It must be contagious. After the outstanding record of Legion of the Damned, another almost 20 year old Dutch thrash band hits the jackpot. Ever since their second release 'Dream Deceiver' I have been checking out all their albums and until this one I liked 'Dream Deceiver' the most. Their first one 'The Feast Begins at Dawn' did not have bad songs, but the production was very below average.

After the second album the band split up. At that moment their third one 'Kill Division' was already recorded. Eventually the record came out in 1999. Dead Head started doing shows again and after the compilation album 'Come To Salem' they recorded their fourth called 'Haatland'. On all the other albums Tom van Dijk did the vocals. On this one however the vocals are done by new vocalist Ralph de Boer, who also happens to sing for a band called Sidius. During the recording Tom left the band having done some vocal parts already, but the band decided to rerecord all the vocals again with the new guy.

If one doesn't know, and does not listen very concentrated, you might not even notice that there is a new vocalist. Ralph has a same kind of sound as Tom, sounding like a very aggressive Mille. The music is as we could have expected from Dead Head. Fast, thrashy songs with very fast drum patterns and angry aggressive screaming vocals. In my opinion they have musically returned even more to their roots. Most of the songs are very fast, just like they were on their first album, the songs are a bit more technical and of course this one has a much better production.

Fans of Dead Head and the thrash fan in general can buy this one blindfolded. Their style is still a faster and more aggressive version of Kreator with pieces of Slayer and Dark Angel. A song like "Murder" could have been a stolen track of Slayers 'Show No Mercy' album. This band deserves to take advantage of the popularity of thrash at the moment. Finally I must confess that I have never listened to a better love-song with a greater title than "Daemonique".