Dead Heat – Process of Elimination
Release Date: 10th October 2025
Label: Metal Blade Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Thrash Metal, Crossover Thrash, Hardcore, Punk.
FFO: Power Trip, Doomsday, Enforced, Municipal Waste, Cro-Mags, Demolition Hammer, Dark Angel.
Review By: Rick Farley
Oxnard California’s crossover thrash metal quintet Dead Heat is nothing short of a throat punch, followed by a few knocked out teeth and a side of snarling attitude. On the heels of their enraged lunacy that was World At War released in 2021, these maniacs return with their first record on the mighty Metal Blade Records, Process of Elimination. Bigger production, meaner attitude, and heavier energy, this leans a little more towards the 80s retro side of thrash metal than their previous records. That’s certainly not a bad thing, but it’s an obvious uptick in hopefully gaining a wider audience. The balls to the wall Cro-Mags meets Kreator meets Madball is definitely in effect here, just maybe with a stronger focus on the crunchy serrated riffs of Slayer and Sepultura.
Process of Elimination spits, snorts and contorts itself in every wicked direction with chaotic guitars, hellish leads, crunchy hooks, and fiery intensity. Metallic grooves, mixed with stupidly fast d-beats, keeps the records tempo unpredictable. One minute you’re headbanging along to the tight chunkiness, the next you’re getting hit by a speeding freight train. This makes for an engaging, fun listen that translates so well to the live format. If you like propulsive riffs with your morning cereal, this will bloody your insides with a gritty mouth full of broken glass. Musically the intensity is absolutely numbing, rearing back, and swinging like a maniac full tilt, only briefly taking a respite for you to attempt to breath or duck. Opener Perpetual Punishment comes in with a beautiful acoustic intro that seems at first that it could lead gradually into the track somewhat peacefully, that is until it explodes with a wildly fast pummelling of double bass and ferocious riffs capable of realigning your spine upon impact. Three minutes, thirty seconds of adrenalized hell, only to continue the brutal bashing on Annihilation Nation. Punky, metallic hardcore with gang vocals, a groovy breakdown and nightmare fuelled guitar leads. Chris Ramos’s course, growled raspiness sounds like he’s straining not to vomit throughout the record. It’s a fitting vocal style that enhances the harshness of everything going on recklessly around his voice. Controlled chaos that sounds like it may detonate at any moment. The record does have breathers here and there built within the tracks themselves that break up the monotony of its constant destruction.
Sitting at 36 minutes, Process of Elimination is a good length to absolutely kick your ass heftily while not hanging around too long to get overly tiresome. There’s a good variety of musical flourishes that keeps it all interesting in between the brutal beatings, but it does veer heavily towards persistent abuse. This is the perfect record to put on if you want to expel some energy and not think too hard about anything other than breaking things and moshing your buddies into the dirt. While this is what the kids would say is a banger, for me personally, it does require a certain mood to listen too. With the focus being more thrash revival this time around, this is not a record you haven’t heard before, which is what holds it back from being rated higher. It’s a hell of a fun time listening to it, though. I will say this, while it doesn’t instantly strike a huge nerve for this old reviewer, this is going to make an impact for others. Check this one out, big things coming for Dead Heat.
(3.5 / 5)
