Not content with sitting on their hands, Brazilian thrashers Sepultura decided early on during the Coronavirus Lockdown to do something constructive with their new found spare time. After touring plans for their current record were cut short by the pandemic, the band contacted seemingly everybody in the world of metal and proceeded to embark upon Sepulquarta (Nuclear Blast), a live album recorded with each member in isolation.
Death Angel’s new album Humanicide drops on May 31st via Nuclear Blast. Watch the lyric video for their brand new song, ‘The Pack’ right now!Continue reading
Full disclosure: I’ve been a Death Angel fan since Frolic Through the Park (Restless/Enigma) in 1988. I remember my sister and I blasting ‘Bored’ and singing along. It’s been a sort of anthem for us ever since. Twenty-eight years later, Death Angel is still killing it onstage and on cassette. Do they still make those? No? OK. Then you must go forth and purchase on CD The Evil Divide (Nuclear Blast). The Evil Divide is classic Death Angel done to perfection.
The album opens with ‘The Moth’. It sets the tone for massive amounts of head banging to come. ‘Cause for Alarm’ has the most blistering guitar work of all time. Ted Aguilar is just gobsmackingly amazing on guitar. We should make #musiciancrushmonday a thing and Ted can be our first guitar crush! ‘Lost’ kicks us right in the feels with the lyrics. “Can anybody save me now? Exposed I stand alone…I close my eyes and let it go with one final breath of shame.” Mark Osegueda’s voice is like buttuh! Buttuh! I tellz ya! He rips into your soul and sings it to shreds.
‘It Can’t Be This’ opens with the most groovilicious bass line from Damien Sisson is wicked. The entire song has this funk groove that makes the hips move. It has faint shades of the guitar tone in Slayer’s ‘Dead Skin Mask’. It may be written in the same key. ‘Breakaway’ provides some excellent circle pit action. Well, it would if circle pits were still a thing that is done. I can’t wait to hear these songs live!
Every tune on The Evil Divide is jaw-dropping. Then you whoop! with excitement and commence to thrashing about the room. Musically, it’s tight. The precision in which Mark, Ted, Damian, Rob Cavestany, and Will Carroll execute their respective instruments shows consistency and diligence. The quality of production allows each note to coalesce and form an album that ingrains itself into your psyche and stays with you all day and night. The Evil Divide is a whole body experience: mind, soul, body. Every part of you is intimately engaged.
9.0/10
VICTORIA ANDERSON
[amazon asin=B01CDYNZCK&template=iframe image1]
Side projects have popped up in many different forms and have allowed musicians to find alternative ways to let loose their creative outlets aside from their main gigs. When Fu Manchu guitarist Bob Balch wanted to expand his musical outlet, he started Sun and Sail Club and let his creative side loose.
The band recently played their first ever live shows in Los Angeles and Long Beach, CA. Aside from fans getting a hold of their two recordings, Mannequin (2014) and The Great White Dope (2015), they found a rare opportunity to play a couple shows and give the public a taste of what they are about.
“It was cool. We only rehearsed three times and one of the rehearsals was a month before the show, and then Tony (Cadena, vocals) went to South America on tour. We got on stage and we said fuck it and see what happens. It could be weird but it was cool. I think we all played really well. I recorded it, went back to the hotel, tripped out and listened to it. ‘Fuck it’s rad!’ So I thought it was good,” said Balch, about their first live show (at the time of the interview, this was before their second ever show).
So did they choose their set list? “Pretty much just the newest one,” said Balch. “Because with Tony…it would be rude if we’re like ‘could you step off the stage for a moment and let me take over?’ We’re just doing this record and then we do a little log jam.”
He explained how the idea behind Sun and Sail Club came together, and how their eclectic style became their Mannequin.
“Not to plug my own shit but I run a site called Playthisriff.com. I interview dudes to tune their own shit. So I’d go and interview like a punk band, and I’d come away with an idea. ‘It’s cool how he does that…I’m gonna steal that!’ Or I’d go interview a death metal band or whatever….grindcore…I don’t know. I would just take from different styles and all of that stuff morphed into the first record.”
“I interviewed Rob Cavestany from Death Angel – the way he picks. Here’s a song I’m watching him playing. So that’s how the first one came along.”
Aside from Balch, he began working with his bandmate and drummer Scott Reeder. Then he attracted bassist Scott Thomas Reeder (Fireball Ministry, Kyuss) into the project after he heard what the duo had created. On their latest release, The Great White Dope, they brought in Adolescents vocalist Cadena to front the band.
