DEATH ANGEL
By Kelley Simms
Photos courtesy of Nuclear Blast
Bay Area thrashers DEATH ANGEL have been through a lot in their career. From teenagers in the burgeoning thrash scene of the early ’80s to now seasoned veterans. Five Filipino cousins formed the band in 1982: guitarists Rob Cavestany and Gus Pepa, bassist Dennis Pepa, drummer Andy Galeon and vocalist Mark Osegueda. Through bad management, contract disputes, litigation and a bad bus accident, two of the original cousins are still carrying on the DEATH ANGEL legacy with their newest release, Relentless Retribution. Cavestany and Osegueda are back to their thrash roots on their latest offering and are ready to tour extensively. Speaking from his home in San Francisco, Osegueda talked about the band’s early years, the new album and the resurgence of thrash metal.
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What was the reason Death Angel split in 1991?
The main thing was, is we started off very young and signed a bunch of things that we pretty much shouldn’t have. It was just a lack of knowledge of how the music industry worked. Management, record companies, you name it, we signed it. And unfortunately it came back and haunted us our whole career. And by the end of the Act III tour, we were constantly in litigation. Then we were actually generating a good amount of money, not for us, but for other people … legal fees. So we were constantly in meetings about our next court case, or some battle we were fighting. It started to take away the meaning of the core of the band and was making anything but the time we were on stage very unpleasant, to say the least. At the height of that, we got into our bus accident and that kind of drove the nail into the coffin. At that point, I had had enough of the whole music industry. It was great as a dream, but the reality of it sucks (laughing). So I quit, and the band called it after that.
About SWARM. Andy’s sister and brother-in-law used to live across the street from my cousin in Phoenix. When I was visiting my cousin in 1998, his neighbor had the SWARM demo, before the actual album was released. And I remember saying, “Yes, Mark’s back!” how good was it to come back with Rob and Andy for that album?
The interesting thing was, I had been playing music the whole time but never pursued anything, just jamming with friends. Then some of them wanted to form a band but I’d always turn them down because I was so embittered with the music industry. One day, I finally got bit with that bug about playing live. I would talk to Rob around Christmas and things like that, but other than that, not much. I called him out of the blue one day and said, “You were my favorite person I ever wrote music with.” He wasn’t doing anything … post-ORGANIZATION, or any other projects he had. So we said we’d write a couple of songs. We didn’t have a band yet. He was still in contact with Andy and got him to play on the demos. We weren’t trying to reform Death Angel, I just wanted to do some music and see where it went from there. We started jamming with Andy and it was just a natural fit. We didn’t have to look for a drummer and Andy’s a great drummer, and it just fell into place. But it was definitely great writing with Rob again and getting to perform and tour with him also.
Your performance at Chuck Billy’s benefit show Clash of the Titans in 2001 made you officially reform. Was it just the whole thrash atmosphere that made you want to get back together and record a new album?
We’d been approached many times over the years by promoters here and abroad, especially in Europe, because we had a much larger fan base there. We’d always turn it down. Then we got the news about Chuck being diagnosed with cancer and the benefit they were putting together. When they approached us, initially it took us awhile to answer. We knew the cause was for a good cause, but the product regarding Death Angel was still taboo to us. Then we sat down and really thought about it and said if we were ever going to do it then this was the right reason to do it. It was supposed to be for a one-off show, it just kind of snowballed from there. Halfway through the first song, it just felt like magic up there on stage playing those songs again. The crowd reaction was phenomenal and it was such a high that I hadn’t felt in years. After that, we did one other show in San Francisco. And then European promoters started getting ahold of us and offering us shows. We did it, and that turned into a European tour, which turned into another European tour, and the responses we were getting out there was phenomenal. Then labels started approaching us, and that’s when we had to sit down and think about it. It was one thing to relearn old material and play it, but to write new music for a band that hadn’t put out a product in 13 years under that name, that’s where we had to sit down and have a meeting. Because the name was sacred to us and the name was sacred to the fans, and we didn’t want to let any of them down. If we obviously can make a go at it, then let’s give it our all and make it happen. And it’s been happening ever since.
The Art of Dying was definitely your return-to-form comeback album. What was your mindset while writing that album, since it would be your first in 13 years to signal DA’s return?
We knew we had to do this and we knew we wanted to do this. But at this point, everyone in the band had gone their separate ways as songwriters and musicians. And when we got back together, it was odd, because they were all trying to throw out individualized ideas out there of what we thought what Death Angel might sound like. Getting together and then jamming all together didn’t have our sound to it. I’m not totally sold on the fluidity, it you will, of Art of Dying. But there are definitely some amazing stand out tracks that will always be in the Death Angel live set. I think it was a band that was trying to re-find their sound. We were very proud of the stuff we did on that album.
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Relentless Retribution is, as you’ve said before in previous interviews, back to your thrash roots. But the songwriting seems a little more adventurous, with a lot of tempo changes and challenging and aggressive vocals. How did you go about writing this one and did you approach your vocals any differently this time around?
