Death Angel
Sonic Beatdown

31.03.2008

Our editorial team has a long-standing relationship with this band. Long before this website came to life, an interview with cult San Francisco thrash metal act Death Angel, who had just reformed by that time after a 13-year hiatus, was crucial for us in the sense that we really proved ourselves we could do it – contact the management of a favorite band, get a reply, secure a timeframe for a phoner, make a transatlantic phone call at 10 a.m. on Saturday, and eventually get all the things done right so that the band would later advertise the interview on their own webpage and put excerpts from it in newswires worldwide. Five years later, getting Death Angel singer Mark Osegueda on the phone was much easier. The band has a new record out, excellent and impressively titled “Killing Season”, and Mark was at the Nuclear Blast office in Germany doing the promotion for it. As far as we understood, our slot was the last one in the four-day talking marathon. Nevertheless, see how excited Mark is when he’s answering our questions. It’s always a pleasure to have on the other end of the phone line somebody who’s as crazy about what he do as we are about our business. We just hope it makes enjoyable reading as well…

You’ve been doing interviews for the new album at the Nuclear Blast office for the last several days. What is the most frequent question that you get? And what is the question that you dislike most of all?

(cracks) Wow! Let’s see… What is the most frequent one? I guess the most frequent one would be “what was the difference in writing for this album and for “The Art Of Dying” (2004)?” And the one I didn’t like… That’s a hard one. It’s hard to say I didn’t like a question because if someone’s truly curious about it I feel as if I should answer.

The new album “Killing Season” comes out four years after the previous one. Why did it take you so long to complete it? Were there any difficulties in putting new songs together?

The reason is that after “The Art Of Dying” came out, we toured pretty much for the majority of the next year. While we were touring, Dennis (Pepa, bass) and Rob (Cavestany, guitar) had their first children, and as we were away for a year, they pretty much missed out the first year of their kids’ life. When we got back home, they really had to re-introduce themselves to their babies and take care of familial things. In all honesty, they wanted to wait until their kids had grown to the point where they could understand why their fathers were leaving for a while. Now they’re in school, the children understand what their fathers do (laughs), and when the new album is out, everyone’s prepared to do the longest and most significant Death Angel tour ever.

The previous CD was called “The Art Of Dying”, and this one is called “Killing Season”. Is there an intentional connection between the two album titles?

Not necessarily an intentional connection. This one, in all honesty, had more of a darker tone to it in general. We have a couple of different meanings behind “Killing Season”. It’s based on the state of the world in the last decade or so, and the world is as a really bad place. Unfortunately, a lot of lives have been lost in many countries in the last decade, and a lot of them are people fighting for a cause they don’t even know what it is. A lot of people have been oppressed, and they don’t know how to stand up and make a change. That’s what the title is based upon. But there’s also a more light-hearted version of what “Killing Season” means – an excitement for us, “basically we have a new album out now, it’s killing season, it’s time for us to go kick ass!” (laughs)

Judging by what you said about the state of the world, we can suppose that the band members are quite interested in politics. Do you get inspired for writing music and lyrics by watching news channels and stuff like that?

It’s odd, because I wouldn’t necessarily say we are a political band, but I think in the state of the world today it’s impossible not to be it. The world is in such a state of disarray right now that we have been paying a lot more attention to what’s going on. The other guys in the band have children, so they want the world to be a better place immediately, your whole outlook changes. I think it was definitely an inspiration for the lyrics, definitely in a big way.

As far as we understand, all the members of Death Angel are involved in writing music and lyrics for the band…

With this album, the main writing of the songs was done by me, Rob and Andy (Galleon, drums). Rob would come up with riffs and structures, and then him and Andy would put it together, decide what things should go into it, what the pace and the concept of the song would be, and then they would usually hand it off to me, and I’ll write the lyrics. For this album I wrote nine of the eleven songs as far as the lyrics go.

You worked with a different producer this time – Nick Raskulinecz, who didn’t work with thrash metal so much before. How was it like working with him? How much did he contribute to the songs?

