Hirax have released Vigilante, which Katon W. De Pena says was the first song written for the band's seventh album.
Andy Brings, once of Sodom and Powergod, plays a guest lead on it, and his reason for doing so is the better half of the story. "I've been a big fan of Katon and Hirax since I heard Bombs Of Death on Metal Massacre VI over 40 years ago," he said. "To play on a Hirax song in 2026 blows my mind. A true full circle thing for me."
Metal Massacre VI came out in 1985. A guitarist who heard a band as a teenager and ends up on one of their records four decades later is the kind of thing that only happens in a scene where nobody retires.
De Pena traces the song to V for Vendetta, Robin Hood and Zorro, and wants a figure people recognise. "During these troubling times, I felt there could be a worldwide signal, a symbol that people everywhere could recognize," he said.
Max Norman, who worked on records by Ozzy Osbourne, Savatage and Megadeth, produced and mixed it. John Haddad engineered at Trench Studio in Corona. The band behind De Pena is Allan Chan, Geremi Perez, Jorge Montaño and Matthew Morales.