DEAD HEAT

Thrash metal's new breed are flourishing. Buoyed by the fact that of all metal's many subgenres and stylistic developments, thrash is still the last word in crowd incitement and chaos causation, younger generations of diehard metalheads have grabbed the baton from the old school and used it to beat today's mosh-pit participants into a euphoric stupor. The headlines may have been taken by the likes of POWER TRIP and ENFORCED in recent times, but there is always room for more, and California's DEAD HEAT are shaping up to be the next best way to incur damaged neck muscles and broken bones. Raw, aggressive and primitive, their sound has authenticity in vast supplies, but also the demented energy that typified many of the genre's early classics. If you enjoyed the sound of MEGADETH channeling all the fury in the world into "Killing Is My Business…" 40 years ago, "Process Of Elimination" is guaranteed to get the adrenalin flowing in a similar way. This is pure fucking thrash metal, aimed directly at your face.

The signs were definitely there for all to hear on the first two DEAD HEAT records, the independently released "Certain Death" (2019) and 2021's "World At War". Both had the speed, the intensity and the songs to ensure that this band would be fast-tracked to greater things. All of that potential and promise has come to fruition here on their third full-length effort. "Process Of Elimination" is a very complete and well-conceived piece of work, with intros, interludes, curious codas and a general air of bug-eyed militancy that should resonate with any bona fide fan of this stuff. More importantly, these songs absolutely rip. "Perpetual Punishment" is an opener to savor; a white-knuckle thrash explosion that hammers its creators' prowess home with the kind of gusto normally reserved for military attacks. The production is avowedly meaty and murderous, but also reassuringly stripped-to-the-bone and devoid of needless salutes to modernity.

DEAD HEAT play everything with venom, which ensures that their songs hit the target with real, live energy and a degree of mad-eyed snottiness that frequently takes the breath away. With its canny tempo shifts, gang vocals and blizzard of divebombing solos, "Annihilation Nation" is the red-blooded rush of pure thrash encapsulated and upgraded. "Hidebound" is simply berserk: a hair-raising blast of speed and spite, with vocalist Chris Ramos giving his throat a brutal workout against riffs that are too wild to be pinned down to tiresome Pro-Tools perfection. "Enemy"'s morbid rumble puts classic thrash tropes through DEAD HEAT's whirling tree-shredder and rebuilds them as a new monolith to the genre's exhilarating spirit. Similarly, "DH Stomp" is a sub-two-minute scorcher that would be the perfect opening salvo at any live show. It is followed by "Solace Denied"; an evil thrash ambush with darkness in its soul and crowd-surfer boot-prints on its forehead. Meanwhile, the title track is glorious. A slow-burning anthem for the terminally disenfranchised, it slams and scythes with old-school power, before erupting with speedy punk belligerence, culminating with a barbarous, monolithic coda for the ages.

DEAD HEAT are impressively adept at reanimating the tried and tested and their songwriting has real bite and brio. "Process Of Elimination" does everything that a great thrash album should do, and it does it all with a serial killer's smile and no quarter given to compromise. Play it loud and try not to smash up your house. Or don't try. Either works.