Customer Reviews

Act III

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

4 1/2 stars. Death Angel should get together with King's X and headline the "cult metal bands that don't deserve to scrape the budget bins of your record store tour." I remember not liking this album as much as _Frolic Through The Park_ but revisiting it with a older, wiser and more open pair of ears I had to wonder what the hell my reservations were. Although its more refined than either of the other two DA albums, it boasts immaculate production, excellent and interesting songwriting and composing, mind-blowing musicianship. "Veil of Deception" and "A Room With a View" show a calmer, more textured side of what was essentially a really heavy thrash band. "Falling Asleep" is a great closer, and the mind-blowing hybrid funk-thrash of "Discontinued" is an insane example of an over-talented band just going balls out and laying the smack down.

* If you liked this album, BTW, you should hunt down both of the albums by "The Organization S.F." which are still in print on Metal Blade records. Same lineup here without the venerable Mark Oseguda, and sporting a more refined, melodic and funky attack than DA.

This album is at the top of my chart next to "Master of Puppets" (Metallica), "Among the Living" (Anthrax), and "Rust in Peace" (Megadeth). What I like about this album (and Death Angel in general) is the diversity, energy, and virtuosity of the band! Mark's vocals, Rob and Gus' killer guitar work, Denis's (funky at times) base lines, and Andy Galeon awesome drumming blend very well on each of the songs creating a true master piece.

If you are into rock, heavy metal, punk, and thrash, don't miss this album!

-Aki

ps. All Death Angel fans, get ready for "SWARM"! (Mark, Rob, Andy, and their new base player Mike). I saw them perform last week and they were awesome! I almost had a heart attack when I heard them play the intro to the "Ultra-Violence" and the songs "Seemingly Endlees Time," "Veil of Deception," and "Stagnant" live... Their new stuff is also great! Spread the word!!! SWARM!

Death Angel was one of the casualties of the grunge movement. They had just been signed to Geffen for this CD & Geffen's priority of Nirvana resulted in the death of Death Angel. It was rumored that Geffen was looking to market Death Angel as "D.A.," which probably would have ended the same way. This album shows significant growth from stylistic tracks such as the acoustic "Veil Of Deception" and the hard and heavy tracks like "Seemingly Endless Time," and "Stop." This is a great example of what would have been the future of metal in the 1990s. If you enjoy this spend the money for the box set that has their first 2 CDs (Ultra-Violence & Frolic Through The Park) with bonus tracks and unreleased tracks. You won't be disappointed. The box was produced by Metallica's Kirk Hammett. Death Angel's 2004 release "Art Of Dying" is also recommended.

Well... as you can gather from other reviews, opinions on Act III are pretty erratic... some love it and the rest don't get the point. Rather than put out another Ultra Violence and imitate themselves, Death Angel incorporated more "accessible" song structures and the occasional funk bassline into their thrizzash on Act III, which I believe to be their finest hour.

There is plenty of thrash riffage abound, as songs like Stop and (my fav) Seemingly Endless Time prove. The songwriting is about 2,000 steps up from their old stuff, and Mark Osgueda seriously never sounded better. Excellent production, too. For Death Angel virgins, they were an incredibly young band that played bay area thrash w/ clean vocals ala Flotsam and Jetsam... around Act III they had matured (think Thrax on Persistence of Time).

Veil of Deception and Room With A View add a mellow flavor, the former being an excellent latin acoustic piece which manages to be quite brooding in spite of it's flamenco trappings. Discontinued is the song that will blow the puny minds of most metalheads, with it's slapped funk bass lines and frenetic riffing that recalls Primus in their prime. Overall an excellent, diverse album that will keep the listener interested throughout.

Standouts: the organization, seemingly endless time, veil of deception, discontinued

If anyone listened to "Frolic" & then "Act III", the listener would know what a quantum leap Death Angel made between these records. "Seemingly Endless Time" is a thrash masterpiece as well as the "A Room With A View" showing the advanced musicianship of these guys. Too bad this band isn't around today. They could show us what real music was all about. If anyone picks up this record and enjoys it, I highly recommend getting Death Angel's follow up to this album when they changed the band name to "The Organization" (CD Title same)

I just bought this to replace the scratched copy in my collection, but have owned this since back in the day. I believe this was Death Angel's last studio album before forming The Organization. Great for what it is. Has a lot of slower tempo stuff than their 2 previous thrash monsters, but the music is still great. Any Death Angel fan should own this in their collection~it's cheap no matter where you get it. Songs like Seemingly Endless Time are worth owning this. If you like it a bit harder, check out their first two The Ultraviolence and Frolic Through The Park.

Act III is the third offering from Bay Area thrashers Death Angel and a fine cut of thrash it is. Aside from the usual thrashers the album is very diverse in many ways. They are masters of their craft which is thrash metal but it offers much more like on the songs "Veil of Deception" and "A Room With A View", both being favorites of mine on the album. When listening to the chorus of "A Room With A View" it reminds me of an old 60's ballad, maybe something from the Beach Boys or Tommy James & the Shondells. Aside from that the album kicks off with the punishing "Seemingly Endless Time" which is an all out thrash assault. "Stop" follows and does not slow things down in anyway. "Stagnant" has a slow build up and features some interesting grooves which continue to bring out the diversity of the album. "Falling Asleep" starts off like a lullaby and then slowly builds up to kick the listeners ass and do the opposite of what the title suggests. Very nice guitar solo in this tune reminding me a lil bit of Maiden and then going right back into its thrash attack. Fans of old school Anthrax and Nuclear Assault are sure to love Death Angel. If you do not have this album it is essential to own. Also for those not owning the first two albums Death Angel will soon be releasing a box set titled Archives & Artifacts which features the first two albums "Ultra-Violence" and "Frolic Through The Park". It also features a third cd including unreleased songs from the classic era and a DVD with the bands old videos and some rare live performance footage. It will be in stores February 1, 2005.

I remember when this album originally came out, and sitting around with all of my friends being amazed at what we were hearing. "Frolic" was a great album, but this album was like nothing we had ever heard. Rob Cavesatny was writing songs that were truly on the cutting edge of metal music. They may have paid their tributes to Slayer on "Ultra-Violence", but it is clear that they wanted to define their own sound. This album established them as one of the great metal albums of the early nineties. Seeing them live at Center Stage in Atlanta was the ultimate swan song for this great band.

This is the third and last Cd from Death Angel. Later the singer left and they formed The Organization and then later formed Swarm. Other albums are the Ultra Violence, and Frolic through the park. They should have been bigger than they were. They got heavy guitars, crazy drumming, and good vocals. This album was the mature album vs the previous ones. (The band wasn't even 18 when they made their first album.) Overall, This band rocks and this is one of the best CDs that anybody who likes Metallica or Megadeth should have.

Death Angel has always been about a quirky mix of metal, punk, funk and classical delivered with brutal authority. This record is a disappointment only in that it would be over a decade before we would get anything else like it from these guys. The songwriting here shows a natural evolution from Frolic through the Park and the Ultra-Violence. There's more interplay between lead and backing vocals and the lyrics are better thought out if still a bit cryptic at times.

The guitars are kicking, the drumming is powerful, the bass is popping and the riffs are killer - Seemingly Endless Time is a thrash classic. If you appreciate good vocal harmonies with interesting playing and unconventional song structures, this record has something for you. These guys pioneered putting funky stuff into thrash before Faith No More was even heard of here in the States. I highly recommend this record.