Monday, February 18, 2008

Metal Inquisition Roundtable #2: Dark Angel vs. Death Angel




Dark Angel
Sergeant D: The Holocaust was a shame and all, but the real tragedy of the 20th century was the fact that Dark Angel never achieved the same status as bands like Slayer, Metallica, or Megadeth. Those bands had their moments but were mostly spineless, dull, and boring. Dark Angel, on the other hand, thrashed their balls off (or in Gene Hoglan's case, thrashed their balls out).

Also, lots of people- mostly old fossils and trendy black metal types- think their best album is "Darkness Descends." It's not- in fact, that album is terrible. "Leave Scars" and "Time Does Not Heal" are much better masterpieces of thrash metal that are trumped only by Forced Entry and Believer.

Lucho Metales: Dark Angel. The name alone does little to put this band over the similarly named Death Angel. I mean, if you are going to run into an angel...would you be more scared if he's the angel in charge of "death" or of making it it "dark." I mean, if you ask me, the angel that deals with darkness will forever be second fiddle to the angel of death. In theory Death Angel should have been a more ferocious metal act, but that was not the case. Managing to move beyond their moniker, Dark Angel delivered brutal metal beatings that left us wanting more. Yes, the songs could go on and on at times. Yes, in retrospect it seems awful that in the liner notes Gene Hoglan would state the location and date for when he wrote the lyrics for each song. Yes, naming a live album "Live Scars" after having put out "Leave Scars" is dumb...but at the end of the day, the music was light years ahead of its time. More importantly, as far as metal fashion goes, they were the undisputed kings of hesher-ware. In their unforgettable appearance in the Ultimate Revenge II home video, Dark Angel can be seen rocking white high tops that were far whiter than any other metal band at the time. More importantly, look at the unabashed commitment that the entire band made to the jean vest. Even the bass player, who was a bit out of shape, went ahead and rocked the vest with NO shirt under it. Just look at the performance here, and be amazed. Just compare their fashion sense to that of Death Angel. (click to see image larger)



Gene Hoglan's Balls:
I could probably write a book about all the ways in which I love Dark Angel, but this is neither the time nor the place for such a thing. Simply put, Dark Angel, AKA "The L.A. Caffeine Machine," is one of the greatest and most underappreciated thrash metal bands of all time.

Dark Angel came up alongside all the big name first wave West Coat thrash metal bands, Metallica, Slayer, Exodus, etc., but never attained the same measure of popularity. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that Dark Angel’s music isn’t nearly as accessible as that of their peers. Their songs are faster, darker, longer, and more complicated than those of their contemporaries. Their music was just too much for your average thrash fan to wrap their head around. They also had the misfortunate of releasing their masterpiece, “Darkness Descends,” the same year as “Reign in Blood,” “Master of Puppets,” and “Pleasure to Kill.” Of course all of those albums are widely regarded as classics of the genre, as they should be, but “Darkness Descends” is the best of the bunch and deserves to be mentioned in the same breath, which it usually is not. The only other thrash metal album that even approaches its level of savagery and intensity is Morbid Saint’s “Spectrum of Death.” Can you imagine Lars Ulrich trying to play the drum intro to “Death is Certain (Life is Not)?” It’d be like asking a 5 year old to play “Tom Sawyer.”

As the years passed, Dark Angel soldiered on. Even as the popularity of thrash metal declined in the late 80s and early 90s giving way to the eventual rise of death metal, Dark Angel kept releasing stunning albums each more over-the-top than the last. Their final album, 1991’s “Time Does Not Heal,” is the logical conclusion of thrash metal. “9 songs, 67 minutes, 246 riffs!” An epic, monumental testament to the genius of Gene Hoglan that rendered the entire genre obsolete.

It’s doubtful that Dark Angel will ever get the respect they deserve, but if it’s any consolation we here at Metal Inquisition couldn’t hold them any higher. In the words of the Geto Boys, “you gotta let your nuts hang!”

Awakening: Leave Scars is the opus. The pinnacle of all that was Dark Angel. It challenges and defeats many a thrash album before and since. The riffs are crushing and dark. The double bass is oppressive and pounding.

