San Francisco Bay Area thrash veterans HEATHEN will release their new album, Lifetime In Hell, on February 19, 2027 via Napalm Records. The first single, "Escapegoat", arrives today with an official music video.
Lifetime In Hell is the band's first full-length since 2020's Empire Of The Blind and their first for Napalm, which they joined in February with the reworked "Never A God" (our story). The record was produced by Chris "Zeuss" Harris (MUNICIPAL WASTE, HATEBREED, SHADOWS FALL) at Planet Z, with Jason Bittner handling drums. Former NEVERMORE guitarist Jeff Loomis guests on "Glass House".
Vocalist David White says "Escapegoat" was "a long time in the making" and calls it the first piece of a bigger picture: "Our goal was to make the greatest HEATHEN album to date." He adds that the band spent roughly a year recording whenever schedules allowed after the long Empire Of The Blind touring cycle.
Guitarist Kragen Lum explains that the video deals with the ways people try to escape reality — doom scrolling, binge watching, gaming, drugs and alcohol — and the belief that they can always dodge the consequences. "Until we can't," he says. "We are the 'Escapegoat'."
HEATHEN will take the new material on the road this fall on their final 2026 US run with FORBIDDEN and VOID. In early 2027 they head to Europe on a triple revolving-headliner tour with EXHORDER and Belgium's EVIL INVADERS.
Formed in 1984, HEATHEN became one of the key names of the early Bay Area scene, with Breaking The Silence (1987) and Victims Of Deception (1991) still regarded as West Coast thrash staples.
Lifetime In Hell tracklist:
- One Last Mistake
- Escapegoat
- Glass House (feat. Jeff Loomis)
- Sanity Charade
- Lifetime In Hell
- Goddess Of The Light
- Demons Making Trophies Of Men
- The Bitter End
- Darkness Bleeds
- Respite For The Damned
- Exit Strategy