Dark Angel: Discography (1984-1991) Re-up

×

Dark Angel: Discography (1984-1991) Re-up

Close

Dark Angel became known in thrash metal circles for their ability to deliver some of the genre's most challenging and articulate albums without ever losing touch with its core attributes of pure speed and primal aggression. And although, like many of their peers, the band's appeal would never really extend beyond the metal underground, their recorded legacy has stood the test of time much better than the bulk of their '80s thrash metal peers.

×

Dark Angel: Discography (1984-1991) Re-up

Close

Formed in Los Angeles in 1983, Dark Angel went through countless incarnations before settling on a somewhat stable lineup featuring vocalist Don Doty, guitarists Eric Meyer and Jim Durkin, bassist Rob Yahn, and drummer Jack Schwartz. After having one of their demos, "Welcome to the Slaughterhouse," chosen for inclusion on Brian Slagel's Metal Massacre IV collection in 1985, the group proceeded to assemble their remaining demo tapes into a primitive, but enthusiastic first album called We Have Arrived, released later that year. New drummer Gene Hoglan joined the band in time to be pictured on the album sleeve, but made his performance debut on 1986's much improved Darkness Descends, released by thrash metal-friendly Combat Records, and usually viewed by fans as the band's true arrival. Bassist Yahn would depart shortly after the album's release (replaced by Mike Gonzalez), soon to be followed by original vocalist Doty at tour's end.

×

Dark Angel: Discography (1984-1991) Re-up

Close

Unsure about their next step, the Dark Angel undertook a long hiatus before resurfacing with drummer Hoglan firmly entrenched as the band's major creative force. After drafting new vocalist Ron Rinehart, the band recorded 1989's Leave Scars – the first of two albums which earned them the unlikely label of progressive thrash, due to the longer, more complex songs the band had begun composing. Recorded in April 1989 and released later that year, Live Scars introduced new six-stringer Brett Eriksen, who had recently replaced Durkin, and documented the group's ferocious live energy. Another extended break ensued before the recording of what is arguably their finest effort, 1991's Time Does Not Heal. Hailed by critics for the sheer creative scope of its ambitious songwriting, the album was considered the last word on technical thrash metal, but arrived at the end of thrash metal's time in the limelight and sold poorly. The departure of Rinehart soon thereafter convinced Hoglan to breakup the band, and he eventually joined Florida's Death and contributed to some of their finest albums. Relativity Records issued a collection of Dark Angel's finest moments, Decade of Chaos in 1992.

by Eduardo Rivadavia, AMG

×

Dark Angel: Discography (1984-1991) Re-up

Close

Dark Angel’s first effort is a bit different from the following, violent Darkness Descends. Here we don’t have Gene Hoglan at the drums so the speed is a bit lower and the violence is more focused on speed metal patterns with some interesting thrash influences. Looking at the period the influences can be seen in early Slayer period and all the speed movements.

The opener, the title track is a fist in the stomach for intensity and speed. Surely it's one of the most thrashy ones here. It features quite fast bass drum and vocals that still have a speed metal style with high tonalities, followed by long parts in up tempo. The following Merciless Death is the hit here along with the hyper violent Welcome To The Slaughterhouse. These are two examples of early violent thrash. The Slayer influences are heavier in these songs and the bass parts in Merciless Death are memorable for their obscurity.

Here the vocals become more harsh and violent, as the guitars. A prelude to the awesome Darkness Descends. Falling From The Sky is characterized by a fast drums and catchy-obscure chorus during the refrains. It’s good to notice how the solos maintain always a melodic component typical of the speed genre, even if the drum tempos are faster. No Tomorrow during the beginning riffs reminded me early Exodus, also concerning the dark lead guitar lines, then the fast double kicks enter and the speed increases.