Often times people in the metal scene are so quick to say that output a few records into a band’s career are never as good as the demos or the first album. That is retarded. Sure Darkness Descends is a great album, but it sounds like so many others of that time. This is the record where Dark Angel got their groove. And then promptly lost it shortly thereafter. From there we have Time Does Not Heal, which is great, but slightly too perfect. The drums sound better, as do the guitars, a little too perfect though. This was the plague of so many bands in the 90s thrash scene. Death metal was taking over and they were trying to remain relevant. Which they did well, but man…Leave Scars was the shit.





Death Angel
Sergeant D: Maybe 10 years ago, fellow Metal Inquisition writer Lucho Metales and I were discussing this band, and I said I never liked them because of the gay curtains on the cover of "Act III." Basically, I stand by that comment. They were always a puss band, like the Filipino version of Testament but not even that good (and Testament were never good).

Also, aside from the gay curtains on that cover, what exactly is going on? Evil steam is coming out of the curtains?? And it looks like the artist ran out of time when it came to rendering the audience (where are they, anyway- the theater at the mall?). He spent all of his time resolving all the intricate details of the arch around the curtain, then was like "Fuck it, the audience can just look like concrete mannequins, I'm sick of this painting."


One final note... we tag lots of posts on here "male pattern baldness," but there is perhaps no better example of this in metal than Death Angel singer Mark Osegueda. Like Brett Michaels, he always wear bandanas to cover up his ever-retreating hairline. A word of advice: salvage what's left of your dignity, bro- just shave it all off.

Lucho Metales: I almost don't want to write about Death Angel. Why? Have you seen their video for "Room With A View"? It's the video that I took the stills from to make my "metal/not metal" chart above. The video is almost exactly like Extreme's "More Than Words", and the music is rather similar. For me to try to find some redeeming qualities in Death Angel after such an atrocious musical act, would be like saying "well, Hitler kept the trains running on time." I would be ignoring a huge elephant in the room, an elephant called "Room With A View".


Gene Hoglan's Balls: My gay uncle Tony has a Filipino friend named Steve. He’s a really funny and fun guy, and he just so happens to be the most flamboyantly gay person I’ve ever met. I’m talking giant diamond rings, gold bracelets, pink shirts, silk scarves. When he walks he sticks his bony little ass out and he has the limpest wrist I’ve ever seen. When I try to wrap my mind around the reality of a Filipino thrash metal band all I can think of is Steve. When I listen to Death Angel’s music all I can think of is Steve. You get where I’m going. To be fair, “The Ultra-Violence” is probably one of the better albums to ever come from a second-tier Bay Area thrash metal band, and to some people that’s even a compliment.

Awakening: You know, youth is never an excuse for shitty music. If memory serves me correctly, this band was always touted as one of the "youngest" thrash bands ever. Old Skull were at least humorous. Death Angel was just sad. The worst part about Death Angel is they are releasing a new album this year. Booooooo.

15 comments:

  1. haha, just stumbled onto this blog. Great entertaining stuff, keep it up! And oh, thanks for having added our link. We have done likewise too.

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  2. Finally someone else states the simple fact that "Darkness Descends" ain't shit compared to "Leave Scars" and the almighty "Time Does Not Heal". I got so sick of people telling me over the years that "Darkness Descends" was the best. I barely ever listened to that album at all. Why bother, when both "Leave Scars" and "Time Does Not Heal" exist? (Except for that terrible pseudo cover of "Immigrant Song", which still makes me shudder to this day.)

    The sticker about "...246 riffs!" was always one of the greatest moments in metal history. Ever.

    I still like Death Angel through "Act III", though. Even the ballads. Love the ballads. Always did. The "funky" stuff was actually way worse than the ballads, really.

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  3. man youre high..."darkness descends" kills balls. that "leave scars" is all muddy,it sounds like if you stuck a speaker up a hippos ass and listened to it ten feet away. and plus,the singer on that album is way too "fuck yeah,bro!!",always high fivin the crowd and shit..thats goofy. "darkness descends" is darker and more evil sounding. death angel to me was too thrash-lite,and i agree with the other guy,that funky shit was awful.

