Faster Than Death

01. Drill Into The Brain02. Armageddon03. Drowned Bodies04. Faster Than Death05. Psychiatric Ward06. Relentless07. Revenant08. Warlord’s Command09. World’s EndWhen it comes to unsung heroes of heavy metal history, few have more impressive, old-school credentials than Katon W. de Pena. Frontman with HIRAX since 1984, and in several less celebrated bands before that, he spent his early musical years playing shows with fellow Californians METALLICA, SLAYER and EXODUS, and was a noted, if not widely acknowledged principal player in the early thrash scene. 40 years later, HIRAX are obviously not a household name, but their glorious leader is anything but a quitter. Diehard to the bone and defiantly tethered to the underground, de Pena’s band re-emerge every few years to remind everyone what blistering, unreconstructed crossover thrash sounds like. “Faster Than Death” arrives an alarming 11 years after its predecessor, 2014’s “Immortal Legacy”, but any doubts about the veracity and viciousness of its contents are swiftly dealt with. HIRAX have never been in the business of changing course, and this hilariously brief thrash metal skirmish might as well be a direct follow-up to 1986’s “Hate, Fear and Power” for all the progress and evolution on display. This, incidentally, is exactly how old-school thrash fans like it.Blink and you’ll miss it. “Faster Than Death” is a 22-minute thrashing that only lets up when it’s done. Nearly every song is delivered at lightning speed, and the gravel-coated, grimy production is brutal and raw in all the best ways. HIRAX were never subtle, because subtlety is for posers. But songs like the rabid and violent “Drill Into The Brain” and the max-velocity title track are not designed for a sophisticated audience. Instead, this album exists purely for the diehards, the Paul Baloff acolytes and the beer-sodden, denim-clad miscreants that have kept thrash alive for more than four decades. Led by de Pena’s perpetually indignant yelp, songs like “Psychiatric Ward” and “Drowned Bodies” explode into life, smash up the furniture, and then depart with a raised middle finger and a howl of tinnitus. HIRAX are not just concerned with speed, as confirmed by the monstrous, (relatively) mid-paced riffs in “Revenant” and “Armageddon”, but “Faster Than Death” is an exercise in uncontrolled exhilaration nonetheless.Too fast, too furious. HIRAX were never cut out for mainstream success, but the white-knuckle insanity of de Pena’s myopic vision continues to be the stuff of legend. This slays. Wear a seatbelt.