Working with him was incredible! It was probably the most enjoyable work experience we’ve ever had in the studio, yet the hardest we’ve ever had to work in the studio. He has such a vast knowledge of tones and how to achieve them. He’s worked with Rush, Velvet Revolver and Foo Fighters, and we didn’t even think we had an opportunity to work with someone like him. When we were looking for producers, we were already talking to other people, and it came by coincidence that he was working on a new Danko Jones record. We are friends with Danko Jones, and before he started working on that record, he was on tour and he played in San Francisco. I have a side project called All Time Highs, we were playing with Danko that night, and I gave him a Death Angel hooded sweatshirt, because he’s a big Death Angel fan. When he went down to L.A. and was recording with Nick, he one day walked into the studio wearing his Death Angel sweatshirt. Nick Raskulinecz said, “Death Angel? Yes!”, picked up a guitar and started playing “Seemingly Endless Time”. Danko e-mailed us, and we freaked out, “Do you mean the guy who’s produced Rush knows who we are?” We asked Danko, “Do you think this guy would ever work with us?” He suggested that we sent him some demos, that’s what we did, Nick heard them and loved them. Within two weeks he was up in San Francisco working with us. A producer is usually a man who seems a little “holier than thou”, and it wasn’t the case with Nick - he’s really down to earth, a really nice guy, he bough “The Ultra Violence” (1986) the day it came out, so he had the knowledge of us and the history of us. Even at the pre-production stage he had amazing ideas as far as tempos and changes are concerned, he really pushed us as a band. And when it came to recording, he really pushed each and every individual, and it made this project as a whole a solid unit.

The first song from the new CD that you published on your MySpace page was “Sonic Beatdown”. Why did you choose this particular song to represent the whole album?

It was not even the fact that it would represent the whole album, it was more of an introduction, an appetizer for people. It’s one of the more upbeat ones, it’s got a kind of driving tone to it, and that’s why we chose it. There’s a kind of hook in it that really drives people in. As I said, it’s just an introduction, and it’s by no means the heaviest or the fastest song on the album. It’s just the one that we though t would be good to hook people in.

Let’s imagine you’re talking to people who have only heard this particular song off the new record. What surprises shall we expect from the rest of the album when we buy it?

With it, you’re gonna get a lot of good surprises, one main factor being that the album’s much heavier. It’s a very consistent album, and if you’re expecting it to be more like “The Art Of Dying”, it’s not. I think “The Art Of Dying” had highlights, but there are some inconsistencies on it. With this one, from song to song, they each have their own identity, but very powerful identity in their own way. The album is a really consistent, solid statement.

We’ve read a review of the new album in the Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles magazine, and there they say that “Death Angel is doing for thrash what Led Zeppelin and Queen did for classic rock”. You are indeed a band that has always been inspired by different music, not only thrash metal. What kind of music inspires you nowadays?

It’s all over the map, we listen to every type of music, and as long as it’s got true emotion behind it, I love it. It’s anything from Billie Holiday to Black Sabbath, from Brian Ferry to Slayer, everything all over the map, as long as it’s true. And the quote you mentioned is one of my favorite quotes of all times! (cracks) We’re huge Led Zeppelin fans, we’re huge Queen fans. We are truly inspired by amazing artists and emotional music, and whatever we can bring to enhance the sound of our particular brand of metal, we’ll try to do.

“The Art Of Dying” was a very successful record, and “Killing Season” is also getting great reviews. Do you ever regret not getting back as Death Angel earlier, or do you think everything happened just in the right time?

I actually think it did happen at the right time. Prior to us reforming, we had been approached many times by different promoters for one-off shows and what not, but we always turned it down. And I’m glad we did. I think we reformed for the right reason, it was when Chuck Billy (Testament) got diagnosed with cancer, and they formed that “Thrash Of The Titans” benefit concert. We always swore that we would never reform Death Angel, but if we were ever gonna do it, it must be for a good cause. If you believe in karma, it’s good, it’s working in our favor - Chuck’s doing wonderful, he’s healthy, and that show single-handedly was the springboard for bringing this revival of thrash metal and throwing it back at people’s faces. Now there’s a whole wave of younger bands playing this type of music, and it’s incredible, I think it’s a great timing.

