Pasadena Napalm Division

When done right, it's so acidic it could melt steel. Pasadena Napalm Division wields that fire on its self-titled debut album. Among the Texas group's grizzled and gritty ranks are genre vets Kurt Brecht [vocals] of the legendary D.R.I. (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles), Greg Martin [guitar], Scott Sevall [guitar], and Ronnie Guyote [drums] of Dead Horse, and Bubba [bass]. They're a formidable bunch of badasses who know their way around a blast beat and a punk-i-fied speed metal riff. Once this bomb drops, everything else will go up in flames.

In 2011, the initial charges were planted for Pasadena Napalm Division to explode. When Dead Horse took a break, Martin, Sevall, and Guyote approached Brecht about jamming together. Under the name of Crud Cutter, they played their first show. Soon after, they cut a demo as Pasadena Napalm Division and began raising a whole lot of hell at local venues around Houston. In the process, they yielded what Brecht appropriately refers to as a "natural" sound.

The band name and accompanying over-the-top graphic novel-style imagery also do the music justice. "During the Vietnam War, Dow Chemical made napalm at their division in Pasadena, TX," the singer explains. "For those of you who don't know, napalm is jellied gasoline for dropping in bombs. It fit with what we wanted to do sonically."

Ultimately, this isn't just a new beginning for the members of Pasadena Napalm Division; it's a new dawn for thrash as a whole. "We fill a certain niche," concludes Brecht. "Nobody is going to mistake us for some other band."