Customer Reviews

Relentless Retribution

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first heard of Death Angel back in about 1991 or so when a friend gave me the album ACT III, because he said he really didn't like it. Well when i heard the album i thought wow these guys are just as good as Anthrax(who they sounded like back then) or even any of the other thrash metal bands out there. Well after that they had like a 15 year hiatus, in which they returned with The Art Of Dying which was less then stellar. After wards the album Killing Time saw the band take a more aggressive route with a lower tuned guitar sound and vocalist Mark Osegueda's vocals are more on the aggressive side even though it sounds great. Mark actually sounds better now than in there younger days, and actually the whole band just sounds better. Going through member changes has really put the band at a pinnacle in there career, and the new album Relentless Retribution is faster, more progressive, better musicianship and just has an overall feeling that the band are here to stay, which is what old Thrash needs.

At first listen some may be surprised that the band have so much energy, some may even say they sound to modern which has been the case in some reviews. Well there is nothing wrong with some new and old. The first track Relentless Revolution kicks off with a groove laden riff and drum line that has you pounding your head away knowing your in store for some catchy tunes, which this track definitely has, with some old fashion old school thrash YELLS. Claws in So Deep is a great song that will remind a lot of people of Trivium(oddly enough the producer of this album did Triviums as well). I consider Death Angel a 10 times better band than the for mentioned anyway, but the chorus will definitely make you think of them. Also great guitar riffs, and a good ole acoustic outro finish out this well rounded track. Truce is another great track with a very polyrythmic overtone and also some great galloping type riffs and drums, sure to please every fan of old school Thrashing, again with another great chorus.

Other great notable tracks include, River of Rapture, Absence Of Light, and This Hate. All which pack a punch leaving you with a good taste for more, and even though Absence of Light is a slower heavy track its none the less impressive, along with the rest of the album. But i'll let you listen for yourself and come up with your own conclusions. Lets just say even Ultra-Violence, and Frolic through The Park don't come close to the great production, aggression, and new melodic approach Death Angel have taken with new members on board. No disrespect to those albums or ACT III which are classic in there own way, but the new niche they have found is the best yet, and lets hope it stays that way. This is definitely in the top if not the best Thrash Album this year, along with my other favorites. Nevermore-The Obsidian Conspiracy, Soulfly-Omen, and Exodus-Exhibit B. Here is the current line-up that has helped make this new album so killer.:)

* Mark Osegueda - vocals

* Rob Cavestany - guitars, backing vocals

* Ted Aguilar - guitars

* Damien Sissom - bass

* Will Carroll - drums

Update-DUHH Sorry folks, thanks to the other reviewer i remembered OVERKILL-IRONBOUND on my list of best this year. How could i forget the BOYS. Thanks dude.lol

It didn't hurt that Kirk Hammett endorsed Death Angel early on, especially when they were an all Filipino band of very young but immensely talented thrashers, easily on a par with their contemporaries, and better than most, especially Megadeth and Anthrax. While they've never quite broke into the top tier of thrash acts, through no fault of their own, but the fans, who haven't given this phenomenal band its due by purchasing their music in numbers that would force more people to pay attention.

Thrash metal can be inspiring, or turgid and dull (see Anthrax, who've really only released two good albums, "Sound of White Noise" and "Among The Living"). Death Angel are masters of thrash, with Mark Osequeda's puma roar and the riffs from Rob Cavestany providing music of uncompromising intelligence, musical mastery and the ability to keep your head banging without drowning the tunes out in overplayed progressive fashion.

"Relentless Retribution" will be one of this year's highlight releases, alongside Overkill's awesome "Ironbound". Every track is absolute killer, and even sports a very impressive flamenco piece at the end of "Claws In So Deep". This, kiddies, is how thrash should be done, and it's a damn shame Death Angel, Exodus and Overkill aren't headliners the world over. They have just as much claim to originating this form of metal as those "other" big name outfits, and it's up to headbangers to see they get their due. Get anything by Death Angel or Overkill - theirs is such a quality that no album will disappoint.

