Dead Heat - Process of Elimination

Label: Metal Blade Records

Release Date: October 10th, 2025

Welcome to Oxnard, California. Welcome to crossover. Dead Heat is a metalheads’ best friend. They return with their 3rd full length album, Process of Elimination — a mighty fierce follow-up to 2021’s World At War. Here is a record with enough stomp to cave in the fuckin’ floor.

World At War was a 10/10, force to be reckoned with. It was a filthy riffin’, two steppin’, stage-diving crossover masterpiece. It did such a fantastic job blending that “murder in the front row” frenzy thrash attack, with the punchiness and infectious groove of hardcore punk. What made it stand out even more for me were hints of classic heavy metal influences like Judas Priest on there, and that warmed my heart like no other.

Dead Heat shed these Priest-isms and dial back some of those punk grooves in exchange for a more streamlined no-nonsense crossover thrash assault for Process of Elimination. While it strips away a portion of the things that made their prior releases feel more personal, this album is laser focused. It is tighter, meaner, and hits you with a “fistful of metal” so fast you won’t have time to pick your teeth up off the ground.

Each song on here deserve as much praise as the next, though I will admit, not many of the chorus’s stick with me as much as I’d like them to. That said, all the tracks still kick ass. Highlights include Enemy, with its hardcore sensibilities, and simple, but effective crowd participation ready and indeed memorable chorus, By My Will, classic and relentless Dead Heat that would fit well just about anywhere in their discography, and the perfect album closer, the pummeling and sharp Hatred Bestowed (featuring modern Melo-Death giants Upon Stone). Let's throw DH Stomp in there too. A instrumental that will indeed have you stomping. 

While Process of Elimination does not reach the same personal highs for me as its predecessor, it doesn’t need to. This is a new, more direct and brutal beast. Dead Heat are not sitting still. They are actively sharpening their blades, and refining their sound, leaving a trail of broken necks behind them.

Crossover lives, Dead Heat is the proof.

Score: 8/10

Links: https://www.instagram.com/deadheat805