Artist: Death Angel
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Release Date: 5/4/04
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Title: The Art of Dying Artist: Death Angel Label: Nuclear Blast Records Release Date: 5/4/04 |
Judgment Committee Reviews | Rating |
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5 | ||
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Abyss's Review:
And yet another 80s thrash band reforms... While a latecomer to the scene, Bay Area thrashers Death Angel garnered themselves a great deal of praise and a rabid core fan base. Critical darlings for taking chances, most notably on Act III, the band disappeared somewhere in the 90s, until the present day. With bands like Testament, Exodus, and Overkill continuing to put out strong material, it seems logical that these guys would give it another crack.How'd they do, you ask? I'm not sure I've made up my mind yet. This despite listening to the album numerous times. I was never the biggest Death Angel fan back in the day, but I always respected and enjoyed them. And that's pretty much how I feel about this record. At times it's really cool, some of the choruses are downright catchy and the better riffs make me nostalgic. But the record as a whole doesn't really excite me all that much.
"One word review: Good." The vocals have always been a sticking point with me with this band, and it seems nothing has changed in this respect. I don't hate the vocals, in fact sometimes they're very effective, but I don't really like them all that much either. At certain times it isn't an issue and I can enjoy the song anyway, but other times they just really get on my nerves and I just want to fast forward to the next track. The band also takes a punkish tack on many songs, bringing the listener back to a time when Hardcore and Thrash were almost inseparable, but I find this meld much less appealing now than I did back then.
All in all I think this album has to be considered a success, and I have to recommend it for all fans of the band. I think I'll like it more and more the more spins I give it, because it is a pretty solid album, but that means I pretty much have to study the Art of Trying. One word review: Good.
Death's Review:
Death Angel return with a killer new album. Bay Area thrash is back!!! Death Angel are lean, mean and in fighting form. Vocalist Mark Osegueda gives an incredible performance, showing depth of personality and character while shredding all with a sometimes raspy delivery a la a cross between James Hetfield and Sebastian Bach, and sometimes sounds like Rob Halford. The production is great, and the guitar tones are warm and powerful at the same time. The music is at once traditional, classic style thrash, yet by “traditional” I mean in the traditional Death Angel way, which was of course always a different spin than everyone else was putting on it. Death Angel was always a bit more open, freer in form, more organic and less overproduced. They were funkier than other thrash bands, more musician-centered and less constrained by expectation. Of course, this meant that they were a bit harder to categorize, and thus they suffered sometime from the syndrome of being too heavy for the mainstream and not heavy enough for the underground metalheads. Still, they were catchy and great live, were clearly incredibly talented and were “forever movin’, forever changin’.” In my mind, Death Angel were cool.
"Every time I hear it, all I can keep thinking of is how killer this stuff is going to sound live." They were also younger than many of their contemporaries, getting started in their teen years with the Kirk Hammet-produced Kill As One demo. That means that now, for their comeback, the band still has the energy of youth. The new album is now upon us, and it does not disappoint. These songs display the proficiency of finely tuned classic metal of old (the early 1980’s), like Judas Priest’s Screaming for Vengeance, Ozzy’s Diary of a Madman and Blackout by the Scorpions and fuse it with classic Bay Area thrash metal a la Death Angel’s own Ultraviolence and Frolic Through the Park records. The results are superb, and have a fresh enough sound I think that young kids today might also like it, even if they have never heard of the Death Angel of “yore.”
Like Act III, The Art of Dying has a lot of catchy singing and focuses on Osegueda’s voice. Opener “Thrown to the Wolves” is thrashy and sets the tone – the album never lets up from there. Like many a great album, you get many different tracks that sound different and have different feels, yet all of which a held together by the record’s overall cohesive feel. The Art of Dying is not one of those bullshit, fake-sounding, thrown-together reunion records. It is an essential modern thrash assault of classic proportions. Every time I hear it, all I can keep thinking of is how killer this stuff is going to sound live. Then for the rest of the day I can’t get the songs out of my head.
Hel's Review:
Yay! Death Angel’s back!! Act III was always one of my favorite records, and seeing them play at the Thrash of the Titans a few years ago really brought home how much I missed this band. Fortunately, that appearance also planted the seeds of reunion, ultimately bearing the fruit of this new record. I’ve also had the chance to see them live a couple more times recently, and that had given me much faith that this record would be great. Now that I have it in hand, I can tell you that my faith was not misplaced. This album makes me very happy.
"A triumphant return." I can’t claim that every metal fan will love this record. Some may not like the sound of the singer’s voice. Some will think of it as nostalgia, and not understand it from the proper perspective. This is for the people who were fans of Death Angel back in the day, and are still metal fans today. There is no effort to pander to people who have never heard of Death Angel before. Thank god for that, I say. What we have instead is an album that has the feel of a band picking up right where they left off all those years ago, yet gives the listener a sense that they too have been continuing to listen to metal during that time.
The musicianship certainly hasn’t missed a step and the songwriting is diverse and interesting throughout. Several of the songs could be called downright catchy, in that Death Angel kinda way. All in all, after spinning this album many, many times, I simply have nothing to complain about, and there’s a giant grin on my face every single time. If that isn’t the mark of an excellent album, I’ll eat my hat.
The Art of Dying is a journey that every past fan of Death Angel simply must take. Those of you who are wondering what you may have missed would be wise to pick this one up, and take the time to listen to it with an open mind. I for one, will be happily returning this one to my player every chance I get. Welcome back, Death Angel! A triumphant return.
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