Time To Kill Records has landed one of the underground’s most durable thrash institutions, officially bringing Whiplash into the fold. The New Jersey lifers, fronted by longtime frontman Tony Portaro, have spent over four decades grinding it out in thrash’s trenches, and the new deal puts a proper spotlight on a band that’s rarely gotten the shine to match its staying power.
The signing comes bundled with a release date: Whiplash‘s new album, Roar, arrives November 27, 2026. The record was tracked at Studio Mozart and Concrete Island Studio, with Portaro himself behind the boards as producer and Jamie King Audio handling the mix. Ten tracks deep, the album is built to replicate the chaos of a Whiplash set — sweaty, direct and unconcerned with anything resembling restraint.
Cuts like “Sonic Asylum,” “Bullet Train” and “Who Stole My Whiskey” aren’t chasing streaming playlists — they’re built for bodies colliding in a pit. Roar leans into exactly what’s kept Whiplash relevant since the Reagan era: riffs first, hooks second, trends never.
The album actually has a bit of a backstory. A limited batch of CDs quietly circulated under the working title Thrashquake during Whiplash‘s European run supporting Napalm Death on the Campaign For Musical Destruction Tour. Now it’s getting the full rollout it was always meant to have — new title, new cover courtesy of thrash-art legend Ed Repka, and a real international push behind it.
Portaro broke down the switch himself: “Thrashquake was the original title, and we made a limited number of copies available independently while we were touring earlier this year. As things developed and we started looking at the bigger picture for the worldwide release, Roar just felt like a stronger title and a better representation of the album as a whole.
“Partnering with Time To Kill Records allows us to take this record far beyond that initial tour release and give it the international campaign and worldwide distribution it deserves. With the new title, the new Ed Repka artwork, and Time To Kill behind the official release, Roar represents the definitive version of this album and the beginning of its real worldwide campaign.”
For Time To Kill Records, landing Whiplash is something of a coup — few acts carry the underground-thrash flag as convincingly as Portaro‘s band has for forty-plus years.
Whiplash got its start in Passaic, New Jersey, back in 1984, quickly carving out a reputation as one of the era’s defining East Coast thrash acts. Under Portaro‘s guitar work and vocals, the band’s blend of melodic speed metal and razor-edged riffing gave rise to the cult favorite Power And Pain in 1985, released via Roadrunner‘s Road Racer imprint.
Ticket To Mayhem (1987) and Insult To Injury (1989) followed, cementing Whiplash‘s identity within a New York scene that otherwise skewed heavily punk and hardcore. Lineup shuffles and stretches of inactivity ate into the band’s momentum over the years, but Thrashback surfaced in 1998 before another extended layoff.
Whiplash clawed its way back with Unborn Again in 2009, winning over both diehards and a fresh crop of thrash converts in the process. Portaro has anchored every version of the band through it all, keeping the power-trio format intact.
Now, in 2026, that same stubborn streak drives Roar — Whiplash‘s eighth studio full-length and its first release under the Time To Kill Records banner.
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