Imagine doing something aggressive and violent, quitting one day, and then picking up that activity again 30 years later. What are the chances you will be anywhere near where you were in your prime years? Not very likely, but music is kind of a different sort of physical. Most bands aren’t fucking Deadguy.

Three full decades after releasing their debut (and until recently only) full-length record “Fixation on a Co-Worker,” they have returned to doing what they do best with “Near-Death Travel Services,” an absolute beast of an album that is worth the lengthy wait. It’s seriously as savage as how they sounded in the ’90s before their dissolution, as the band—vocalist Tim Singer, guitarists Chris “Crispy” Corvino and Keith Huckins, bassist Jimmy Baglino, drummer Dave Rosenberg—delivers absolute punishment. The acerbic wit remains intact, only with these guys having three decades of real-world life experience and parenthood under their belts, giving their rage a different focus. It’s a triumph of an album, and it beats your ass from front to back with the power of a band half their age.

“Kill Fee” tears open, Singer howling, “We are the freaks, and we dare to believe there’s a place for us in this world.” Like 10 seconds in, and we’re already flattened. The playing chugs and smashes with a ferocity they apparently never lost, smoking and battering to the end. “Barn Burner” changes things up a bit, but it’s still nasty, thrashing as Singer commands, “I don’t hate you, I just feel better when you’re not around.” The verses blaze by, giving off humidity and steam, Singer later jabbing, “I’ve been thinking that I’ve been drinking too much of my own Kool Aid,” as noise scrapes out. “New Best Friend” has the drums driving, the guitars encircling, battering with a blinding force. Yelled vocals bruise as metallic riffs cut through steel, adding pressure to a mangling finish. “Cheap Trick” attacks, the verses mauling, a breakdown swelling and feeling like you’re about to be trampled alive. “Are we sober? Are we clean? Are we just stuck?” Singer posits as the final moments leave their marks. “The Forever People” is throaty and fast, Singer’s rants smashing with the chaos, the playing going uncorked. “We’re selling tickets to the end of time,” Singer wails, tongue deep in cheek, as the wrenching power goes to work, hammering artificial barriers. 

“War With Strangers” has the bass trucking, riffs rupturing, and a more slow-driving pace pushing your face into the dirt. Again, Singer is the unhinged narrator, yelling, “But this is not my war, feels like we’re being manipulated.” Guitars take off, injecting more ferocity into the mix, swaggering and powering off. “Knife Sharpener” waylays, howls smashing, guitars tangling, and a violent pace destroying as the thing goes by in a flash. “The Alarmist” has guitars strangling, Singer charging, “Don’t want to be this again, that’s my own blood I’ve been hiding, that’s my own blood that I’m denying.” The pace halts as guitars tease, eventually attacking again and sending everything spiraling and burning away into dust. “The Long Search for Perfect Timing” starts ominously, dark riffs crawling, a dizzying display that plays games with your psyche. The vocals hammer as the leads drip and snarl, choking you with the fumes from a tire fire. “All Stick & No Carrot” wastes little time getting going, the vocals pasting, sounds smearing and adding a level of purposeful confusion. “Do you think there’s a winner? Do you think it’s you?” Singer questions, the playing tangling and melting away. Closer “Wax Princess” is fast and sudden, Singer howling, “They build you a cage and they call it a kingdom, they step on your neck and call it freedom.” The pace blackens and contorts, wrestling you to the ground, punishing as a detached computer voice blurs its reality with ours, bleeding out, back in, and into the void forever.

Deadguy’s return is long overdue, and “Near-Death Travel Services” not only is a breath of fresh air in the middle of a hellacious 2025, but it also offers a metallic fist forward. Yes, these guys are returning to more bad societal and political times like they faced during their initial run, and while their perspectives as people may have changed, the enemy really hasn’t. This a fucking bulldozer of a record, an album that not only declares Deadguy has returned but torches every fiber of your being from first second to the last. 

For more on the band, go here: https://deadguy666.bandcamp.com/

To buy the album, go here: https://www.relapse.com/pages/deadguy-near-death-travel-services

For more on the label, go here: https://www.relapse.com/