“Oh yeah! I interviewed (bassist Scott) Reeder for the same site a long time ago. I interviewed him at his home studio and so I was like ‘you know I should come back out and record and he would be into it.’ I didn’t know if he would play on it, but it was cool to have those guys meet. It’s funny. We laugh. We still do,” he said, talking about how each member fell into place.
He also said he was aware of the odd coincidence of having two bandmates with the same exact names, and if he ever wanted to coin a pseudonym (say…Reeder Scott?). “No,” he said, laughing. “I’ve gotta stick with my name. It would be too weird.”
His drummer Reeder helped shape Sun and Sail Club’s sound when Balch began writing songs before they had ever thought about starting a new project. His input became invaluable with creating some interesting sounds.
“Reeder (drummer) sang a little more on the second record. He did a few full on verses, but it’s a lot of the same process. Just like here are some riffs and I let him do what he does.”
“Sometimes in Fu Manchu, a lot of that stuff is groove oriented so it’s like you lay back a little bit, and on this I was like ‘just spazz out – just get high on coffee and get it all out. Get it out of your system and we’ll go back and do more grooves.’ For the most part, it’s the same thing. I just don’t edit what he’s doing. He’s just gnarls. I let him do his thing.”
He shared the story behind their band name, and how it relates to a place that was somewhat part of their past.
“It’s a really inside joke with me and my friends I grew up with. It’s a place you can find it online. We grew up around there. It’s basically tennis courts and pools and rich people gallivanting. We weren’t allowed in there, but we would hang out outside of it. There’s a tunnel. You can walk in this tunnel and smoke weed, stand there and stare at the hot chicks walk in there. So we were the dirtbags outside of the Sun and Surf Club that we’re not allowed in.”
Would the actual club have an issue with the band using their name? “I don’t think they would care. It’s basically like a homeowner’s association thing that they all pay for. I used to be able to get in with people who lived there. My brother used to walk in when we got access. He would have like a ghetto blaster on his shoulder, and he would be blaring Ozzy Osbourne! It was so embarrassing! I’d see people staring at us like these fucking longhairs!”
Balch explained while the original intentions behind this project were to record music, playing live was something in the back of his mind but was unsure how to make it happen.
“The first record was so weird and hard thing to do in a live setting. The vocoders – it’s cool if you’re doing like Daft Punk type of shit, but for heavy, loud type of shit, to battle with that is really difficult.”
“The first record I didn’t think I’d do it live. To be honest, my wife was pregnant and I’m like ‘fuck I better do something now while I have time.’ But the second one, I was like, shit I kind of wanted to hear a singer. I’m stoked that Tony is involved and we’re actually doing show. It’s really cool.”
He talked about coming up with parts for Sun and Sail Club came out of material that did not quite fit within Fu Manchu’s repertoire. This allowed them to stretch their boundaries a bit and try some different sounds than the main band.
“A lot of the first record was all drop A stuff, which if you know anything about guitar, it’s tune standard and you drop that top string way the fuck down. For Fu Manchu, it wouldn’t work. All of our stuff is in D standard. So a lot of those riffs I was like ‘ehhh.’ I’m always putting riffs on the phone and the computer. Some of them were cool for Fu Manchu, but I had shit ton of ones I didn’t know what to do with these.”
“I started sending them to our drummer, almost as a joke, like I would try to trick him. I’d be like ‘try to play along with this…,’ and I would try to make it as weird and fucked up as possible. He’s really good so he got it. Every time we had a bunch and every time we had a record of stuff. I was like ‘should we make something out of this and record it?’ We went out to Reeder’s.”
“He heard it and he’s like ‘fuck! Who’s playing bass?’ I’m like ‘will you play bass?’ That’s how it came all about.”
On Mannequin, the trio wrote a lot of music without a vocalist. Through various tricks up their sleeves, they got creative by bringing back an idea from the past.
“I wasn’t really singing. I’d use a vocoder whenever I’d play on the guitar. It would get transformed into what I’d say into the mic. Think like Peter Frampton but he’s not using a vocoder,” he said.
“The second one I wanted to have singer involved, just to keep each record different. The third one, if there ever will be one ever will be a lot different than this one too. It’s to keep everyone guessing. I just emailed Tony and he was into it right away,” Balch added, explaining how on each recording having a singer changed some of the dynamics.
Another unusual influence for Sun and Sail Club was the Devo influence, which was well publicized on their first recording. Balck explained, “Devo to me, the riffs are real angular and cool but mathy. It’s almost like the riffs are making fun of themselves. I love Devo and I love that about them, so a lot of that is on the first record.”
While Fu Manchu is Balch and drummer Reeder’s main priorities, he said that Sun and Sail Club for now may not be a full time band. Between figuring out schedules amongst the members, they may attempt to do more shows in the future.
