Review by Dominik on October 11, 2025.

Thanks God I am not suffering from any classic case of addiction. I am neither an alcoholic nor a drug abuser. From what I've read, though, all addictions share one cruel trick: you can stop drinking, stop smoking, stop using — but the moment your weak self gives in to "just one more" and throws all good intentions overboard, you're right back where you started. Writing this, I realize I haven't been entirely honest. I do have a major addiction: metal. And, as it turns out, the inherent mechanism is exactly the same. I can go months without a real speed metal fix, but the moment an album like Seax's "Speed Inferno" crosses my path, it's 1985 again, and it was like the early Helloween, Agent Steel and Exciter records had never left my turntable. One riff in and suddenly I'm 16 again, nearly broke, and pissing off my neighbors.

The moment the first notes leave your speaker, you are teleported back in time. The release's title is program – a rare case of truth in advertising so to say – with the band having masterfully conserved all necessary ingredients needed to put together a very good speed metal album: melodic yet insanely fast riffs, drumming so precise you suspect a drum machine on amphetamines, shredding solos that tear through the song, and a vocalist who walks the knife-edge between brilliance and self-parody — at times even hitting tones that could make King Diamond blanch and consider early retirement. All of it wrapped in a production that's rough enough to have teeth but clean enough not to sound like a demo, and we've got ourselves a winner. What continues impressing me is that despite being on album number five, Seax still comes across like a gang of overexcited kids who just stole their parents' Judas Priest first pressings and recorded an album in the basement before the cops showed up. You can feel the spontaneity as it's obvious that they prefer to crash through a wall rather than measure the doorframe first. That leads to a few tracks that feel slightly rushed, but most of the time they hit the bullseye dead-on.

But I am getting ahead of myself, so let me start again with a bit more granularity this time. The title track kicks things off exactly as promised: a "Speed Inferno" that doesn't even give you five seconds to breathe before the first shriek shatters the glass in your living room. Gang shouts crash against a falsetto pitch, and the guitars trade off between frantic shredding and surprisingly melodic leads. Everything runs like a well-oiled (and slightly deranged) machine. "Radiation Overload" continues in the same vein but dials the speed down by maybe a single BPM (think "barely slower car crash"), giving the imploring vocals even more room to flirt with total hysteria, but staying just on the right side of sane. It also reminds you why speed metal always had a reputation as thrash's "more civilized" brother: it's got this melodic undercurrent and sugarcoating to lure in people who normally flinch at abrasive noise. It is adequately brutal to scare your boss, but at the same time tuneful enough that your mom might tap her foot before she confiscates your stereo.

Not every track lands with the same force. "New World Crucifixion" and "Keepers Of The Blade" carry that slightly rushed vibe, like the band was so eager to kick our teeth in they forgot to lace their boots first. But even then the choruses stick, especially the former's buildup, and you find yourself humming while sweeping up the broken glass. "Return To The Steel" is a bit of a trickster: its first ninety seconds rip through your speakers like an instrumental speed-metal overture before morphing into another fully-fledged banger. Gang shouts versus high-pitched screams, and dueling guitars that sound like they're fighting over custody of the melody and shredding. A perfect example of how Seax manages to sound retro and modern at once.

Finally, "Heading For A Road Rash" closes the album with a wink and a bruise. It's fast, fun, and shamelessly nostalgic. I'd better not getting too poetic about "the good old days" or I'll start sounding like my own grandfather, but "Speed Inferno" does what only the best speed metal can: it makes you feel like the past never really left. By the time it's over, you're both exhilarated and slightly concussed, wondering if you should maybe listen to some ambient jazz to come down (you won't). It also made me promise myself to dig deeper into the current speed-metal scene, as I obviously missed some of the talent around.

Rating: 8.3 out of 100, because it makes me feel being an adolescent again, even if my spine reminds me I'm not.