Considering
the ridiculous delay it takes to see to the new Snakepit issue to be issued and
being bored
/ annihilated to see some damn interesting interviews rotting on my
hard drive, here’s some exclusive stuff for you lucky Voices readers! So far
almost all the most impressive acts from the '80s coming from the Bay Area have
been covered in Snakepit (minus EXODUS, INSANITY and BLIND ILLUSION), needless
to say that DEATH ANGEL were always one of my top priorities considering the
amount of talent displayed so brilliantly on their three studio albums
-
"Act III" remaining as THE top notch recording even if some would
argue with this comment stating how much more raw and savage "The Ultra-Violence"
is - so a year before the band reformed (2000) I managed to
track down former members when they were involved with SWARM and I thought it
would be an easy interview to conduct. What a fool I was as it took three long
years to have this finalized and only because, one of their friends, Swissman,
managed to conduct this long interview with different members at different times
- massive thanks goes out to the Swissman! Now I certainly wish that
bassist Dennis Pepa and guitarist
/ mainman Rob Cavestany would have been more
talkative and took this whole thing much more seriously for this very first
complete historical piece on DEATH ANGEL
/ THE ORGANIZATION and not being so
reluctant at doing this "ridiculously long" piece and being much more
devoted to their long time die hard followers, a strange way to act to say the
least. So here's your chance finally to learn a bit more on their career, the
previously named members being joined for this trivia thing by singer Mark
Oseguada on the eve of doing a new European tour and releasing a much awaited
new album.
Did
you and your parents move to California from the
Philippines very early on or was it
only when you were like 12 years old? Then how did you discover Heavy Metal
/
Hard Rock as a whole?
Mark:
"Actually, as far as the band goes
the only member of DEATH ANGEL that was actually born in the Philippines was
Gus. Other than that all the remaining members were born in San Francisco. Wow
(laughs)! And again with me, my mother is only part Filipino anyway so... As far
as Heavy Metal goes,
we all grew up in the San Francisco scene so we were exposed
to it through school mates and what not."
According
to what Rob said back then, the band started in the summer of ’82 around him
as guitarist and Andy Galeon as drummer being respectively aged 13 and 9, you
only joined ‘em later... So how did you hook up with them exactly as a singer?
Mark:
"Well, we all are cousins, so
that helps. They formed the band well before
- I joined in 1984 but by then we
all saw each other and we all knew we were interested by the same type of music
and we would go to the same type of shows. I was already singing around with
friends that I kind of jammed with. I was planning on forming my other band
outside of theirs someday, but I started helping them as a roadie for their
shows and then eventually Rob wrote a song called 'Kill As One' and
there were parts where they needed a scream and it was pretty much known that I
could scream (laughs). I used to do their introductions and I would do these
scream things. We started with 'Kill As One', but it definitely wasn't
known if I was going to be the singer, and then 'Final Death' and then
from there it became three songs, four songs, and then I became the singer. I
think on November 24th, 1984 was my first gig at the Stone with MEGADETH."
Rob:
"He's a cousin of ours and he was
a roadie, the other hyper cousin of ours that was around our age category. I
don't know how but he stepped up to sing a couple of times at rehearsal or
something screaming his head off and suddenly he was in."
I
know they had a bass player before you, Dennis, became theirs... But according to
what was said at the time, he sucked. Can you tell us a bit more about those
previous members, about that very early DEATH ANGEL incarnation from late ‘82?
Dennis:
"There was a period when we tried
a number of people out, but nobody ever really joined the band. I don't even
remember what actually happened. I'm assuming he didn't live up to our
expectations so..."
Did
Rob and Andy have consider some other bandnames before DEATH ANGEL- a band
name which was taken from a book simply titled "Death Angel" from what
I remember, correct?
Mark:
"Yes it is from a book.
Originally before that they were toying around with the name DARK THEORY, and I
believe that they both went to the mall together to a book store and saw a book
called "Death Angel" and they thought it was much more intense so they
went with that."
