lot of hard work," said De Pena. "Steve, Fabricio and I are very involved in the overall process of compiling and putting the songs together. The guitarists Lance and Glenn have been writing a LOT of riffs for us to choose from. We are only keeping the best and throwing out anything that just does not fit in with what we are trying to create musically. We are being very picky because we want the album to be the best that it can be. "

Coinciding with the full-length release, HIRAX will expand the resurging thrash metal brotherhood by collaborating on three split seven-inches Sweden's F.K.U., CRUCIFER from Greece and the Malaysian crossover maniacs SARJAN HASSAN. The three HIRAX tracks will be "Satan's Fall", "Baptized By Fire" and "Death Militia", respectively. All three seven-inches will be released on Black Devil Records.

Also, slated for a summer release is "Thrash And Destroy", HIRAX's first live album. "Thrash And Destroy" will feature the band's entire 75-minute performance at the Keep It True Festival IX on November 3, 2007, in Dittigheim, Germany. It will be released on Black Devil Records and Deep Six Records in a double vinyl with gatefold cover version as well as CD and DVD formats.

"We had a killer time at Keep It True and once we had heard the master tapes from our set, we knew we had to make an interesting and collectable release out of it," said De Pena. The difference between early live albums and today's live albums is that most of them are released as DVDs. We wanted to mix a bit of the new with a bit of the old, so that's why we are releasing 'Thrash and Destroy' as a double vinyl 12" record as well as CD and DVD format. Back in the early '80s, a lot of heavy metal bands like VENOM, IRON MAIDEN, MOTRHEAD, and SAXON - released live albums so we're continuing the tradition. We are proud of our live concerts and now that we have a professional LIVE recording that has been put together and packaged correctly, the timing is right for this HIRAX LIVE album!"

The artist for the cover of "Thrash And Destroy" will be Bill Hauser, who has worked with OZZY OSBOURNE, GORILLA BISCUITS, BRODY'S MILITIA, and TOXIC HOLOCAUST.

Fan-filmed video footage of HIRAX performing the song "Hostile Territory" on November 3, 2007 at the Keep It True IX festival in Dittigheim, Germany can be viewed below.