A few years ago quite a lot of Bay Area thrash metal bands got back together, but only Death Angel and Exodus seem to be touring and releasing albums on a regular basis. In your opinion, why did Death Angel’s reunion was such a success, and why did other bands, such as Dark Angel, for instance, never get anywhere with their reunion plans?

I don’t know if Dark Angel ever got together with the line-up that everyone wanted to see. One thing that was really going for us is that it was just as close to the original line-up as you can get. I think it might be for that reason alone, but I don’t know either if they ever got together with the intention of writing new material. When we started writing, it was like we were feeding off the response to the shows we were lucky enough to get to play after we reformed, we could see that the fans wanted it, and we didn’t want to let them down. One thing we love to do more than anything is to play live, I think we’ve always been a very strong live act, and it really kept us in people’s faces and in their thoughts. They drove us to the point of wanting to carry on.

You previously said that you stopped your other band Swarm because Death Angel was taking too much of your time. But nowadays you have a side project called All Time Highs, and Rob has released a solo record. Why did the two of you decide to go solo? Was it because had some any ideas that didn’t fit into the style of Death Angel?

We really wanted to keep busy doing music, but Death Angel is such a time-consuming thing that we wanted to wait until we can truly put the attention into it to write the album and then release the album and then be able to tour extensively for it. Rob’s solo thing is an acoustic project, it’s something he can do in the comfort of his own house, and he wanted to be nearby where his kid was. Me, on the other hand, I don’t have children, so I still need a release in the form of playing live, it’s hard for me to sit still. When I don’t have enough things to do, I tend to go a little still-crazy, I can get myself in bad situations. (laughs) I had to form another band, and it’s been a blast. It’s more straight-ahead rock’n’roll / bar rock, we’ve been playing all over the Bay Area and down to California and Texas, it’s fun, but now that Death Angel stepped into the picture, the other band members will have to realize that they’re gonna have to sit and wait, probably for quite some time, before I can do consistent shows back and forth of them.

Can you say a few words about the incident with your eye that happened during the recording of vocals for All Time Highs?

Oh, it was crazy, it was one of the craziest things that have happened. It’s something that happened to me before, but usually it’s in a live situation. I’d be on stage, and I’d keep on holding a scream for a really long time, and I’d get this head rush. On stage, your adrenalin is going so much, it almost feels like you’re high, your body’s on 10 anyway. If you slam your head into something when your adrenalin is so high, you barely feel it, you only feel it the next day. This time we were in a recording studio, and in a recording studio you’re not running around, jumping and working up a crowd, you just have to stand in a little booth. (laughs) I was holding up a really long scream, and I got that really light-headed head rush, and since my adrenalin was up to where it was, my body just turned itself off, and I passed out. They had extra mike stands around the room, they were just there for storage, and when I fell, I landed on one, and it had no microphone clip on it, it was just a straight metal pole. It went into my eye and basically gauged out a huge chunk of the white part of my eye.

When I came to senses, I remember reaching for my eye and going, “Oouch!” I was in panic, I realized that something bad had happened. I couldn’t open the eye, and when I forced it open, I was seeing double. Then I was overwhelmed with the sense of feeling comfortable, I laid back down almost like to take a nap in the isolation of the booth. And then I was like, “Oh my God, I cannot go to sleep, what if I have a concussion or something?” I got up, went to the bathroom and splashed water on my face trying to see if there was blood or something, but there wasn’t blood, I just couldn’t open the eye. So I put ice on it and didn’t know what to do, I knew that I had hurt my eye, but I didn’t know to what extent.

