apanthropy

Heads for the Dead
Never Ending Night of Terror
Pulverised Records
To Be Released: 10/10/25

Rating: 85/100

“Never Ending Night of Terror isn’t simply a ‘death metal’ album. There is a very heavy cinematic quality to the structure and execution of the music. It stands out on its own merits simply by being a riff-forward record that is loaded with sonic ambience and dense horror-focused atmosphere, to a very acute and extreme degree.”

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1 – The Vastness of Time
2 – Death Mask
3 – Phantasmagoria
4 – In Disgust We Trust
5 – Never Ending Night of Terror
6 – Give Me Life
7 – The Harvester
8 – The Shape of Light Bleeds Black
9 – To the Very Last
10 – Witchkrieg (Goblin Tribute)
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International horror-themed death metal act Heads for the Dead have been active since 2017, releasing three full-lengths and two EPs. Striking first was Serpent’s Curse in 2018, with Into the Red arriving in 2020 and III: The Great Conjuration in 2022. Now, looming on the dead horizon, the band is ready to deliver their fourth full-length album, entitled Never Ending Night of Terror, due out October 10th through Pulverised Records. The band features members from Sweden, Germany, The United Kingdom, and America, with members also performing in acts such as Rotpit, Ribspreader, and Sentient Horror. Featuring ten new songs at a little over 40 minutes of music, Heads for the Dead deliver high-energy modern death metal with an indulgent dose of horror and gore, to a near cinematic level thanks to the incorporation of keyboards and synth work.

The first lurching death anthem is ‘The Vastness of Time,’ which immediately hammer strikes the listener with a barrage of high-speed drumming and constant twisted framework of harrowing riffs, laden with groove and melodic tendencies. Keyboard accents add a soundtrack-like element to the overall composition, a tasteful addition that adds great depth of character and atmosphere. Changes and transitions are neck-snapping breaks into groove-heavy musical phrases, interlinking with one another, creating a consistent, straightforward track. A ripping solo merges with screaming keyboards and chunky guitars, creating a veritable flurry of sound.

‘Death Mask’ gives a subtle nod to the Friday the 13th series and proceeds to batter the listener with a grinding and blasting verse section that feeds into a slower, nasty sounding chord sequence packed with palm-muted accents in the chorus. Keyboards wail above cyclical musical phrases, invoking a doom-laden atmosphere. The middle of song features another blazing solo, merging with tight rhythm work and subtle keyboards.

The band has plenty of capacity to swap groove with pure blasting fury on tracks such as ‘In Disgust We Trust,’ creating a horror-swamped burst of sonic destruction that rings back to the mid-1990s death metal scene. Showing even more depth, the band vastly slows things down and introduces beautiful clean guitar playing on the title track, a near seven-minute monstrosity of crushing riff craft, razor-sharp leads, and throwback retro keyboards. The cinematic quality of the music is perhaps most prevalent on the title track, with its reduced tempo allowing more room for expansive writing.

‘To the Very Last’ is a zombie-themed epic of pulverizing rhythm-centric riffing, the use of contrast, going from crushing cyclical riffing to airy, progressive leads and keyboards, adds such a layer of power to the overall delivery. Death metal with an epic, cinematic quality focusing purely on zombie horror sounds like nothing out of the ordinary, but the delivery and execution here is something that truly stands out as something that is a genuine byproduct of the horror genre.

Terminating the record is the excellent closer ‘Witchkrieg (Goblin Tribute),’ which is packed with loads of awesome throwback synth work and death thrashing composition. The keyboard arpeggio work flows with such a familiar sensation for someone who grew up with the horror genre of the 1970s and 1980s.

The production on Never Ending Night of Terror is conventional, there is no aspect that comes off as being weak, and the individual presence of each instrument has its own space to occupy. Leads burn bright but are sometimes lost in the dense toxic fog of the band’s own making. There is a great balance in the mix across the board with nothing being overly prevalent and nothing being left out, volume-wise.

Never Ending Night of Terror isn’t simply a ‘death metal’ album. There is a very heavy cinematic quality to the structure and execution of the music. It stands out on its own merits simply by being a riff-forward record that is loaded with sonic ambience and dense horror-focused atmosphere, to a very acute and extreme degree. While bearing some sonic similarities to groups like Entombed, Necrophagia, and Grave, Heads for the Dead’s identity is one that is truly unique. For fans of horror, cinematic brutality, and groove-heavy blasting death metal, Never Ending Night of Terror is a corpse worth robbing.

Label: Pulverised Records
Band: Heads for the Dead

AJK