West Coast crossover thrashers Dead Heat are bringing the chaos right to your stupid face. The band will unleash their new full-length Process of Elimination on October 10 via their new label home, Metal Blade Records, marking a ferocious next chapter after their highly praised 2023 EP Endless Torment.
Musically, the record pushes their hybrid of hardcore grit and classic thrash even further into metallic territory. “I feel like unconsciously the music has become more complex with the songwriting and how we play live as well,” said Dead Heat guitarist Justin Ton. “We all naturally wanted to become better musicians and it shows in our music and live presence… I’d say we intentionally leaned more and more metal in our sound.”
Ton and lead guitarist Ricky Garcia pull from a deep well of influences — Slayer, Sepultura, Kreator, Megadeth, and Pantera — while adding their own hardcore roots into the mix. “I drew a lot from Dark Angel and Demolition Hammer while sticking to my hardcore tendencies with Leeway and Cro-Mags influences,” Ton noted.
When the band test-drove new songs on tour with Cavalera Conspiracy, the reaction was instant: circle pits and chaos. That’s exactly what they were aiming for. “Everything from the riffs to the song structures and even adding in more thought-out electronic interludes help break the pacing from the sonic assault of the guitars,” said Ton.
Lyrically, vocalist Chris Ramos took a more deliberate approach. “I wanted to touch on a bit of everything, with every song about a different topic,” he explains. Ton adds that the band’s ethos is firmly anti-racist and anti-corporate greed: “Most of the band is of immigrant descent. We also seek for the world to stop supporting these corporate/political monsters that only seek out personal gain and nothing else.”
The first single, “Perpetual Punishment”, sets the tone for Process of Elimination. Opening with clean guitar before detonating into hardcore thrash, it’s as unrelenting as it is urgent. “The song is about not wasting your time in life because tomorrow simply isn’t promised,” Ramos says. “If there’s something you want to do with your life, do it now… don’t waste your existence thinking about all the things you could have done.”
Pre-orders for Process of Elimination are available here.
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