Did
you only sing when you joined ‘em or did you play guitar also since that point
remains quite unclear and confused from the different interviews I read?
Mark:
"Nah, I never played guitar
(laughs). I roadied for them. Even now I wouldn't say I play guitar, I have an
acoustic guitar
- as far as what I can do with it, I'm getting better at
it."
Did
you all have the same influences AEROSMITH, AC/DC, LED ZEPPELIN, KISS, BLACK
SABBATH or were you already much more into the still somewhat “underground”
sounds of MAIDEN, PRIEST, SCORPIONS etc…?
Rob:
"What era are we talking about
there? It all came in stages where I learned all about this different music. The
very first era where we were getting into Rock music and all it was definitively
those first bands you mentioned - KISS was definitely a huge influence and all
those bands you mentioned in the classic Rock
/ early Metal or however you want
to put it. Then it developed into the next wave with MAIDEN, SABBATH and we
started getting into that type of more popular Metal, THE SCORPIONS, JUDAS
PRIEST then developing into more of the underground shit like old METALLICA and
so forth and it just evolved."
How
did you get into your local underground Metal scene which was already somewhat
big with bands like BLIND ILLUSION, EXODUS, VIOLATION, MURDER, METAL CHURCH,
ANVIL CHORUS
/ LEVIATHAN etc building their own foundations?
Rob:
"We just started playing shows
here and due to the nature of our music we just started getting shows set up
with the other Metal bands, the booking people ended up setting us on bills with
these other bands so we would play with them, end up meeting them and that's how
the scene developed."
Dennis:
"We just got to know everybody
too. Back then once the scene started flowing alot of it had to do with key
clubs like The Stone, Ruthie's Inn
- they were huge scene builders and helped
keep the local scene going."
When
DEATH
ANGEL started, it seems they were playing mainly covers, do remember what those
were? I remember that in ’83 you were doing 'The Trooper' and
'Restless
And Wild' as covers…
Rob:
"Yes, we were playing cover tunes
at the start back then but at the same time we were already trying to write
original songs even from the very start. You named some of the songs that we
used to cover, we also did 'Green Manalishi' from JUDAS PRIEST,
thinking we were doing the PRIEST version and not even realizing we were
actually doing a FLEETWOOD MAC cover (laughs). We did some TYGERS OF PAN TANG
stuff at some point, we just messed around with the standard shit like
SCORPIONS, PRIEST, MAIDEN, KISS of course as we did 'Cold Gin', we did
a lot of weird covers..."
Dennis:
"OZZY.. we
played material from the "Blizzard Of Ozz" days."
Rob:
"SABBATH..."
Dennis:
"Even METALLICA stuff. I don't think
we ever played their material live but we used to mess around with it and learn
the tunes."
Then
Dennis' brother Gus joined the band as rhythm guitar player, how did that
happen? Was it for you your first band experience or…?
Rob:
"Not too much later though
- it
all happened within months. We were a four piece without Mark just like
that."
Dennis:
"We practically learned our
instruments into the band
- so this was our first band experience."
By
the way what was the exact connection between each member of the band since all
we know is that you’re relatives, cousins but…
Rob:
"Yes, that's why we knew each
other in the first place. That's how we ended up forming a band because we were
already friends as family hanging out playing as kids so we were the natural
people to form a team with."
From
that point as you had some originals written, you recorded early ’83 the
“Heavy Metal Insanity” four song demo which showed a clear mainstream Hard
Rock direction with lots of MAIDEN influences especially.
And even if the band
considered later that it sucked,
looking back, what do you remember from that
first studio effort and what’s your honest opinion of it nowadays?
Rob:
"My opinion of it is I think when
you judge it by who we were at the time and how young we were and how
inexperienced and new we were to things as that was our first batch of songs we
wrote and got to the point of recording, at that point Andy was like 9 and the
rest of us were in the 13 range and for that point I think it's killer. It
showed our range and that we had our shit together, it was structured and if I
listen to it now I would think that we were more professional than I even
thought we were. The songwriting
- we were really focusing on the songwriting
aspect and for that it really wasn't that bad for being a beginning band."
