San Francisco’s Death Angel are no strangers to the thrash scene, having formed in 1982 (then called Dark Theory but very shortly after changing to Death Angel) and releasing a demo titled ‘Kill as One’ produced by the one and only Kirk Hammett of Metallica. Then after interest from Enigma Records (but later signed to Geffen, then much later Nuclear Blast) they released their first album ‘The Ultra Violence’ in 1987 which sold quite a hefty 40,000 copies. Then came a further 4 albums, 2 live albums, a box set and a live DVD. In 1990 Death Angel Drummer Andy Galeon was injured due to their tour bus crashing, and would need at least a year to recover. This led to vocalist Mark departing to New York to pursue other projects none musically and the rest of the band forming The Organisation, releasing 2 albums. Fortunately for us the band regrouped in 2001 in aid of a cancer charity event for Testament frontman ‘Chuck Billy’ which then led to many opportunities for the bands future.
Bigger and tighter than ever it’s clear that Death Angel are here to stay. Now in 2010 their fifth album release ‘Relentless Retribution’ is set to be released on September 14th.
This jumps straight in with the first and album title track ‘Relentless Retribution’ with some catchy, crunchy thrash riffs, slow warm up drumming and then BAM!! The amazing vocals of Mark Osegueda, which always remind me a little of Destruction’s Schmier, but nevertheless I love his vocals! The middle section on this track is a bouncy riff and drumming pattern then slams you in the face again with the screaming! All the tracks on this album are immense and well written. But some of the ones that really stood out for me were; ‘Claws in So Deep’ not only do you have Marks vocals on this but also there are clean and quite harmonic vocals on the chorus. The best track for windmilling has to be ‘Truce’ with the galloping style riffs and heavy drumming its bound to get you up rocking out!. ‘This Hate’ I found to be the track that rose above the rest – it’s quite different to the rest because of its punky riffs and the vocals are a little cleaner too. There’s a very beautiful intro to the track ‘Volcanic’, acoustic guitar and soft clean vocals giving it an atmospheric feel. The lyrics are quite saddening including ‘blame it on the world, blame it on me, tolerated too much of your game’. I was quite surprised by this track - unexpected but definitely a winner to the ears.
I cannot fault this album at all, it’s just a pure quality thrash album! Vocals seem to be getting better with each album release. I was surprised with the slow track but it was a stunning and heartfelt track.
The production work fantastic, and the artwork for the sleeves are what you’d expect from Death Angel; nothing less than brutal! I have seen these guys live and definitely worth a listen if you haven’t heard them already.
http://www.myspace.com/deathangel