Actually I had a show that night, the guys came in and saw me in the lounge with ice on my eyes. I explained to them what happened, I said, “This swelling should go down, so I’m going to do the show.” They said, “Let us see your eye,” I showed it to them, and they were like, “We are taking you to hospital right now!” (laughs) They gave me some shots, and I had to keep the eye closed for some time. They said I was very fortunate that it didn’t hit the center of the eye, it was all in the white part. If it went half a centimeter closer to the center of the eye, you’d be having a different conversation with me entirely. Now everything is fine, I have my 20/20 vision back, I feel great! (laughs)

Oh, that’s a really horrible situation!

It was scary! Don’t get me wrong, I was really scared when it happened!

Anyway, we’re very glad that now everything is fine with you! Let’s keep on with the questions. Apart from Death Angel and All Time Highs, you have been involved in a couple of other projects. The most famous one is probably “Nuclear Blast Allstars – Out Of The Dark”. How did you like working with Peter Wichers? As far as we understand, you are one of the very few singers who actually recorded vocals in Peter’s studio…

Peter was a joy to work with, he was great. I was so excited when Nuclear Blast approached me, they told me the concept, they said that he was gonna write all the music, and they picked up singers, and he would send them the music, and it was up to the singer to write all the lyrics and vocal melody. I thought, “Wow, what a great idea!” They sent the song (“My Name Is Fate”) to me, I heard it and thought it was great. I spent the next couple of weeks writing that song out, then I flew down to Los Angeles, and me and Peter, we really bonded right after that. It was a really enjoyable studio experience - he really liked what I wrote for the song, he had a couple of suggestions, we changed those around, and I think we delivered a very strong track on that album. When the guys in Death Angel heard that, I think it inspired them to step up the writing process for this new album. It gave them a lot of confidence in my abilities for lyric- and melody-writing, and that’s why they gave me the free range to write as much as I did for this new album.

What do you think about that album in general? Have you heard the entire record? And have you heard its “light” counterpart (“Nuclear Blast Allstars – Into The Light”)?

Yeah, I definitely heard both, I definitely have both! It’s such an adventure! I tend to veer towards the dark one, just for the fact that on “Into The Light” all the lyrics and music were written by one person (actually by two: music by Victor Smolski and lyrics by Peavy Wagner – ed.), whereas on “Out Of The Dark” all the music was written by Peter, but the lyrics were written by so many different people. It gives the album so much more different identities, and that’s what was so exciting to me about it.

We cannot but ask you about your cooperation with Nuclear Blast. Are you completely satisfied with it, or are there still things that could be done better? Did you consider proposals from any other labels for “Killing Season”?

To tell you the truth, I’ve been nothing but completely satisfied with Nuclear Blast. They’ve treated us better than any label ever treated us. We were on Enigma, we were on Geffen, we did the whole major label thing, and no one ever understood how to market a metal band the way I think Nuclear Blast does. They not only know what the bands want, they know what the fans want, and they make it exciting to be a metal fan. They are a really down-to-earth great label that has band that they enjoy, and the people that work here really enjoy their jobs and are proud of what they do. I think it shows.

Another project you were involved in some time ago is the song “The Alliance of Hellhoundz” on the latest album by the German thrash metal band Destruction. How did you get involved in this project?

It was great! Schmier approached me with it at one of the festivals years ago. He said he was gonna write a song where he wanted multiple singers from different bands to join in. He was asking if I would consider it, and I was like, “Absolutely!” A few years later he contacted me via e-mail, he had the song, and he sent me the files. I had a friend who told me what type of studio we needed to do it, another friend had a recording studio, so I asked him if he would mind recording my vocal part for it, and he was honored, because he’s a huge Destruction fan and Death Angel fan. He record it for me, we sent the files over to Schmier, and in a while I got my copy of the track. It was a good thing to keep movement more like a group effort, more communal, so it was a great idea and a fun experience.

When and how did you get to know Schmier? Was it before the reunion or after the reunion?

It was before the reunion, it was around 1987, I met him at the “Ultra-Violence” tour when we were playing in Germany. I saw him on pretty much every tour after that, when we played for “Frolic Through The Park” (1988) and “Act III” (1990), he was always around. Then as we were broken up for 13 years, I didn’t see him, and when we reformed, we were playing in Switzerland, and he was backstage. I walked backstage, and I was like, “Oh my God!” It’s great to see him, Schmier is a really great guy, he’s been carrying on doing metal and playing it for the right reasons as well.