Definitely, especially the writing part. We knew we wanted a more thrash-based album. We’re a thrash band. We love melody. We’ve loved melody since the first album. Before we even wrote this album, we got the new members, what we did is, we toured with them pretty extensively, Europe and the States before we even wrote this album. Feeding off the strength of Will’s and Damien’s playing, then we started writing for it. It was Rob’s riffs, but he knew he could push certain elements that maybe he couldn’t have done with Andy. Andy is more of a rock/groove-based playing drummer, and Will is more of a thrash drummer, so he could do a lot more crazy, fast tempo changes. With that in mind, he started to write more technical stuff with a lot more variation within the songs, but a lot more aggressive riffs. So when Rob was giving me the stuff when he was coming up with them. Usually, he’ll write a song, then jam it out with the guys, then they’ll give me a CD of it and I’ll take it home and come up with the melody and then the lyrics. The melodies are usually based right off the attitude of Rob’s riffs. And this one had such aggressive playing on it that it directly affected the style of lyrics I was writing and the style of my approach of how I was going to sing it. And that’s why a lot of them came out much more aggressive than our previous work.
With the new kids in the band, Will (Carroll) and Damien (Sissom), how do you think they handled themselves on their first DA recorded experience?
Oh, they were great. Me and Rob took them through a drill camp, so to speak (laughing). Once we had the lineup in place, we brought them right on the road and we toured extensively. And as soon as we got home and started writing, when we were in that studio, we planned for that and made them rehearse constantly. We gave them homework, and the next day we would come up with new songs and the next day we’d have that one down. They had their work cut out for them. By the time we got in that studio, they had been playing nonstop. We prepped them on what the studio was going to be like, even told them it was going to be much harder than it was. We over-trained them for the studio, so by the time they got in there, I’d hate to say they were over prepared for the studio, but they had their chops up and they were ready. So when Jason (Seucof) pushed them to the limit, they were already prepared to be pushed to that. He brought out even more of what hopefully me and Rob instilled and brought out of them.
You’ve had guests on your previous albums, mostly doing gang vocals and such, but “Claws In So Deep” is the first time that any other musician has actually played on a Death Angel album. How did you get Rodrigo y Gabriela to play their acoustic piece on the album?
It’s pretty ironic because Rob was a fan of theirs. He had mentioned he was going to go see them play. At one point, we were on tour, I can’t remember where, we came across the Testament guys and Rob was talking to Alex, the Skolnick Trio was opening for Rodrigo y Gabriala at this particular part of the tour. Rob mentioned he was going to go see them and Alex said, “Why don’t you get in touch with them? Here’s their e-mail.” So Rob got in touch with them and found out they were big Death Angel fans, which was pretty great. Rob met up with them and started talking, and they stayed in touch. When we started to do this album, Rodrigo said he’d like to be a pert of this and contribute to it in some way. We were honored. We wanted them to write a bridge between two songs, and that’s exactly what they did. And they exclusively wrote that music for this record. And yes, it was the first guest musicians to ever play on a Death Angel record.
Jason Seucof did a great job producing but also laid down a killer solo in “Truce.” Was that an after thought while you were in the studio, or you have Jason in mid from the beginning?
Not from the beginning, but very shortly after. He’s such an amazing guitarist and we were in the studio and he was coming up with these great ideas. So we wanted to get him to play on one of the songs, he was very proud and happy to do it as well, and it just fell into place.
And it’s just great that all these Bay Area thrash bands like them, Heathen and Defiance are back and touring and recording again. You guys have already done your reunion albums, but why is this a great time for this resurgence?
It’s such a viable music. You cling on to it. It’s got that power, but it’s got melody and aggression. When times are tough, people like to get their aggressions out. And sometimes this type of music is a great way to do it whether you’re in the crowd or in the band. I think it’s great that things have come full circle and now thrash is getting a lot of recognition due in part to a lot of bands that we’ve helped influence, in interviews and what not. Knowing that these are the bands that helped influenced or inspired us to become the band that we are. As you said, us, Testament, Exodus are all putting out new albums. Forbidden is coming out with a new one. There’s a whole generation of younger bands putting out great thrash records and it’s just making the scene bigger as a whole. And now that Metallica just put out their heaviest album in a long time. And also the Big Four shows too, is bringing so much attention to the genre that’s going to make for a much stronger packages in the future to come, for the fans and the bands.
You have a big tour coming up. South America, Europe, then the US, which will be your first headlining tour of North America since 1990. How excited are you to get back out there?
I am so excited to get out there. And now that we have the new album to start adding songs from this in there and it’s going to make the set more well-rounded. I just can’t wait. It’s something since I restarted playing music again, it’s something I’ve never wanted to give up and never will again. I think it’s one of the main reasons that me and Rob are still going. Death Angel has always been a live band and right now with this lineup we have, we’re just on fire. This album has instilled a new aggression inside us and if you have a chance to come see Death Angel live, I guarantee you, you will not, not, not be let down. And we’re going to tour like we’ve never toured before. And while we’re touring, we’re going to be writing the next album. So when we get home from this extensive Relentless Retribution tour, we’re going to maybe take three weeks to a month off for some fine tuning and get right back into the studio and record a new album and do another extensive tour. We’re going to stay in people’s faces from now on.
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