Texas thrash metal pioneers GAMMACIDE will release their first new album in more than 35 years, "Toxic Mercenaries," with a CD edition arriving September 11 and a vinyl pressing following October 30, both via NoLifeTilMetal Records. The band has shared the album's lead single, "Overload," alongside a music video.
GAMMACIDE formed in Texas in 1986, founded by guitarist Rick Perry and bassist Eric Roy. The band's self-released 1987 five-song demo circulated widely through underground tape-trading networks and helped establish their reputation within the burgeoning Texas thrash scene. Guitarist Scott Shelby joined in 1988, giving the band its dual-guitar attack. GAMMACIDE recorded its debut album, "Victims Of Science," at Sound Logic Studios in Dallas during the summer of 1989, and the record was released in early 1990 via Wild Rags Records, going on to become one of the label's top-selling titles. The band recorded a follow-up four-song demo in 1991 before disbanding in 1992.
A 2005 reissue of "Victims Of Science" sparked renewed interest in the band, eventually leading to a 20th-anniversary reunion tour. In the years that followed, Perry and Shelby also joined forces with the late RIGOR MORTIS vocalist Bruce Corbitt to form WARBEAST. GAMMACIDE's current chapter began in earnest in 2025, when the band reunited for a performance at Houston's Hell's Heroes festival, followed by East Coast and Mexico tour dates in 2026. New material was recorded in January 2026, culminating in "Toxic Mercenaries."
The eight-track album includes "Overload," "Soldier Of Fear," "Sinkhole," "Expiration Date," "Predator Or Prey," "These Eyes," the title track "Toxic Mercenaries" and "Meet Your Maker." The band's current lineup features vocalist Varnam Ponville alongside founding guitarists Perry and Shelby, bassist Chance Lehman and drummer Joey Gonzalez.
For a band whose entire studio output before now consisted of a single album and two demos, "Toxic Mercenaries" represents a significant milestone — a full-length return more than three and a half decades after GAMMACIDE first emerged from the Dallas underground, arriving at a moment when renewed interest in the era's foundational thrash scenes has brought several of its pioneering acts back into activity.