Death Angel
Death Angel is an American thrash metal band from Daly City, California, initially active from 1982 to 1991 and again since 2001. They have released nine studio albums, two demo tapes, one box set and three live albums. The band has gone through several line-up changes, leaving guitarist Rob Cavestany as the only constant member; he and vocalist Mark Osegueda are the only members who appear on all of their studio albums.
Death Angel was one of the most popular Bay Area thrash metal bands of the 1980s, and secured opening slots at club venues that decade, including opening for their peers Megadeth, Metallica, Slayer, Exodus, Testament, Overkill, D.R.I., Mercyful Fate and Possessed. They are also often credited as one of the leaders of the second wave of thrash metal movement from the 1980s, and considered one of the "Big Eight" of the genre, as well as one of the so-called "Big Six of Bay Area thrash metal". Following the underground success of their first two studio albums, The Ultra-Violence and Frolic Through the Park, Death Angel signed to Geffen Records in 1989, and released its only album for the label, Act III, the following year.
While touring in support of Act III, then-drummer Andy Galeon was injured in a bus accident and took over a year to fully recover. This resulted in the band's breakup in 1991. Death Angel reformed in 2001 at the Thrash of the Titans benefit concert for Testament frontman Chuck Billy, and the band has since released six more albums, including Humanicide, whose title track gave Death Angel a Grammy Award nomination. They are currently working on their tenth studio album, which is tentatively due in 2026 or 2027. The band holds a semi-regular Christmas concert.
History
Early years (1982–1988)
Death Angel was formed in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, in 1982 by cousins Rob Cavestany, Dennis Pepa, Gus Pepa, and Andy Galeon —all of Filipino descent. After considering a number of different names for the band, Cavestany and Dennis Pepa settled on the name Death Angel after coming across a book by that title in a book store. In 1983, the band released their first demo, Heavy Metal Insanity, with Matt Wallace serving as producer. According to Mark Osegueda, the group was then "more like a metal band, more like Iron Maiden, Tygers of Pan Tang and stuff like that", as the so-called Bay Area thrash movement was only just beginning to rise to prominence at the time and make its influence felt. Osegueda, a second cousin of the other four members who had been working as their roadie, became the group's lead vocalist in 1984 and performed his first show with the band on a bill with Megadeth in April of that year.Death Angel continued to play club gigs in and around the San Francisco Bay area for nearly two years, writing songs and refining their stage show. In 1985, the band recorded the Kill as One demo produced by Metallica's Kirk Hammett, whom they had met at a record store signing in 1983. The underground tape trading wave of the 1980s led to extensive distribution of the demo, bringing the band wide attention. Osegueda later recalled that prior to the release of the band's first album, "We were playing in L.A. and New York, and the crowd was singing our songs, because there was this underground tape trading.... That's what keeps it alive, and I think that's absolutely wonderful."
In 1986, Death Angel performed at their Concord, California high school, Clayton Valley High School, at lunchtime. They dedicated the song "Mistress of Pain" to a vice principal.
The success of Kill as One led to a record deal with Enigma Records, who released Death Angel's debut album, The Ultra-Violence, in 1987. The band recorded the album when all the members were under 20 years old, and subsequently embarked on its first tour, supporting such bands as Exodus, Destruction, Voivod, Sacrifice and Whiplash. A video was filmed for "Voracious Souls", a song about a band of cannibals, but it never aired on MTV due to the nature of the lyrics.
Death Angel released their second album, Frolic Through the Park, in 1988. It featured more diverse material than the straightforward thrash of The Ultra-Violence. It included a cover version of the Kiss song "Cold Gin". The band released a video for the single "Bored" which received regular airplay on MTV's Headbangers Ball, and the song appeared two years later on the soundtrack to the movie Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III. The song was written under the seemingly unlikely influence of U2, and the guitar playing of the Edge in particular. Despite the success of Frolic Through the Park, the members of Death Angel have been somewhat critical of the album, and in the band's 2015 documentary A Thrashumentuary, Cavestany called it the band's "bastard album" and an "odd album". Aside from "3rd Floor" and "Bored", Death Angel has rarely played songs from this album live again since they reunited in 2001.
Following the release of Frolic Through the Park, the band toured worldwide for the first time and found notable success in Japan, selling out two full Japanese tours.
