Photo via Facebook

Hardcore supergroup Dead Cross finalized their lineup in late 2016 when frontman Mike Patton came into the fold, joining ex-Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo, Justin Pearson (The Locust, Retox, Head Wound City), and Michael Crain (Retox, Festival of Dead Deer). In March, the band shared their first recording with the Faith No More frontman, “Shillelagh”, but the stream was later pulled with the hope of an album update coming soon. That day has finally arrived, as Dead Cross has announced that their self-titled debut will arrive on August 4th via Patton’s Ipecac Recordings.

To accompany the announcement, the group has shared a new song called “Grave Slave”. At less than two minutes, it features pounding drums and thrashing guitars as Patton sings about a “pistolero.” In a new interview with Rolling Stone, he said the song was about “a gunslinger or drug dealer at the border — a cartel.”

“The other guys in the band come from Southern California, and I’ve spent a lot of time in San Diego, so pistoleros are a part of our lives,” Patton explained. “It’s a huge point of contention with our new president, so I thought it was a cool topic.”

Hear “Grave Slave” below.

(Read: The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time)

Elsewhere in the interview, Patton went into more depth about the album, which he called “traditional hardcore.”

“It is very pointed, direct and visceral. Like, I wasn’t going to play keyboards, add samples or any kind of orchestration. It was like, ‘Yo, just go for it.’ In some ways, it reminded me of stuff that we had collectively all grown up with and loved when we were like teenagers – bands like the Accüsed, Deep Wound or Siege, stuff that was just brutal, uncompromising and right to the point. I was listening to all those bands again before this came to be, so it was already back infused in my blood. And now I got a chance to do a pencil-in-your-eye record.”

Read the full interview here.