Many thrash metal fans have their distinct preferences – some prefer the U.S. school of thrash, and some like the German thrash metal scene better. And indeed, these two scenes are quite different. What do you think about thrash metal from Germany?

At the time when it was coming out – Destruction, Kreator, Sodom and all that – it definitely had its own identity, and that’s the beauty of thrash. In all honesty, even East Coast thrash, bands from New York, had a different identify from San Francisco. It just makes the movement better, you need variety in genres of music. I truly enjoy German thrash metal, it was great to come to a country and see your contemporaries from your genre. It was like you had friends that you’d never met before, but you knew them already, because they’re on records.

You have mentioned the legendary Thrash of the Titans show. It was a really huge event, and from what we heard about it, it really demonstrated the unity among the musicians. But why haven’t there been more events of that kind since then?

In all honesty, what brought Thrash of the Titans to life was an unfortunate event, Chuck was diagnosed with cancer. It was such a monumental event that it would have to be some sort of benefit for an unfortunate situation to bring something like that again. As far as probably bringing a tour around with some of those bands, two or three of them, it would be wonderful, but to get that many bands for a one-off show again can only be the result of some tragic event.

In the States you have quite a few big tours, but even for Gigantour, they don’t have many thrash metal bands together, they usually have Megadeth and a lot of modern metal stuff…

You know, I’ve noticed that! (cracks) It’s up to the booking agents to think about that, and maybe that are the acts they think need to be brought in. In the long run, I think this genre is fixing to explode out there as well, it will come full circle. At the same time, you need a variety of bands, because then you can take from each other’s crowds and build an entirely bigger metal scene in general.

Your website contains pictures from your last year’s trip to the Philippines. Was it the first time you played there? And in general, how much are Death Angel famous in the Philippines?

It was the very first time, it was crazy and wonderful. The people there were so warm and so open to us, it was very nice, it was a magical week. We played one show, and 35,000 people showed up!

Great!!! More about the website – we checked the merchandise section and found a very cool item there – the Death Angel skateboard. Who came up with this idea? And does anybody in the band go or maybe used to go in for skateboarding?

It was actually Dennis who came up with the idea. Den was always looking out for outlets, he likes to surf now, and he thought that a Death Angel skateboard would be a great idea. We all agreed, and Dennis designed most of the graphics for it. Now it’s available in a few stores downtown and in our online store. And as far as skateboarding, none of us really skateboard anymore (laughs), but back in the original days, from “The Ultra Violence” to “Act III”, we all skateboarded. Now the knees just don’t work the way they used to. (everybody laughs)

It’s common knowledge that you are very much dissatisfied with your one and only live album “Fall From Grace” (1990). Have you considered recording a new one with a better sound quality or maybe a live DVD?

We’re definitely gonna record a live album, but whether it will happen after this album or after our next album, it’s yet to be decided. But we’re definitely gonna do a proper live album! As far as live DVDs are concerned, that’s definitely in the future as well. There’s a limited digipack edition of “Killing Season” coming out, and they’re gonna have a DVD of the live show we did, but we’re definitely gonna make more live DVDs available. Actually we also plan to do a big long DVD with the history of Death Angel.

And to round up this interview – what is required to bring Death Angel over to Russia for a couple of gigs? Have you received any proposals to play here?

(enthusiastically) God, I want it so bad! It would be a dream come true, to tell you the truth. We have suggested that to our booking agent and told him how much we want to do it, so he’s spreading the word, and he promised us that this is the tour that’s gonna hit places we’ve never been to. We’ve got our fingers crossed, hopefully they can make it happen.

Death Angel on the Internet: http://www.deathangel.com

Special thanks to Alexei “KIDd” Kuzovlev (Irond Records) for arranging this interview

Roman “Maniac” Patrashov, Natalie “Snakeheart” Patrashova
January 13, 2008
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