Five years ago, New Hampshire-based groove-thrash band Death Rattle self-released their debut album, Man's Ruin, which served as a striking introduction to the fist-in-face outfit that channeled the musical styles of their favorite bands into sharp-taloned songs that sunk deep. Back, refreshed and heavier than ever, Death Rattle return with their sophomore full-length album, Volition, set for independent release on October 20th. The album is available for pre-order now via Big Cartel - more pre-order options are coming soon. A new video for “Love And War”, directed by Emvision Productions, is streaming below.

Death Rattle perform thrash with a purpose - music that emphasizes groove and lethal riffage over speed and interchangeable guitar parts. It's a sound bred from the attitude and angst of New England, a region that has faced economic and social strife and frustration time and again. Yet every time it lowers its head and pushes forward, obstacles be damned.
 
"Volition is the act of using free will to accomplish something," says guitarist and main songwriter Ryan VanderWolk. "It's taken a lot of work, but we've been able to overcome a lot of obstacles as a band, so the name has meaning that's very relevant to our experience."
 
With more time to work on and fine-tune the songs on their second album, Death Rattle were able to approach each cut from various musical directions to see what worked best. The band recorded the final tracks appearing on Volition at Brick Hithouse studio in Cape Cod, MA with engineer Sean Fitzpatrick over the course of several months.

Tracklisting:

“Internal Determination”
“Love And War”
“Sentenced To Hell”
“Snake In The Grass”
“Adrenalize”
“Sociopath”
“Order Within Chaos”
“Unfinished Business”
“Doomsday”
“From Blood To Black”

“Love And War” video:

In addition to featuring stronger, more original songs, Volition features a high-energy performance that effectively captures the frenzied excitement of the band's high-impact concerts. "We live for playing live and that's one thing that we spent a lot of time working at as a band," says VanderWolk. "We love bands that bring their albums to the stage and come alive. We've always tried to do that and now we finally have an album that's worthy of our live show."

Death Rattle will support the release of Volition on their upcoming tour supporting The Convalescence, Wings Denied and Shaping The Legacy. Death Rattle will appear on dates running from October 21 in Placerville, CA through November 18 in Englewood, OH. See below for a full list of tour dates featuring Death Rattle.