D.R.I., 19 October 2024

D.R.I. (abbreviation for Dirty Rotten Imbeciles) is an American crossover thrash band that formed in Houston, Texas in 1982. As of 2015, the band comprises two of its founding members, vocalist Kurt Brecht and guitarist Spike Cassidy, as well as drummer Walter "Monsta" Ryan and bassist Harald Oimoen.
D.R.I. never gained a mainstream audience, but the integration of their hardcore punk roots with thrash metal influences was a stylistic catalyst for their contemporaries — most notably Suicidal Tendencies, Corrosion of Conformity, S.O.D., the Cro-Mags, Nuclear Assault and Cryptic Slaughter — alongside whom they are considered to be one of the major pioneers of what would later be called "crossover thrash", along with Adrenalin O.D., with both bands having a heavy influence on modern thrash, particularly Scott Ian and his band Anthrax.
To date, D.R.I. has released seven original studio albums. Despite having not released an album since Full Speed Ahead in 1995, the band has continued to tour almost every year, and gone on hiatus intermittently, notably between 2004 and 2009, when Cassidy was diagnosed with colon cancer. For years, there has been talk of an eighth D.R.I. album, which has yet to materialize. However, they released an EP with new material, But Wait...There's More!, on June 10, 2016.