The melodic, clean guitar intro to Hell’s On Its Knees reminds me Overkill with The Years Of Decay song or Flots and Jets with Escaper From Within. This is really great and excellent to break the heavy wall of sound. Then the violence starts again and we have good refrains, quite melodic guitars and screams from hell. To close this album we have the mid paced Vendetta song, quite good with excellent lead guitar breaks in the middle.

An album recommended to any thrash fan but also to those who prefer speed metal instead of the Darkness Descends violence. Anyway this is a fucking great debut. Thrash on!!!

by CHRISTI_NS_ANITY8, metal-archives

×

Dark Angel: Discography (1984-1991) Re-up

Close

The year was 1986. Thrash was just coming into shape. Albums like Ride The Lightning, Kill 'Em All, Feel The Fire had all defined thrash. At that time heavy metal wasn't too much aquainted with speed and brutality at the same time. Few bands like Venom, Kreator, Bathory had tried it befoe with their respecrtive outputs, but none were as convincing as this one. On 17th November 1986, the world was struck down with this heavy, dark, fast, brutal piece of music. At it's release there was practically no album on the planet which could beat this album in terms of extremity and brutality.

As in any thrash metal album, the guitars are the real standouts. The guitarists are technically superb, and the riffs that they churn out are even better. The riffs are heavy, fast, and brutal. The lead work takes a bit of backseat on this album ( compared to the riffs of course ). The drums are lethal (well it's Gene Hoglan what else can you expect ?). This album features the first introduction of Gene Hoglan as a drummer and on this album he makes full utilization of drumming skills. The bass is burried in the drum and guitar fury so we can't hear much of it. The vocals are violent and brutal and in short great for such an album.

The main highlight in this album is the songwriting. The songs are straight-forward, simple and not too complex, but performed with an energy which is never seen before. The songs stick in your head at most by the second listen. Among the songs, the opener title track is the best song off the album. It is straight forward and aggressive track. Lars Ulrich ripped off the machine gun drum fills and the riffs from it for the Metallica song One ( unsuccesfully of course!!! ). Black Prophecies is a slower, and more doomier track. It is almost 9 minutes long and it singlehandedly contains almost 70 riffs. The Burning Of Sodom is a superfast song, almost 280 bmp. Merciless Death is also an enjoyable track, with an excellent catchy chorus. The rest of the songs are also equally good.

This album is highly recomended for anyone listening to thrash metal music. The energy with which this album is performed is just superb. The construction of songs and the way the riffs built upon each other is just outstanding. Further there is the dark and dirty atmosphere brought down by the production. The production assists the song in every possible way. Concluding this is one of the most essential pieces of thrash metal music, so please get it without further delay of time.

by extremesymphony, metal-archives

×

Dark Angel: Discography (1984-1991) Re-up

Close

Though Darkness Descends was the audio incendiary equivalent of a wing of fighter jets attacking a hot dog stand (aka you, the listener), creating ripples throughout an underground starved for increasing extremity in metal music; the band experienced a period of unrest and a nearly 3-year gap before they could channel its followup. Bass player Rob Yahn and cult screamer Don Doty would exit the lineup, to be replaced respectively by Eric Gonzalez and tattooed man-beast Ron Rinehart, one of the last guys you'd probably want to meet in a dark alley or anywhere else you'd exchange interpersonal violence. Dark Angel had 'arrived' in its most enduring configuration, signed with Combat Records and given further exposure through their live performance on the Ultimate Revenge 2 compilation.

Rinehart is probably the most obvious difference between this album and Darkness Descends, with a more down to earth, shouted tone rifling through the myriad, verbose lyrics that Gene Hoglan drafted up for this album. Seriously, they scroll onward and onward, and not through mere repetition, but plausible, nightmarish revelations of the psycho and sadistic concepts being strewn over the instrumental violation. Let's just say Dark Angel had crafted one thorough epic of mental and musical distortion. The riffing is not unfamiliar to the previous album, but more complex still, almost as if you took other Californian thrashers Vio-Lence and ramped up the volatility levels of their 1988 classic Eternal Nightmare (especially "The Death of Innocence"). Yet, where that album provokes a fresh, bright brawl that leers at you from a street corner or a pile of junked automobiles, Leave Scars is more dark and personal, a Nightmare on Elm Street of technical thrash sans the shitty plot and acting. The stuff of broken homes and bedrooms. Drug addled depressions. Paranoid schizophrenia.