Dennis:
"You know what's funny, I wanted
to add to that we were so young, that this was recorded at Lafayette or Pleasant
Hill and we were so young that Rob's parents had to drop us off at the studio
and pick us up (laughs). And another thing is that this was our first thing and
obviously we have grown into other things but the dude that produced that was
Matt Wallace who went on to do FAITH NO MORE. I don't think too many people know
about that."
Rob:
"Totally
- he honed his chops on
us. He owes us man! (laughs)"
On
that demo Rob played also bass and that’s only after that effort that Dennis
started playing bass -
as he was doing only the singing before
-
while Rob was doing half of the singing also, is that correct
first of all and how came that idea to have two singers in the band?
Rob:
"Oh yeah! KISS maybe influenced
the idea of two singers. We were trying to base ourselves around what KISS was
doing and we both could sing so we just did it."
Did
you play a lot of shows in ’83 when that demo was released and was it at that
time that you opened for METALLICA?
Rob:
"METALLICA was in 1985. I
remember that experience because it was the single most exciting show that we
got until we got this call yesterday (15/5/2003) that we were gonna open up for
them again. I mean we had done a lot of cool shows but back then we admired
METALLICA so much
- they were like our heroes at that moment and we got the call
to play with those guys, they asked us to do two nights and we were jumping
around screaming like freaks, we were so excited about that. And it's definitively memorable for me in a bad way at that
- on the way to the first show the
guy driving my gear, his van broke down and we were stuck on the side of the
road and my dad had to come down with his van, pick me up and bring me out
there. I missed almost all of our entire set
- by the time I pulled in and threw
all of my gear on stage the rest of the band was just waiting for me to get on
stage, I arrived and I was like "Sorry man!". We could only play three
songs and it was over
- that was so crushing because that was our most excited
moment. The second night we got to play a full set though. It was ripping man
-
"Ride The Lightning" tour."
Then
you wrote some new material in early ’84 like 'Priests Of The Black
Oracle' (a long
Progressive
/ fantasy tune with hints of early RUSH all over
it), 'Silence',
'The Awakening' (both instrumentals, the
latter having a
riff used later in 'Guilty Of Innocence'),
'Playing With Speed' (with a
riff later used in 'EX-TC'),
'Frolic Through The Park',
'Devil’s
Metal',
'Silent Killer',
'Witches Of Naves' (with a riff later used in
'The Ultra-Violence' and
'Thrashers' those being quite fast raging
songs, so would you say that hearing METALLICA, EXODUS and others had a big
influence for that radical change of style towards something faster and heavier
but also technical?
Rob:
"You nailed it! Absolutely., I
remember going to see this band, METALLICA at this club called the Keystone
in Berkeley and for me that was a defining
moment - I had never seen that kind of
thing before.
I went to the show,
there was a pit, there was stage diving and the musicians were playing so fast
and heavy, and at that point I was like, 'man, that's what we have to do, we're
gonna play heavy and fast like that'. So all those bands you mentioned are the
bands that we listened to and ended up playing gigs with, and it was an
influence and at the same time these people just started getting heavier and
heavier and play faster and kick things up a notch. At the same time we started
to listen to a lot of Punk as well, so that would throw a whole different
aggressive vibe on that tip so all together we were just loving it. The age that
we were, it was great for the angst and the scene was thriving so we loved it
man."
Talking
about technicality, how much of an influence MERCYFUL FATE had on the
songwriting as you started to use a lot of intricate parts, full time changes,
shifting rhythms and melodies?
Rob:
"Yes
- between them and RUSH, both
totally influenced our songwriting. Totally for sure"
By
the way which show did you open for them in October ’84? Was it at the Kabuki
Theatre or somewhere else?
Rob:
"That's right
- we opened at the
same place that we played the two shows with METALLICA, the Kabuki Theatre. That
was our other exciting as hell show."
What
was the place you liked to play the most in all your career and why?
