The late-80’s were calling for more serious, more proficient ways of execution; bashing from here to the end of time wasn’t going to do the trick anymore… even Slayer themselves slowed down looking to expand their arsenal beyond the extreme aggression of “Reign in Blood”; and Metallica continued up the progression scale with the complex behemoth “…and Justice for All”. Believe it or not, these budding teenagers known as Death Angel thought that they could also join the technical/progressive thrash fray which was swiftly becoming a formidable presence on the scene. They would have done just fine unleashing another ultra-violence along the lines of their excellent debut… but no; they were aiming higher than that, their more creative side was crying out for expression, and they had to give it a go.
There’s a lot of hesitation on the album reviewed here; the guys aren’t sure whether to remain faithful to the style on their first showing, or to enter the technical/progressive thrash metal arena occupied by Toxik, Realm, Blind Illusion and Watchtower; or to go heads-over-heels into a new eccentric bizarre territory with all the funk and other non-metal additives they can think of. Hesitations of the kind usually generate messy results, but in the case of these talented youngsters we have one of the finest moments of the Bay-Area movement, an album full of vitality, complexity, and creativity. “3rd Floor” is the ultimate shredder, a stunning riff-fest with outlandish progressive build-ups and a wide array of tempo changes. “Road Mutants” is a nearly futuristic thrasher with the dizzying time shifts, the spacey Voivod-ish arrangements, and the sudden change of pace including a maddening exit. “Why You Do This” goes further down the Voivodian rabbit hole starting as a frolic thrash/crossover cut, before brilliant stylish riffs begin a one-of-a-kind duel the latter intercepted by more carefree crossover dashes; watch out for the dramatic accumulation in the second half which shoots this great track straight into the Exotico thrashland, and chronologically this even comes before “Dimension Hatross”. “Bored” may bore you a bit arriving after a most tantalizing opening trio the guys just relaxing with laid-back jumpy rhythms of a not very serious semi-thrash nature.
“Devil’s Meat” is a marvellous progressive piece with a gradual lyrical inauguration which (il)logically leads to impetuous hard thrashing riffage which sounds intimidating enough without any particularly speedy excursions; a fabulous technical section splits the song into two these youngsters almost giving Deathrow and Coroner a run for their money, also with a couple of superb melodic leads and furious gallops served as a finale. The masterpieces don’t end here, though, and here comes “Confused” to confuse the listener even more with a sprawling doomy prologue which later turns into the main motif, its steady stride interrupted by an abrupt speedy crescendo, the established idyll lasting for 7.5-min. “Guilty of Innocence” brings back the more intense riff-patterns recalling the debut in a great way, a remorseless lashing composition with a few more intricate embellishments including a surprising inclusion of several frivolous crossover etudes. “Open Up” is the first funky explosion, a pioneering number predating Mordred’s “In This Life”, Faith No More’s “The Real Thing” and Re-Animator’s “Laughing” by a few years, its carefree nature marred by more aggressive thrashing towards the middle.
The lengthy atmospheric intro of “Shores of Sin” may stretch the nerves a bit, and when some distorted noisy leads follow suit the fan may start thinking that the more serious side of the album is over; and he/she may be right as this saga is a mix of intense thrash and softer progressive decisions plus a strangely uplifting chorus surrounded by psychedelic melodic tunes. Weirdness of the highest order which only deepens with “Cold Gin”, yes, a Kiss cover which for many would be the end of their affair with this opus, performed quite faithfully without any thrash pretensions. “Mind Rape” comes at the end to save the day, a vigorous technical headbanger with a myriad of pace shifts, another reminder of the debut’s more rigorous delivery. Excluding that last track, the ending may appear a bit scattered with too many influences piled on top of each other, some of them debatable in terms of relevance, especially this Kiss tribute. These wayward teenagers had let their creative spirit roam free creating the purists’ nightmare in the process. Many of the diehard thrash metal fans must have been horrified listening to this flight of the imagination which literally produced the first diversification album in the annals of the genre. Thrash wasn’t pure anymore, and after it became inordinately technical and progressive literally overnight, now it got contaminated with other dissociative gimmicks thanks to a bunch of schoolboys who were only allowed to attend concerts accompanied by their parents. Incredible, but a fact.
If there wasn’t a healthy follow-up to this enterprise, this album would have remained a most despicable entry in the history of metal, and would have ruined the guys’ career before it had even begun. Well, it spawned a trend which saw others joining without second thoughts, like the mentioned Mordred and Re-Animator, but also Flotsam & Jetsam (“When the Storm Comes Down”), Wrathchild America, Wrath, Omnitron, etc. who brought a softer, less radically aggressive touch to the thrash metal template. And when Slaughter and Pantera introduced the angry/aggro dissipations, it all steam-rolled from there into… you know the story only too well.
Certainly, it’s too farfetched to blame Death Angel for the whole 90’s transformational campaign, but it can’t be denied the fact that the boys, even without establishing themselves as a legitimate presence on the field yet, dared to meddle with the thrash metal formula and actually produce something quite effective, especially from a contemporary point-of-view. The 80’s metalhead’s mind was opening slowly to new possibilities outside the aggressive stripped-down barrage, and it was albums like this that accelerated the process and made the genre a more attractive and a more interesting proposition. And, if we have to be very honest, there’s plenty of hard thrashing on it to satisfy even the most pretentious, a truckload of smashing hyper-active riffs has been provided to make the hard-boiled forget the presence of the mellower digressions if they choose to; everyone has been taken care of, truth be told.
Not on “Act III”, though; but that was to be expected. The revolution had started, and there was no turning back; in other words, thrash was completely gone from the band’s arsenal save for a couple of isolated brasher strokes. This effort led them out of the underground and exposed them to wider audience, but this didn’t amount to mountains of money although I strongly doubt that this was the guys’ most urgent agenda. They split up after that with some of them moving on with the alternative metal/rock formation The Organisation. Their journey after the reformation in the new millennium has been a bumpy one, the beginning not very convincing with the guys vacillating as to which road to take from the old ones. Things have improved vastly on the last two instalments, and since there are simply no new vistas to be explored anymore, fans of the good old thrash should have no worries that their favourite music would become frolic and trippy again, just like that, for no apparent reason.
Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
