For years now, the Oxnard thrashers Dead Heat have been playing breakneck speed metal for hardcore crowds. They have a complete understanding of how to turn their chosen genre, the crossover thrash of the late ’80s, into music that’ll elicit the maximum physical response possible — when to speed up, when to slow down, when to blaze in with some triumphant guitar shredding, when to drop the absolutely reckless breakdown. On their new EP Endless Torment, you can hear Dead Heat doing all of that at their full capacity.

Endless Torment follows the great 2021 album World At War, and it does all the same things that that record did so beautifully. The EP’s dry, echoing sound captures Dead Heat’s riff-machine intensity, and the band adds little touches, like the ominous acoustic-guitar intro on the closing track “Hard Reset,” that make the heavy parts feel even heavier. This is just extremely fun and satisfying music. We’ve already posted the early tracks “Endless Torment” and “Eyes Of The Real,” and now I would heartily recommend that you stream the full EP below.

The Endless Torment EP is out now on Triple B/Tankcrimes.