“Full time probably won’t work out. I would love it but Fu Manchu’s my main priority. We keep real busy. Adolescents is Tony’s band….actually since he’s teaching, it’s hard for him to take off for like a month….in November or October. I could see us totally continue to put out records, and in the summer shoot on over to Europe. We got a bunch of offers we had to turn down due to conflicting schedules – Australian stuff, European stuff. I was like ‘fuck…it would have been so much fun to go down there. Can’t do it.’ “
He said using replacement members will not be an option either. Balch had an interesting answer as to why this would not happen. “I wouldn’t do that. If you look at our merch booth, our faces are on everything! That’s what made this record so cool. Everyone putting their flare on it.”
As for future material, Balch said there was more ideas floating around, as well as some leftover material for a possible future release. As for now, no plans are in the works.
“There are two songs that didn’t make the first record. There’s tons of shit just floating around. I would always record stuff and email it to Reeder to play drums and he would send it back. There are tons of stuff floating around like that. But actually studio recordings, there are two actual songs we didn’t finish. It’s off the first record so it’s more Devo-y kind of vocoder type of stuff. But the last one we used everything.”
“With this, I could see it happening. In this day and age with the internet, it’s pretty easy. I would like to get into a room with these guys and play as a whole band. Because the schedules are so gnarly, I could easily get into a room with Reeder and record drums and guitars, then send that to Scott Reeder in the desert – he would lay down the bass, send it back to Orange County and then send it to Tony.”
“All of us to get into the same studio at the same time would probably take a long time. That way it would keep the ball rolling. I’d like to do a record every year or two, and a couple of seven inches every year.”
Three-decades into a career that has seen the kinds of highs and lows that most bands that few else could make it through, Death Angel is riding as high as ever. Emerging a mere teens in the second wave of Bay Area Thrash, Death Angel evolved from rambunctious youths to one of the fiercest bands on the planet. Rough life experiences can leave you with scars, but it’s what you do with those marks on the tableau of your psyche that define you, that guide you. For a band, that from the beginning was made up of family members, they have been re-writing the end of that script for over fifteen years.
A Thrashumentary (Nuclear Blast) starts like a standard band DVD with the history and the making of type of things you always want to see. The archival footage of the bands earliest shows, including their very first opening for Megadeth at San Francisco’s seminal metal haunt The Stone, are an amazing look into the genesis of a band. They transformed early from a more NWOBHM sound to thrash over their first few years in existence. One of their earliest and ongoing patrons has been Kirk Hammett of Metallica who produced their first demos. Hearing tales of how the nascent band booked a national tour on the strength of hastily made three song demo tape makes the legends come true. This band was built for greatness from the start. Terrific early accounts from thrash kings such as Gary Holt, Scott Ian, Charlie Benante, Chuck Billy, Scott Ian, Andres Kisser discuss the formation of the group and the legit early hype around them. The story of the band is re-told trough the eyes of the current band, and their continuing story takes shape over the course of two hours. Their awful bus accident that changed their lives forever in 1990, critically injuring founding drummer Andy Galeon, and ultimately leading to the end of the band at that time. The accounts are harrowing, and will shake you to your core.
Reuniting for Chuck Billy’s benefit concert “Thrash of the Titans” in 2001 sowed the seed for the band to reform and stay together. Although only Rob Cavestany and Mark Osesgueda remain today from the early core lineup, the band is as strong as ever with Ted Aguilar, Will Carroll and Damien Sisson. Death Angel are one of the most potent veteran thrash bands around. It’s great to see some of their more modern contemporaries, such as Chris Adler and Michael Amott talk shop about the band too. The more recent live footage of the band is phenomenal and another highlight of the DVD. The CD portion of the package is also a great live document to have for fans. A Thrashumentary is a great way to appreciate one of the scene’s most vital groups, then and now.
8.5/10
KEITH CHACHKES
The last three years have seen many changes in the Death Angel camp. 2010’s Relentless Retribution opus was the Californians first album with either of the Pepa cousins or drummer Andy Galeon, yet the ensuing two year saw them band touring tirelessly with compares like Testament and Anthrax in support of it. It was the band’s largest touring cycle for some time with fans lapping up their energetic performances. Even when discussing the turbulent line up changes which nearly crippled the Californian veterans in the past guitarist and founding member Rob Cavestany remains an upbeat character whose mile a minute replies make him a thrilling storyteller. After such a gruelling schedule, no one expected Death Angel to make such a rapid return to action but they are back with another assault on the senses in The Dream Calls For Blood (Nuclear Blast). Ghost Cult’s U.K. Editor Ross Baker quizzed Rob regarding their rapid return to action, line-up changes and the future of the thrash metal genre.Continue reading