Death Angel: The Art of Dying
Alright, I was gonna finish Protector's discography, but then I got caught up in my Batcave journal, and now I've lost interest. But, I'm still on a big thrash metal kick, so here we are. But as much as I love thrash I am ashamed to say that, except for Exodus, I haven't really been keeping up with a lot of the reformed thrash bands out of either laziness, lack of internet, or lack of money. Time to rectify that. First up, Death Angel. I heard mediocre things about this album back when it came out, so I was a bit leery about throwing my money down or wasting my dial-up bandwidth on some possibly washed-up band. Here's hoping they were wrong.
Why is it the law that the first song on a thrash metal album has to start with melodic guitar before going into some welcome-to-the-thrash-fest song. Don't get me wrong, it's not a big deal for me, but it's still kind of a cliche. First song is suitably badass, but not exactly the most memorable thing ever.
A few songs in, and this pretty much sounds like the melodic thrash of
Frolic Through the Park/
Act III, but with modern metal production upping the ante . So, this is heavier than those albums; not quite
The Ultra-Violence's level of thrashtasticness, but more than badass enough for my tastes. Which is great, because even though I enjoy
Frolic and
Act III, they have a middle-of-the-road quality that feels like the kind of music that was made for Headbanger's Ball. Thrashy, but not so much that they'd turn off the thrash bandwagoneers. Unfortunately, the song level, while fairly strong, isn't as strong as it once was. Again, this is far from bad, but it doesn't quite justify their reformation.
Alright, "The Devil Incarnate" just raised the stakes. It's a bit different, and really kills with some mid-paced heaviness.
I'm not sure if it's just growing on me, but this definitely seems to be getting better as I go on.
Oh, man! "No" says "Yes" to infectious energy! "No" is a song in case you're not picking up what I'm putting down.
For all this album's diversity, "Spirit" is the first song that's really had
Act III's level of melody, though it is still more of a metal song than "A Room with a View".
Alright, the last three songs have been increasingly melodic. They're pretty sweet songs, but I think it's a bit of a cop out to put them all the way at the end of the album. If you believe in these songs (and they should, they're pretty rad) then you should have the balls to mix them in with the rest of the album. I think they would have added a some real diversity that would really have made this an even better album.
Alright, going in for a second listen and I'm definitely enjoying the first few songs much more than before. This is far, far better than the lukewarm reviews led me to believe. And since I keep hearing amazing things about their next album,
Killing Season, and how it's closer to
The Ultra-Violence, which is hands down one of the best thrash metal albums I've ever heard, I'm totally stoked for the next review.
F
uck yeah Death Angel!
