Ahh, crossover. That glorious, sweat ‘n’ stale beer-drenched alliance unexpectedly created by streetwise hardcore kids who became better musicians and suburbanite headbangers who wanted to add a bit more groove to the rapid-fire riff onslaught of thrash. And when your first album ends with a CRUMBSUCKERS cover, it’s clear you know your history. So let’s see what ya got, DEAD HEAT.
‘Endless Torment’ begins with a keyboard intro that lasts about 40 seconds and is, therefore, 40 seconds too long, but rest assured that once this Oxnard, California four-piece gets going all is forgiven. A more outright thrash attack during the verses while saving the hardcore elements for the chorus is business as usual in a fair amount of crossover, but it serves DEAD HEAT well, the band hitting all the marks, yet without a second of feeling as if they’re ticking boxes on a checklist.
‘Smite Thee’ pushes the bass to the front of the mix, a hardcore tactic, and rumbles forward ala KREATOR circa Coma Of Souls (the album where the Germans had begun to toy with ore varied tempos), while ‘Eyes Of The Real’ stomps like CRO-MAGS or even PRO-PAIN’s first two albums, before Gary Meskill & co. dropped the ball, and hard. Worry not, though, headbangers, for there is plenty herein to cause you to whippeth thine own self about in a pit of thy creation. Perfectly situated on the EP, this’d be my pick of Endless Torment, if pressed.
With some improbably tasty twin-guitar work, ‘Tears Of The Wolf’ is impressive, showing the quartet can get melodic as all Hell when the tune calls for it, and – though the band might shoot me for saying so – ever so slightly recalls PANTERA’s ‘Cemetery Gates’. Endless Torment manages to have something for everyone in the mix without sounding contrived in the least.
Review By: Lord Randall
DEAD HEAT
Endless Torment [EP]
Tankcrimes / Triple-B Records