Mark:
"Waouh the place I liked to play
most in all of my career... I'd have to say it would have to be between two
venues ever, that I enjoyed playing. I used to love playing The Ritz in New York
because the energy there was just wild and the people in New York back then were
like voracious about it. And there's a club called The Paradiso in Amsterdam,
Holland that DEATH
ANGEL played at like three times and it was just such an amazing
room, it's in an old church and the people there were so warm and responsive and
that's a wonderful place. That was probably the place I'm most fond of playing,
but of course it goes unsaid that I loved playing in San Francisco
- basically
anywhere that there is a stage and the crowd enjoy it, I'm feeding off the crowd
energy."
Rob:
"I'd have to name a couple of
them because there were a couple of places where they just stand out in certain
ways. One of them for me was headlining the Warfield Theater in San Francisco
because that was the biggest thing we did in our hometown and it was just a huge
show and a great show. I think headlining the Dynamo Festival in 1990 was
another huge show, and the Effernaar club that we just played at last year.
Roskilde, Denmark was ripping as well."
Dennis:
"I would say each show has its
own favorite thing about it."
In
the summer ’84, you played in Monterey,
CA with SLAYER.
Had
the SLAYER style
somewhat an impact on your style or none at all considering that they played
much faster than the Bay Area outfits?
Rob:
"I think that was with SLAYER and
HIRAX, just the three of us. SLAYER not so much really
- the time where I got a
little more influenced by SLAYER was by hearing "Reign In Blood", I
started to really get into that album and after that I got into "Hell
Awaits". I used to listen to all their shit but not as much as when
"Reign In Blood" came out. I got a real kick out of that album. After
that we supported SLAYER at the Ritz in New York in support for that album, and
that was ripping."
Dennis
had a vocal style somewhat reminiscent of Paul Baloff with a raspy, somewhat
growling voice while Mark had a lot more range on his voice, what made you go
for a more melodic singer since you were a Thrash Metal band?
Mark:
"Back in the day it was
definitely more unusual for a Thrash band, especially then
- but especially when
I grew up... you know my father was
really into 70's Rock and I grew up listening to 70's rock, I was really into
stuff like 70's AEROSMITH, 70's QUEEN, BAD COMPANY with Paul Rodgers, I
appreciated people who could sing and I'm not taking away from that whole
movement because I really loved the power of Thrash and that's what drew me into
it. But as far as... one thing that did turn me off about it was just, alot of
times people would just growl
- it has its place, don't get me wrong but it was
not what I wanted to do and somehow we tried to work in some sort of melodic
stuff. Plus in early DEATH
ANGEL the stuff that they worked on prior to me joining the
band, what influenced the band and made some changes in some of the early songs
were influences like IRON MAIDEN, TYGERS OF PAN TANG, bands with a lot of
changes and singers that actually came up with memorable melodies and hooks and
stuff, that's really grabbed us in that period and pretty much got sucked up
into what we were going for, the power of Thrash which is undeniable and we fell
in love with that too but we wanted to incorporate what we originally loved as
well."
Rob:
"Baloff style! (huh). The raspy
voice I like.."
Then
the famous ’85 “Kill As One” three song demo effort was recorded with the
help of Kirk Hammett as producer - whom you had recruited through your manager
Kat Sirdorfsky
- how do you look at it, now that 16 years have passed and it still
remains a legendary tape?
Rob:
"The 16 years is what made it a
legendary tape. The fact that time has passed by and the level that we attained
out of the band is what caused this tape to be what it is. We are actually
hoping to get all of that shit out into the public."
Did
Kirk by the way had some input on the material? Did he help you in one way or
another later in your career?
Rob:
"As far as input on the demo,
maybe a few things as far as arrangements, a couple of things here and there as
far as the producer's role. As far as after that he didn't particularly help us
with anything as far as music or writing in any way but he actually did help out
when SWARM was getting together as we used to rehearse at his house and he let
us record some demos downstairs in his house, helped us out in that way and also
jammed with us on stage a couple of times."
