Sonic German Beatdown

Death Angel

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 28, 2009)
• Original Release Date: April 28, 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: NUCLEAR BLAST INT'L
• ASIN: B001VFT6WQ
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #44,162 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

2009 live album from the San Francisco-based Metal band. After their last successful album, 2008's Killing Season, Death Angel return with this live album, recorded at the Rock Hard Festival in Germany. Death Angel have always been known for being one of the best, possibly THE best, live Metal bands on this planet. Nuclear Blast.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Live Album from Death Angel!, July 31, 2009

By	Sibelan Forrester "The Skull Crusher" (The Shire) - See all my reviews

Death Angel are one of those great bands who've been around for a long time that created great music but never made it big in terms of sales and popularity (think Mushroomhead who play alternative metal). They started at younger ages than almost anybody, and their thrash was very energetic and rocked hard, even though the vocals weren't very good. Thankfully, after their reunion at the Chuck Billy (Testament's singer) benefit concert in 2001, all of the musicians have improved (except Gus Pepa who was replaced by Ted Aguilar on rhythm guitar), most noticeably among them singer Mark Osegueda. 2004's The Art of Dying was a great way to return to the thrash landscape, even though the band members considered it more of an offering of what was expected as opposed to what they wanted to do... but back to the topic - Sonic German Beatdown.

The 47 second intro is in German, as one might expect from a German concert, and the only significant part is when the announcer says "Death f***ing Angel." The band then begin to play riffs similar to the opening of "Buried Alive," (a song from their 2008 album Killing Season, though this is a live concert from 2007) and then start with "Seemingly Endless Time," the opener from their 1990 classic Act III. They continue through "Voracious Souls" from their debut The Ultra-Violence, "Mistress of Pain," "Ex-Tc" from Act III, "3rd Floor" from Frolic Through the Park, and then "Thrown to the Wolves," "5 Steps of Freedom," "Thicker Than Blood," and "The Devil Incarnate," all from 2004's The Art of Dying. Following those are "Disturbing the Peace" and "Stagnant" from Act III, then "The Ultra-Violence" is played as an opening for an instrumental performance of "Carnival Justice," one of the highlight's of 2008's Killing Season. Perhaps they hadn't yet figured out the lyrics to the song, or they just chose to not use them, but at this point it's only irrelevant speculation. The show is then finished with "Bored," a hit from Frolic Through the Park, and then "Kill As One," the title track of their first three-track demo.

The track list is tough to argue against, seeing as all of the songs are heavy and fast (no "Veil of Deception," "Room With a View," or "Word to the Wise,"), and you can hear that the band is just brimming with energy. Mark Osegueda's harsh vocals are excellent, and he sometimes shows off with unreasonably long (and enjoyably funny) yells. It should be mentioned that his melodic singing is a little off, most noticeably on "The Devil Incarnate," where it's quite obvious (due to the weird harmonies) if the vocals are even the slightest bit imperfect. But in the end, Mark is a thrash metal singer, and I don't think it's fair to judge him by some minor pitch problems. He's gotten much better over the years, and he definitely keeps the energy level high throughout the almost 80-minute performance on this CD. Much like Mark's energetic singing, lead guitarist Rob Cavestany absolutely shreds through the whole set. He burns through every part like he was born to play it, proving that he is integral to this band's appeal. New rhythm guitarist Ted Aguilar also does an excellent job holding it together, though it's not as noticeable since he's not showing off with a solo in each song. Dennis Pepa and Andy Galeon are a really solid rhythm section on bass and drums, respectively, and it really makes you appreciate their experience and expertise developed over the years. Andy Galeon truly sounds like a drummer who's been recording real songs since he was 14.

This album is definitely not as polished as Death Angel's studio albums, but anybody searching for a studio album would be mistaken to look here. As Mark says in the booklet accompanying the CD, "what you hold in your hand is a raw, true to form, real [CD] of a [show] where we gave it our all!" There are a few minor errors here and there, but that's something guaranteed to happen with a band playing this quickly and intensely. Mark makes a point of telling the German audience how glad they are to play at the Rock Hard Festival (he goes into detail about how they used to read the Rock Hard magazine when they were kids, and they remember what the covers looked like), and he also thanks them a lot, often throwing some excessive f***s, but in an endearing way. He curses a lot, but it's never by any means offensive. When it starts to rain during the set, he adds a little bit to the lyrics of "Bored." "I'm bored... and WET!" He thanks the audience for staying through the rain, and at the end he introduces all of the band in good form. This CD is a testament (no pun intended) to what a great live band Death Angel must be, and even more so it shows the honesty and true good intentions of the band. They may be Death Angel, but they are well-mannered (all curses aside), and you can tell they really care about their fans. It may not be a perfect CD of a perfect band, but it's a great CD of a great band.