I've often complained about the production on this album, and its my least favorite aspect. Sure, it's workmanlike, fairly balanced and audible, but not entirely adequate for the level of riffs being wrought. As atmosphere, it functions like an overture to dementia, and you'll be so stunned by the constant hustle of the guitars and Gene Hoglan's storming, almost unparalleled battering that you are unlikely to notice so much. The album opens with a three hit onslaught, "The Death of Innocence" a symphony of fists beating an asylum wall before the grimy assailant that is "Never to Rise Again". Rinehart shines here, his vocals creating a manic percussion that perfectly flows astride the sore joints of the guitarists' digits. But as great a momentum as these tracks create, it is the stunning floor work of "No One Answers" and its incredibly evil opening riff that inform us that true greatness has occurred. The ensuing breakdown is one of the finest in all of metal history, with Slayer-like descending melodies that provide more than just a mosh pit, but a one way ticket to personal hell.

"Cauterization" is rather lengthy for an instrumental, and it might damned well have been given lyrics, but then the word count of Leave Scars would have likely surpassed the King James bible. However, the chugging, multi-tiered complex is convincing enough to level you straight in the face, before the unexpected deviation into a cover of Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song". Now, it arguably doesn't mesh well with its environment of psycho-sadistic emotional bombardments, but outside of a video with Viking cat stills set to the original, it's one of the most entertaining renditions I've heard, Rinehart proving he could scream just like Doty if he so chose. "Older Than Time Itself" is another favorite, its intro bearing a stark similarity to "For Whom the Bell Tolls", but the comparison ending there as dire melodies erupt and another intense, early breakdown sequence. "The Promise of Agony" is another classic, the bass pedal so condensed and percussive that it feels like there are 3-4 separate drum kits performing simultaneously in the studio; and neither do the freakish "Worms" 'narrated instrumental, nor the monstrous title track disappoint in the slightest.

Darkness Descends probably frightened a lot of people, and Leave Scars honored the tradition. It honestly would not get a lot more 'extreme' than this album in 80s thrash, without delving into the harrowing and inevitable mutations that were death and black. The combination of poignant, intelligent and violent imagery conjured through the lyrics is a tight fit with the labyrinthine, constant riffing. Despite its scale, there is no real excess here. Like Slayer, when this band wrote a breakdown, you could feel it, and while these aren't necessarily as potent as "Angel of Death" or "Raining Blood", they're both mighty and appropriate to offset the dominant, faster paced surge. The one hurdle I cannot get past is the production, it is simply not good enough for the writing, nor as resonant as Darkness Descends or the cleaner swansong Time Does Not Heal. But the songs themselves, barring the cover, are pregnant with hostility, riven with ideas and in the end I prefer it even to its highly lauded predecessor: it's marginally more interesting, with more consistently memorable riffs and psychological, multi perspective lyrics.

by autothrall, metal-archives

×

Dark Angel: Discography (1984-1991) Re-up

Close

Thrash metal was born in the live arena. Too few live recordings of thrash bands were released. Fortunately, the live tempest of the blackened lords of thrash Dark Angel was preserved for eternity in this all too brief, but essential mini live album.

Just five songs, recorded at the peak of the band's powers in 1989, is an amazing document of the sheer intensity and sonic violence this legendary band could produce. You can literally feel the sweat dripping from the walls and smell the bloodlust of the frenzied crowd of bemulleted thrashers.

