Chicago thrash veterans Aftermath are seeing out 2025 with a bit of a bang. To mark their 40th anniversary (yes, forty years), they’ve gone back to the archives and dug out a track from the very beginning. The re-recorded version of “Sentenced to Death (They Die You Die)” drops today, New Year’s Eve, alongside a brand-new lyric video via TLG|ZOID and Virgin Music Group.
The song originally appeared on the band’s 1986 demo, having been penned in ’85. Back in the day, it was a rush job – recorded live in one take on two tracks. While the band loved the tune, they weren’t exactly thrilled with the production quality back then. Fast forward to 2025, and the guys decided to do it justice. They’ve re-recorded it with the full lineup live in the studio, capturing that old-school thrash energy but with production values that pack a proper punch.
The band commented on the release:
“It took 39 years to record it the right way, and we are so happy to finally get it the way we always imagined it should be, that we decided to include it on our upcoming album.”
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Speaking of new albums, the lads are currently at Electrowerks Recording finishing off their fourth studio record. Chuck Macak is handling the engineering and mixing duties. According to the band, the new material is “heavy” and “catchy”, though they reckon it sounds totally different from their previous output. We’ll have to wait a few months for the title and tracklist, but it sounds promising.
For those who might need a refresher, Aftermath have had quite the journey. Formed in 1985 by Kyriakos “Charlie” Tsiolis and Steve Sacco, they made waves with their Killing the Future demo before evolving into a more technical progressive thrash outfit. They’ve also got one of the best pub anecdotes in metal history: they famously sued Dr. Dre over the ‘Aftermath’ name in the 90s. The rapper tried to buy the name for $50k, the band told him to jog on, and they ended up getting signed to Interscope as part of the settlement. Not bad for a bunch of thrashers from Chicago.
It’s been a long road since the days of cassette trading, but with No Time to Waste landing in 2023 and a new record on the horizon for 2026, it looks like there’s plenty of life in the old dogs yet.
You can check out the lyric video for “Sentenced to Death (They Die You Die)” below or stream it from the usual sources.
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