Those are the Death Angel albums I love. Their first two efforts were not so great in my opinion as every song seemed to lack melody, contained only one note, and could not differentiate between songs. I understand that many like that style and more power to you,it's just not for me. Act 3, in my opinion was brilliant, as was Art of Dying, but then Killing Season seemed to return to the sound of the first two albums. Now comes Relentless Retribution, and it provides a return to the sound of A3, and AOD. I won't write a lengthy review of each song, but if you agree with how I feel aboput the previous albums, then you will LOVE this one. Long live Death Angel.

If this is supposed to be a comeback album it falls far short. "Killer", "Thrash-Tastic", "Awesome", are by no means anyway to describe this album. I went back and forth on whether to purchase this album from hearing the 30 second clips on Amazon. I'm a sucker for cool album covers. Don't judge an album by it's cover. The 30 second clips DO tell the story. If your not impressed by the samples spend your money on another album. I hope they do better in the future.

I was impressed with this latest effort from D.A. These metal veterans (25+ yrs) have presented a collection of songs which is both modern and still carries the sound from their past (Act III). Not quite as good as genre cohorts Megadeth's "United Abominations", Its not too far behind either, but , in my opinion, better than later works by thrash vets Slayer aand Metallica, who I feel has struggled to update their sound AND maintain its identity (see St Anger, :( ) I think fans of modern melodic metal, such as Bullet for my Valentine, Children of Bodem, and even Lamb of God will appreciate this tight, fast, hard hitting set.

This is yet another solid release from Death Angel. They never fail to mix things up with slow and fast parts....different song styles and unique vocal approaches. Having a thrash singer that can actually sing earns BIG points in my book. Some people might whine that it isn't another 'Ultra-Violence', but give me a break...what is nowadays? They are older...they like to mix it up...and they still write killer songs. Enjoy it while it lasts. These style and sound keeps in line with the last two releases.

Having formed when they were teenagers, Death Angel have always carried a natural energy that puts many metal bands to shame. They've been around for about 25 years now, ignoring their break-up in the 90's (yes, it's been that long!), and three of the original five members have departed; fortunately, vocalist Mark Osegueda and lead guitarist and songwriter Rob Cavestany have remained. As can be expected of every Death Angel release, this one has energy abound, great riffs, and solos in every song. It is a strong album; however, it is more a consolidation of strengths than a large step forward.

Songs like "This Hate" and "Absence of Light" are reminiscent of the early era of Death Angel (The Ultra-Violence through Act III), and most of the rest are closer to the styles established and fine tuned on The Art of Dying and Killing Season. If you've heard all of Death Angel's catalogue, including the Rarities disc, you may grow tired of Rob's old solo style. He's a great player, but sometimes his ideas sound a bit too familiar (this isn't to put him down; just about anybody would have that issue if he/she soloed at least once in EVERY song). Fortunately, this album has a couple tracks that push the stylistic boundaries of Killing Season, as well as expanding on the kind of soloing for which Rob is known (yes, this is a good thing).

"Relentless Revolution" opens rather like "Lord of Hate," a declaration that Death Angel has arrived in style. "Claws in So Deep" is a great follow-up, the change in melodic style reminiscent of songs found on The Art of Dying (think "Spirit," "Land of Blood," "Word to the Wise," etc.). Some excellent grooves around 1:45 bring back memories of Slayer's Reign in Blood, and the furious guitars around 3:50, as well as the backing vocals throughout, sound like they came right off of Trivium's album Shogun. The song closes with some guest artists (no need to ruin the surprise), and then "Truce" kicks off without a moment of silence. It works with the newer Killing Season sound, and producer/engineer/mixer Jason Suecof delivers a killer solo (think 80's Testament). "Into the Arms of Righteous Anger" continues to work in Killing Season territory and even has a breakdown (gasp!) around 2:00.