''Act III'' and breakup (1989–1991)
bought out the band's contract with Enigma Records in 1989 and released the third Death Angel album, Act III, in 1990. Produced by Max Norman, the album showcased the band's newfound use of full-band backing vocals, while fusing elements of funk, thrash, and heavy metal with acoustic guitars to give the album a varied feel, while staying true to the group's heavy roots. The album featured the singles "Seemingly Endless Time" and "A Room with a View", and both songs received airplay on MTV's Headbangers Ball, but a mainstream breakthrough still proved elusive. The band released the "A Room with a View" video and single under the name "D.A." and Cavestany explained to a reporter at the time that he now found the band's original name "restricting. The name Death Angel seems to imply hardcore thrash gloom-and-doom death metal, and we're not like that at all. If I were presented with 10 records, and one of them was by a band called Death Angel, and I'd never heard of them, I'd stick that one on the bottom!"Also in 1990, Enigma Records, already having sold its interest in the band to the Geffen label, illegally released and distributed Fall from Grace, an unauthorized live album featuring songs from their first two releases and recorded at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The album was released without any input from the band members with regard to its songs, contents, credits, concepts, or artwork. The band learned of its existence when they stumbled upon it in a record store in Tucson, Arizona, on the night before a near-fatal auto accident. Enigma Records folded after the release, cashing in on the sales. The album was picked up, manufactured and distributed by Capitol Records, also possibly illegally.
Death Angel had embarked on what was scheduled to be a worldwide tour in support of Act III in 1990, selling out shows at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco, The Ritz in New York, and England's Hammersmith Odeon, and touring, or playing selected shows, with the likes of Forbidden, Vicious Rumors, Sanctuary, Sepultura, Sacred Reich, Morbid Angel, Atheist, Forced Entry, Dead Horse and former Megadeth guitarist Chris Poland. While driving in Arizona en route to a show in Las Vegas, the group's tour bus crashed, and drummer Andy Galeon was critically injured, needing more than a year to recover. Cavestany said at the time that "n a way, it made perfect sense to have a major accident right now, it really fit the story line. We've been pushing so hard for 8 years and just not getting that far, and getting so frustrated with not being where we should be after so long, it was time for something climactic to happen!" The band was also slated to be the opening act for the Clash of the Titans tour featuring Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax in the summer of 1991, but were ultimately replaced by Alice in Chains since they were unable to perform. Additionally, Death Angel and Geffen were planning to release a live album recorded at shows in the Bay Area, and the band was intending to tour a number of other countries it had not previously visited. According to Cavestany, they were invited to tour Europe with Annihilator and Judas Priest, supporting the latter on their Painkiller tour. Due to the bus accident, Death Angel declined and was replaced by Pantera.
Following the accident, Geffen Records and the band's manager pressured the group to hire another drummer and immediately go back to work. The band performed a few shows in Japan with drummer Chris Kontos, but when they declined to hire a long-term replacement, Geffen Records dropped them.
Osegueda left the group and moved to New York to pursue a life outside of music, and Cavestany later explained that "e weren't going to try to replace him and with all that stuff happening we were just totally disgusted at how things had turned out and we felt that this was a sign that the band was not going to go on." The remaining members performed a few acoustic-only shows in the Bay Area, appearing as "the Past."
Post-breakup (1991–2001)
In the summer of 1991, with Galeon fully recovered, Death Angel's remaining members, minus Osegueda, reformed under the name the Organization, with Cavestany taking over lead vocal duties. The band focused more on funk and alternative rock than traditional metal. The Organization's first demo was recorded and produced at City College of San Francisco's multitrack studios by Eric Kauschen and Dana Galloway.The Organization toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe, including two appearances at the Dynamo Open Air Festival in the Netherlands, a support slot on Rob Halford's "Fight" tour, and as the main support act for Motörhead in Europe. Both 1993's The Organization and 1995's Savor the Flavor albums, distributed by Metal Blade Records, failed to make waves with the record-buying public, and Cavestany and Galeon disbanded.
Around 1992, Osegueda was invited to audition for Anthrax after the departure of Joey Belladonna. The band eventually hired John Bush of Armored Saint, and Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian later wrote that Osegueda "had a great voice but was strangely too metal for us."
In 1998, Cavestany and Galeon reunited with Osegueda for the first time since 1990. Along with bassist Michael Isaiah, they formed Swarm and released a four-track self-titled EP in 1999, and the five-song Devour EP in 2000. Swarm toured with Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains in 2000, and released the compilation album Beyond the End, which combined the contents of the two EPs with a cover of the Doors' "My Eyes Have Seen You", in 2003. Although Swarm did not become a commercial success, it did bring the core members of Death Angel back together, setting up an official reunion.