Oxnard, CA-based four-piece Dead Heat release their latest effort, the bruising, five-song EP Endless Torment, July 28 via Tankcrimes/Triple B Records. In addition to vocalist Chris Ramos, who kindly answered the following questions via email, the brutal hardcore/thrash crossover band also features guitarist Justin, drummer Yogie, and bassist Vince.
First, for those unfamiliar, how and when did Dead Heat come about? And can you touch on some of the major milestones and highlights you’ve had over the years as a band?
It all kinda started out when our original guitarist, Anthony, hit up Justin about starting a crossover band in the vein of NYHC-meets-Bay Area-thrash. So they linked up and wrote the first song that would be later known as “Dead Heat.” After the initial song and idea was made, he recruited myself and everyone else came right after that. Some of the main highlights over the years of this band we’d have to say have been writing our two LPs (2019’s) Certain Death and (2021’s) World at War, playing the main stage at Hellfest in France; doing our first and second European tour, with the second being on a big bus; playing Japan; and getting to play with some of the best around at the moment.
Was it pretty clear from the beginning the sound and direction you wanted to go for?
Definitely, we were all pretty much on the same page on what we liked when it came to metal and hardcore, so we all knew what would influence us in our writing. We all listened to different stuff as well, so everyone was able to bring their own flavor to the mix.
Oxnard has such a rich music history with some great bands. Were you all born and raised there? What impact do you think your location had on your journey getting into music in the first place (if any)?
Actually, the only one from Oxnard besides our now bass player, Vince, is myself. Everyone else in the band was from a neighboring city but chose Oxnard as our home turf since everyone had lived here for some time besides Justin. I think being from Oxnard, I was able to be exposed to a lot of different music scenes early on, but obviously the biggest to come out was Nardcore, gravitating towards the more aggressive side of punk hardcore, which shaped me and the whole sound into what it is today.
And about the new record, there’s so much power and intensity,; how long were you working on it, writing and recording? What were those processes like?
Well right after we finished recording World at War, Justin started writing more with Vince and our drummer, Yogie, so they had some tracks ready since like 2021. We eventually got busy with touring, so we took a pause from writing, but once things started settling down, we picked it back up and finished writing the EP at the end of 2022 and got into production in 2023.
Our guitarist, Anthony, was making his way out of the band during that time due to personal reasons so our sound started to change up a little. The way we write lately has been influenced a lot by Sepultura and Slayer as well as other more heavy metal bands like King Diamond and Running Wild, so naturally we started to sway to punchier type riffs. As for the recording, it was awesome! We went to Armand Anthony, who plays guitar in a band called Night Demon, and he absolutely crushed it on the recording and helped produce some of the music with us on this.
Has the band’s writing approach changed over the years?
I would say so. We’ve been trying to push ourselves to be more complex and as catchy as we can be. Everyone has been pitching in with the new ideas, so it’s made writing the new stuff a fun challenge that works for us.
What were some of the influences for the lyrics on this new batch of songs?
Some of the lyrics going into this batch of songs were previously written when I was writing World at War so some ideas stuck from that. So essentially you get some songs about people we don’t like and more or less about being the victor in situation(s) and coming out on top. Other influences were personal and came from a passing of life that affected me that I’m sure most can relate to. Then a couple of the other songs are pretty much about how life is not real and that we’re all basically meant to do one thing… die.
You have some dates coming up in June and July. And you played Japan earlier this year. How much touring have you done in the past?
We’ve done some extensive touring in the past and have been doing a lot of weekend or week runs here and there. We haven’t gone on many long tours in the past couple years except for Europe, but we’re hoping to change that and kick it into high gear with this coming release.
Any other possible touring plans in the works for this year that you can discuss?
So far, we got some one-off shows in other states coming up within the next couple months, so we’re gonna be doing some touring around those places. Hopefully you will be seeing more (as) things pop up after this next coming month.
And what can people expect when they see you play live?
If you’ve ever seen us before, you’ll know what to expect. Except now, we’re trying to ante-up the game and play ball in a whole new field. Definitely going to be playing more of the new EP throughout the year with a mix of a lot of our older tracks we haven’t played in years as well. Gonna be coming out strong this year. Same beast, different animal.
If there is anything else you would like to add, please feel free to do so here.
No other words besides never forget to say goodbye to the people you love and always tip your waitresses.
You can order Endless Torment from Triple B Records. Tankcrimes has a special variant of the vinyl. Follow Dead Heat on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for more updates.
Image courtesy of Cezar Salas Olvera