"River of Rapture" provides a mid-album highlight - it is great, fast-paced, and includes harmonized guitars that might bring Iron Maiden to mind. "This Hate" has the first guitar solo that really stands out. "Death of the Meek" has fantastic opening riffs with squeals (see Korean thrash metal band Crash's recent release Paragon of the Animals if you're into that kind of thing); it also features more harmonized guitars around 1:40 which recall Iron Maiden. "Opponents at Sides" can be compared to "The Devil Incarnate" from The Art of Dying - it has a lot of clean singing, but this one unfortunately never turns thrashy. While it is admirable that Death Angel are trying a few experiments, Mark is simply not good at clean singing. Sonic German Beatdown (the live album released a couple years ago) and Death Angel's live show can attest to Mark's inaccurate pitches. Tracks like "Thrown to The Wolves" are sung on noticeably different pitches from the studio versions, not to mention the uncomfortable-sounding "The Devil Incarnate" found on Sonic German Beatdown. This isn't to say Mark isn't a great thrash vocalist, but it would be a crime to pretend he's cut out for clean singing.

"I Chose the Sky" is another highlight, similar to "River of Rapture," and it has a fantastic and unfamiliar sounding solo courtesy of Rob - he really shreds. "Volcanic" is an acoustic piece with Rob singing lead (no, of course it's not as good as "Word to the Wise"). Unfortunately, it ends up sounding a lot like Corey Taylor of Slipknot and Stone Sour (listen to Stone Sour's "Through Glass"); nonetheless, it has a nice acoustic solo and is a good song besides the uncanny resemblance. "Where They Lay" is a great closer - the opening is heavy and the song is akin to "River of Rapture" and "I Chose the Sky" in that it can't be lumped into previous Death Angel eras. The second solo has Rob expanding his boundaries a bit, and the shouts of "Rise! Rise! Rise!" will sound amusingly familiar if you've heard Nevermore's "Your Poison Throne" from The Obsidian Conspiracy.

Overall, every member, including the new ones, does a great job performing on this release. The drumming seems a bit heavier, and the pieces are a bit more progressive and complex than previous Death Angel songs. The few songs and solos which push the boundaries of Death Angel's previous compositions are hopeful. Due to the large amount of material that sounds familiar, this can only be considered a consolidation of Death Angel's strengths with a little bit of experimentation and progression. Not quite on par with Killing Season, it is still a great addition to their catalogue.

Recommended: "River of Rapture," "I Chose the Sky," "Where They Lay"

4/5

Despite having been listening to it for a while now via download... I support the bands I like so I just purchased this, and have been meaning to for a while because this is one album that blows me away!! This is cream of the crop musicianship that has created an album that breathes and is brutally heavy!! I'm absolutely just loving the fact that all of these thrash bands that were semi-unsung and overlooked in the 80's, (probably due to all that "big 4 bull$h1t") are coming back these days with a vengeance, showing that they still had plenty of gas in their tanks (Death Angel, Forbidden, Heathen...) I would've never found out about these guys though because I think I always confused them with Dark Angel... a band that I never really dug because I was too busy listening to Slayer and Sodom. Anyways, this is also right up my alley, it's like a heavier, thrashier, ballsy-er version of Anthrax and Armored Saint if they had a butt-baby and fed it nothing but steroids and chicken... Just killer and it got me looking into other albums from the band and this is one band I plan to eventually own the complete discography from... If you like GOOD metal, BUY THIS NOW!!!

This is my kind of metal. You can tell these guys would probably give a you a great live show. I'm in GA so I'll probably never know about that, but I do know this is a badass album.

Pick it up.

2010 seems to be the return of the legendary metal bands: Forbidden, Armored Saint, Accept, among others. Death Angel, however came back in 2004, but their current album "Relentless Retribution" makes it sound like they came back last year. Nuclear Blast has several veteran metal bands: Forbidden, Kreator, Death Angel, Vader, Testament, and Accept, but this review is about Death Angel. at the end of song 2, there is some soft guitar playing, which then sounds like some flamenco music mixed in as well. get this if you like Slayer, Megadeth, Testament, Anthrax, old Metallica, Exodus, Destruction, Sodom, Overkill, Flotsam & Jetsam, Kreator, Forbidden, Pantera (RIP), Merciless Death, Defiance, Bonded By Blood, Gama Bomb, Sacred Reich (RIP), Revocation, Hatchet,Hallows Eve, Obscene Gesture, Voetsek, and Negligence.