A Late-80s British Thrash Band Recorded Five New Songs Far From Its Brighton Roots
Five songs, tracked at IJland Studios in Amsterdam in spring 2025, carry a sound that started in Brighton in 1987. Hydra Vein released Perpetual Violence Machine on 10 October 2025 as a CD EP through Berlin label Iron Shield Records. Bassist Damon Maddison, who played on both of the band’s 1980s albums, wrote every song on it.
Hydra Vein’s title track is in the playlist below, and the band’s coverage history sits on the Hydra Vein profile. Perpetual Violence Machine reached this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Put the title track on, then read on for where the band fits in British thrash.
The Late-80s British Thrash Wave Behind Perpetual Violence Machine
British thrash in the late 1980s was a scene of regional bands, small studios and independent labels. In Nottingham, for example, Sabbat released History of a Time to Come on Noise Records in 1988. That debut earned them wider recognition. Meanwhile, on the south coast, Hydra Vein were building a catalogue of their own.
The band formed in Brighton in 1987. Their debut album, Rather Death Than False of Faith, then came out in 1988. The band recorded and mixed it at Blue Fox Studios. Mike Keen sang, Danny Ranger and Stephen Davis played guitar, Nathan Maddison played drums and Damon Maddison played bass. Damon Maddison and Danny Ranger wrote the songs.
After the Dream followed in December 1989 on R.K.T. Records. The band recorded it at Square Dance Studios that September, and the sleeve carried artwork by Dan Seagrave. Once again, Damon Maddison was on bass and shared the writing credits.
Decades later, The Razor’s Edge placed Hydra Vein among the more obscure British thrash bands of the late 1980s. It also called both albums underrated.
The Split and the Return
However, the first run was short. According to The Razor’s Edge, the band had broken up by the turn of 1990. For almost three decades, that looked like the end of the story.
It was not. Hydra Vein came back in 2019 and brought in two new guitarists, a drummer and a new vocalist. That line-up then recorded Unlamented at IJland Studios in Amsterdam in the summer of 2022. By that point the band was based mostly in the Netherlands, as Maximum Volume Music reported at the time.
The Razor’s Edge heard a dual guitar tone on that record. A traditional thrash attack was undercut by a higher, piercing tone. That tone set the band apart from other thrash releases that year. The same review also described a raw, lightly produced record. It sounded old school without leaning on the past as a crutch. Three years later, the band went back to the same Amsterdam studio to record the new EP.
Where Hydra Vein Fit Now, From a Berlin Label to Sabbat and Evile
How Perpetual Violence Machine Was Recorded
Ross Curry handles guitar and vocals on the EP, with Henry Pol on guitar. Damon Maddison plays bass and John den Buitelaar plays drums. Tim Visser engineered the sessions at IJland and produced them with the band. After that, Pete Maher mastered the EP at Topfloor Productions in London in June 2025.
The label fits the band. Iron Shield Records calls itself a label for old-school and traditional metal fans. It deals mostly in heavy, speed and thrash, with nothing modern or trendy. Its release news welcomed Hydra Vein back as an old legend with a statement of British thrash. The EP went out as a CD pressing alongside the digital release.
What Perpetual Violence Machine Is About
Above all, the lyrics stay in the real world, and none of them look away. The title track treats violence as a machine that people bow down to. It is a cycle passed from fathers to sons, until the sons pick up the gun. Next, Iron Men turns on false saviours and a public kept divided.
Similarly, Black Slammer follows a migrant heading north beyond the reach of the cartels. The journey ends in a dark, packed trailer in the desert heat. Strive For Life tells the story of someone fleeing religious persecution. As a last chance of escape, they climb into the wheel bay of a departing plane. Finally, A Thousand Forms of Fear closes the EP in the small hours. Its narrator lies awake with night horrors of their own making.
In fact, early listeners already have a favourite. On Bandcamp, both supporters who left notes named Black Slammer as their favourite track. One wrote that the choruses and hooks were still in their head days later.
The Acts Around Them
Sabbat are the closest first-wave reference point. Their debut came out in the same year as Rather Death Than False of Faith. Both bands came from a British scene that worked outside the major labels.
By contrast, Evile mark the second wave. The Huddersfield band formed in 2004 and released Enter the Grave on Earache Records in 2007. That record was part of the thrash revival of the late 2000s.
Hydra Vein sit between the two. They come from the original late-80s scene. Yet they are still recording new songs more than three decades after their first albums. So this EP suits listeners who want the British side of thrash history in a new recording. It also suits anyone who found the genre through the revival bands.
RockRevival.News curator team: “Perpetual Violence Machine belongs on a revival desk because it joins two eras of British thrash. A band from the late-80s wave is still writing. These five songs take on people smuggling, persecution and inherited violence.”
Stream Perpetual Violence Machine on Spotify or watch the full EP on YouTube. You can also buy it on Bandcamp or play it in the Bandcamp player.
Follow Hydra Vein on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Amazon Music, SoundCloud, Instagram and Facebook, or join the band’s Discord.
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