Heads For The Dead – Slash n Roll (EP Review)


So I had the pleasure of reviewing this band’s last album for this very website only but a few months ago and I urge you to take a look at that review. There I go more into the band and its members. Here I just want to talk about the music and their latest EP Slash n Roll, here this multinational outfit of horror film-related horror-influenced death metal nuts has produced something very special.

We get 3 original compositions and 2 very interesting covers, A lifelong fan of Horror movies myself and already having experienced this band before and loving it. I was very excited to get my grubby hands on a copy of this EP. It opens with Maniac now guys if you have not seen the original movie with Joe Spinell and Special Effects by the legend that is Tom Salvini unless you have a cast-iron stomach and can switch off that part of your brain that says run don’t try it. Instead, listen to Head’s summation of the movie. It may not come close to the stomach-churning scalping’s that litter said movie but it does have that brutal sense of nihilism that pervades that one sick flick.

We then head (pardon the pun) into track 2 Halloween and with the genius that John Carpenter is a filmmaker he is equally gifted with soundtrack production. The band takes the stark psychosis of the 1978 movie signature-opening blade-like stabs of butcher knife piano and blends a new dimension of Death metal with one of the catchiest phrases you will hear in a long time. For me, this was the highlight of the EP Rounding out the horror movie related tracks that are self-penned is by far my favorite John Carpenter movie and the single greatest Special effects movie of all time. You guessed it THE THINGA movie so glorious in its splashy gore-drenched DISREGARD FOR THE AUDIENCE that to make a song that compliments Rob Bottin’s Awe-inspiring monster transformations would be very difficult. The verdict is in and like the snowy tundra, with its bleak soul-crushing paranoia and desolate wastes this atonal nightmare is the perfect accompaniment for a cosmic horror such as this.

Onto the 2 covers on this very value-added EP first The Misfits Skulls very few bands married horror and heavy as well as The Misfits.  And so in reverence, the lads are not trying to change anything all they are doing is turning the heavy to 11 and grating the vocals more. So really nothing I would say is special if the EP had ended at The Thing I would have been very happy. This is not to say I did not enjoy this, as it’s a favorite of mine I just don’t think it fits and feels like filler.

Lastly, we are treated to The Ramones Pet Cemetery this on the other hand sits cheek by Jowl with the first 3 tracks. Again nothing groundbreaking with this one, It just feels right to be here so all in all this EP is a blood-drenched moment of horror fandom and debauched viscera-soaked mayhem.

So when it’s dark and the noises in your house are not you and you know your alone just think it could be Heads For The Dead SO WATCH OUT.

I give this 4 out of 5 Skulls n blood

 Heads For The Dead: Facebook

Release Year: 2021
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Category: EP
Country: International

Reviewed by Tony Evans