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  4. Dark angel is cool, but you should listen to Sodom´s Agent Orange

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  5. Eh? No mention of "The Ultra-Violence"? I love Frolic and Act III (you rip a band because of ballads? Ridiculous. The ballad is an established and much loved style in metal...refer to The Scorpions for proof...I will agree that videos should never be made for ballads) but The UV is a monster that cannot be stopped. Riffs galore and excellent singing. Death Angel rocked back then.

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  6. great article!
    Death Angel were always poo.
    and an addition to Male Pattern Baldness...

    Blaze Bayley (Iron Maidens embarassment) advertising said issue...
    http://clovenhoof.tumblr.com/post/26658048

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. While I agree that Dark Angel destroyed Death Angel musically, a couple of years ago after they reunited my band opened for Death Angel in NYC. Unlike most of the whack pussy 80s bands that we opened for in that period who treated us like total dicks (Pretty Boy Floyd tried to commandeer our dressing room even though we outdrew them by a factor of 10 and were total pussy shits) Death Angel let us eat their Tostitos. And that my friends, is class.

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  9. Darkness Descends was not Dark Angels first album. It was their second. You've missed "We Have Arrived", on the Indie label, Azra. It was released in '85. I think it was a totally different line-up, though. Just Eric Meyer on guitar. Pretty typical trash, but worth a listen.

    I have to admit, I'd rather listen to "We Have Arrived" and "Darkness Descends" than later Dark Angel material. I had Leave Scars when I was in High School (on the preferred thrash format - Cassette). I wasn't too into it then. I actually though that I didn't like Dark Angel for a while. Then I heard Darkness Descends...Haven't gone back to that later stuff.

    I'll stick by the Ultra-violence, too...The songs are way too long, but there are some killer jams for sure. Frolic in the Park and Act III have a few hints of genius, but are shrouded, by some attempt at "open-mindedness" and "maturity", which will ruin any thrash band in a second, as has been noted on this blog regularly.

    Then again, you guys like Pantera and Devourment, so there is no accounting for tastes....ha.

    Good job yinz, from one of the other metal librarians...

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  10. did i just see a "yinz"? pittsburgh in da houz!

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  11. Finally someone else states the simple fact that "Darkness Descends" ain't shit compared to "Leave Scars"

    Hear, hear! Also, 'thrash metal that sounds like hippofarts'... that's actually a recommendation as far as I'm concerned.

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  12. nice post guys. all that has been said is all good, BUT you all must admit that death angel's logo is fucking cool and WAY better than dark angel's.

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  13. Hahaha that's ludicrous! DARK ANGEL's logo is one of the best ever... and it's wrapped in some scary-ass dragon wings. I always compared TESTAMENT's "The Legacy" with DEATH ANGEL's "The Ultra-Violence" cuz they came out at pretty much the same time (plus both were from the Bay Area and on major labels). My friend bought "The Ultra-Violence" and I got "The Legacy", and I always felt a sense of superiority cuz TESTAMENT's debut craps all over "The Ultra-Violence". After that both bands sucked.

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  14. death angel a puss band ... fuckers

    musically time does not heal is a very good album but the vocals of rinehart are so booring and always the same .

    My fabourite dark angel album is We have arrived and more specific hell's on it's knees .

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  15. Death Angel hit one high point with "Seemingly Endless Time" but they also had a secret weapon that they never unleashed properly.

    The song "Discontinued" is a perfect distillation of what all of those fringe early 1990's alterna-metal bands with funky bassists were trying to do. Every time I made the mistake of listening to some kind of Last Crack or Mindfunk album, I was expecting to hear a full album version of "Discontinued"

    Death Angel were clearly too juiced up on power balladry to understand that they had polished a turd with that song, since they spent most of the time as D.A. and The Organization thoroughly failing to make even one credible spark with all the slapping bass power of 300 episodes of Seinfeld at their disposal.

    Imagine all the magic places funk metal could have taken us.

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