Would
you say it was a good thing
- even if you got a deal out of it at the end of
course - to include three very long songs on it as they were and at the same
time weren’t really representative of the band’s style since most of your
material was more like four or five minutes long?
Rob:
"I think a lot of our songs were
very long to be honest with you, most of our songs weren't four or five minutes
long, they were much longer." (Oh really? 'Evil Priest',
'Mistress Of Pain',
'I.P.F.S.'
etc... are those 10min long
tunes? Not really
- Laurent)
Did
you often get criticized with the intro of 'The Ultra-Violence' being
similar to 'Tubular Bells' from Mike Oldfield?
Rob:
"No, I've never heard that
before. (laughs)"
On
January 3rd and 4th 1986, you did two Thrash festivals in Los Angeles and San
Diego along with some of the biggest Californian underground acts such as
SANCTUM, POSSESSED, D.R.I., DARK ANGEL, EXODUS… any memories of that?
Rob:
"No, sorry
- we played a lot of
shows and I vaguely picturing playing with these guys and stuff but we played a
lot of shows with some of those bands and I don't particularly remember those
exact sets of dates. As for that live career, it was great."
Also
during that same year Restless Records issued the double album “Eastern
Front” featuring a live record and a studio record where you appeared with 'Mistress Of Pain', would you say that this appearance opened some doors for
DEATH
ANGEL and would you have preferred to have a live recording featured on it than
this “studio” recording?
Mark:
"It's kind of hazy thinking back
to that period as I remember they were coming out with live things at Ruthie's
Inn. I believe they tried to record the song once but the outboard gears was
acting really odd and we had just completed a demo post “Kill As One”, it
was just a demo for Enigma with eight songs that we were going to do for
"The Ultra-Violence" album. Since it was a new track and people had
already had the "Kill As One" demo we decided to pick that song to
give to Restless Records so we got on the demo side. It still worked out because
"The Ultra-Violence" demo had gotten circulated and spread out so fast
it really helped as something else for the fans to sink their fingers into, with
'Mistress...' it put more of a buzz on the band when "The
Ultra-Violence" finally did come out, cause everything was so underground
then... tape trading."
During
those years
- the mid ‘80s
- it looks like you have played with every Speed
/
Thrash / Hardcore band imaginable, no matter if it was local or international
acts from ARMORED SAINT through G.B.H. to WHIPLASH, anything to say about that
remarkable live career?
Rob:
"It was great
- those were the
days of the scene rising and all the bands coming out
- it was definitely our
roots and where we came out from
- it was a great time."
Also
how much did the tape trading scene help you building a fan base considering
that your shows have always been very often recorded from the early years to the
point when you were called THE ORGANIZATION?
Rob:
"Yes
- I think it probably helps,
I like it a lot. I don't mind that distribution and trading of tapes in music,
that's a cool thing."
So
with the “Kill As One” demo, you started looking for a deal, got interest
from Black Dragon, Combat and Enigma? Why did you end up being with Enigma
exactly? Was it mainly because of the Capitol distribution?
Mark:
"I'm not sure (laughs). To
be honest, yeah we wanted to reach as many people as we could and we didn't want
to get lost in a mix of say a label that had predominately Thrash bands. Enigma
didn't have anything like that, I mean they had Metal Blade but this wasn't
Metal Blade, it was Enigma and they wanted us so we figured we wouldn't get lost
in the mix of Thrash bands, they have major label distribution and they are
excited about the project so we said let's do it and it seemed to work out well
as far as the distribution."
There
was rumours early ’86 that you were going to do an EP for Combat as a part of
their Bootcamp series, how close were you to do that?
Rob:
"We were very close
but at the end of the day we wanted our first release to have our very
own artwork and put out a full length LP
which was our dream to do so we just
opted not to do that EP because for one thing they were just using their
Bootcamp artwork thing, it was just like a camouflage looking thing but we
wanted an album cover."
So
how was the general feel to be signed to a label
- Enigma
- who had never worked
with a Thrash band before as they had mainly mainstream
/ Glam stuff on their roster?
