Thirty years ago, New Brunswick, New Jersey’s Deadguy released Fixation on Coworker, an album that helped define the genre we now call metalcore. Its heavy, aggressive guitar sound pushed it into more of a metallic direction, while the Rollins-in-Black-Flag-like bark of Chris Corvino’s vocals rooted it in hardcore. Yet that’s not the basis of the sound on their long-awaited return, Near-Death Travel Services, their first album in three decades. But that’s OK—this album sounds even better than the nostalgia that their mythic debut might conjure.

Thanks to 2025 production values, Deadguy’s guitars on Near-Death Travel Services now comprise a wall of sound, less processed and with the feel of just plugging directly into their amps, which are then cranked up to what sounds like stage-level volumes. Corvino’s vocals have retained their commanding Henry Rollins-like yell, in-your-face and with a confrontational tone. Yet one of the album’s strengths is the darker, more ominous direction they take on songs like “Cheap Trick,” which do not find them slowing with age, though drummer Dave Rosenberg is smart enough to ebb and flow with grooves rather than hammering you into a numbed submission.

Though Near-Death Travel Services is mostly a hardcore album at heart, there are a few flourishes of metallic moments like the Slayer-inspired riffs in “The Long Search for Perfect Timing” that keep things varied. Rosenberg’s drumming is bombastic enough to provide more of a traditional metal feel to songs like “All Stick No Carrot,” which will give fans of their older work something to headbang to without diverting from the mission statement at hand. “Wax Princesses” starts with a noise rock vibe before growing heavier, showing younger generations of bands what the fuck is up when it comes to blending genres for a more versatile kind of sonic confrontation.

Rarely does a band come back after decades apart to have grown even stronger than how we remembered them, but remarkably, that’s what happened here. Feel free to play both of Deadguy’s albums back to back as a comparison—they are different beasts from different times. And though bleak hardcore anger runs through both, the group have managed to approach this follow-up from a wiser perspective without compromising the energy that typically makes hardcore a younger man’s game. Deadguy deliver a masterclass in hardcore, 30 years after helping to redefine it.

Label: Relapse

Year: 2025

Similar Albums:

Note: When you buy something through our affiliate links, Treble receives a commission. All albums we cover are chosen by our editors and contributors.