Strangely, this recording had the best production job of any Dark Angel release up to that point. The riffs will start rabid thrashers drooling, as they cut through crystal clear, as do the leads. Gene Hoglan's drumming is incredibly precise, but also complex and brutal. Ron Rinehart's vocals also surpass his studio efforts.

A nice inclusion on this album is the title track from Dark Angel's first, and now nigh on impossible to find, first album "We Have Arrived". It holds up very well against the later material.

A short, sharp blast of thrash fury. This is the near perfect live mini album.

by Vim_Fuego, metal-archives

×

Dark Angel: Discography (1984-1991) Re-up

Close

Much like their cover model had transformed from a frightened girl to some hunted street walker in pink, Dark Angel spent the two years between their Leave Scars and Time Does Not Heal in the throes of maturation. Whether or not this is welcome would really depend on who you asked, but seeing as the Californian brutes had already released the raw, forceful cult classic (Darkness Descends) and the sloppily produced, yet punishing viper's nest of unforgettable ideas (Leave Scars), it would have been destitute to merely repeat either experience. Time Does Not Heal goes the distance, expanding on the lyrical elements of its predecessor while sporting the most professional refinement of any album in their career.

I, for one, am thankful for the modifications. I won't claim that this record is ultimately superior to Leave Scars, but it's nice to finally be able to hear each of the band's talented instrumentalists in equal measure, from the muted fervor of Eric Meyer and (Jim Durkin's replacement) Brett Eriksen, to the intense control of Gene Hoglan, to the bass, thick and pluggy here but favorable to its presence on the prior outing. Another metamorphosis has transpired in the vocal region, as Ron Rinehart has decided to splay his meter out in a broader path of almost operatic chagrin. He still hacks and barks when necessary, but in general he gives more breath to the lines, creating an unnerving sense of melody above the rather blunt brutality of the guitars. Semi-technical, rich in hostility and not unlike Heathen's Victims of Deception with its mildly processed edge of modernity.

There are some incredibly well composed pieces here, beginning with the title track and its opening salvo of acoustic guitars that attract the frenzied swagger of the electrics in a clash that better resembles the Leave Scars material. "Pain's Invention, Madness" is hands down one of the best pieces in Dark Angel's career, a bombastic juggernaut of atmospheric chords that glide over the muted substrate, simple and catchy chorus riff, and an impressive, schizoid climax with repressed Rinehart screaming at around 7:00. Note that the general length of the tracks has not changed from the previous output, all of these are between 6-9 minutes in length and offer some substantial variation throughout. "Act of Contrition" is not a personal favorite, there are some wonderful guitars but here I felt Rob's voice stretched a little too awkwardly, but the savage "New Priesthood" and "Psychosexuality" more than compensate, and the entire closing third of Time Does Not Heal is magnificent, in particular the roiling slugfest of "Sensory Deprivation" and "A Subtle Induction", the latter making use of some thick, percussive bass elements in the odd intro.

This might not be the fastest of Dark Angel's offerings, as the band seems to hang closer to the mid pace and substitute weighty low end rhythms for a mesh of exhilaration and acceleration, but it's no less proficient and technical. Even though bands like Deathrow, Artillery, Coroner and Mekong Delta had released bewildering musical epics by 1991, this was still impressively structured composition for its day, far more ambitious than the lions share of miserable tough guy groove metal elements that were beginning to inoculate the West Coast thrash scene (well, those bands who hadn't turned to funk or grunge). Time Does Not Heal is yet another of those marginally late wonders to the Golden Age of the genre. It constantly feels as if it's hanging on the precipice, above a beckoning chasm of oblivion, along with the other natural successors to the heavily structured thrash of Master of Puppets, Reign in Blood, Terrible Certainty, Eternal Nightmare, Taking Over and so forth. It's an appreciable, intelligent and intricate swansong, although it wasn't aware of that at its time of conception; and the third Dark Angel disc in a row worth its weight in headbanging release.

by autothrall, metal-archives