Rob:
"It was cool
- we liked it, we
liked being different and having our own thing going on."
The
album “The Ultra-Violence” was recorded in June ’86 with Davy Vain as
co-producer, how was it working with him? Looking back, do you think he was the
right guy to help producing your first two albums considering he was coming from
a whole different musical area than yours?
Rob:
"Yes I do
- I wouldn't change
anything that we did back then with the things that happened, the people that we
worked with, all the steps had their purpose and fit the moment and everything
worked good. Even though Davy wasn't from a Thrash background he still had a
good background with work in the studio and working on songs and working with
music, he was a friend and it was comfortable working with him, and that's
really what it's all about, he's comfortable in bringing out the best in the
artist."
Late
’86 you went to NYC for the first time to open for SLAYER and OVERKILL at the
Ritz theatre on the first night of a two nights metallic attack
- the second
having ZOETROPE and AGNOSTIC FRONT as openers
- do you remember what kind of
welcome you’ve received on that East Coast trip?
Rob:
"It was just killer in general,
it fuckin' rule everytime we went outthere to play on the East Coast
- especially
with those shows with SLAYER and all the bands we played with. It was so ripping
man, it was fuckin' bad ass, those were some of the best shows we ever had. And
we are coming back to East Coast for the first time since 1990 in September, we
have some dates booked in New York and stuff, fuckin' exciting man."
The
album was finally released during the Spring of ’87 after being postponed
during eight months, so what caused that delay exactly?
Rob:
"Just a regular combination of
stupid shit. I don't remember the exact reason, I think the artwork had a little
bit to do with it, just general bullshit, there was no specific crap going on or
something, just random shit."
What
about 'I.P.F.S.' which sounded a bit like a joke song, I mean to me it
sounded out of place on this release because of it’s basic, short structure,
why didn’t you include a track like 'Witches Of Naves' for example that
you were still playing six months after the recording of the album?
Rob:
"That's why we forgot the ending.
Just process of elimination
- we could only include so many tracks, we picked up
the ones that we liked the best and we put them on there and 'I.P.F.S.' has a weird different field to it, we decided to throw
something trippy on there."
How
did people react at school at the members who were still attended school like
Mark and Andy?
Rob:
"I had just graduated from school
that year as well. That summer was just when the album had come out and we had
been in the band all throughout our years of school, people always knew we were
a part of a band. We were always these outcasts, fuckin' freaks in school and
hung out with the stoner crowd."
During
that summer, you shot a live video of 'Voracious Souls' at the Stone in S.F.
where the crowd was totally frenzy to say the least, any memories of that first
video experience?
Rob:
"That was fun
- we had to play the
song repeatedly a few times and it was funny because everyone thrashed as we
kept playing the song over and over again. It was a great experience and a fun
first video. I love it, the crowd was going nuts on it"
Then
on July 14th you went back to NYC as support for EXODUS and ten days later it
was time for you to appear at the first Milwaukee Metalfest, what can you tell
us about that first festival you ever played especially considering the bill on
that festival
- TROUBLE, SACRIFICE, KING DIAMOND etc.?
Rob:
"I
just remember that we were very excited to be part of all that stuff,
play with all these main bands that we knew of. We just went outthere and had a
good time and kicked some ass, that was fuckin' fun."
That
show was part of the Midwest
/ East coast tour you had started with BLOODFEAST as
co-headliners and the small Canadian tour with SACRIFICE in the summer, was it a
hard time for you guys as it was your first tour experience?
Rob:
"No! Looking back on it it wasn't
hard for us at all because we were just so excited
to go on tour."
Would
you say BLOODFEAST was the appropriate band as support for a co-headlining tour
considering that they were still very underground?
Rob:
"Hmmm... I don't know if it was a
co-headlining tour, I think we were headlining and they were supporting us.
But yeah, it was fun, it was cool. I don't know who else was really
supposed to be playing shows with."
Then
in September, you embarked for Europe for an headlining tour and you managed to
play in somewhat big halls like the Paradiso in Amsterdam for example on your
own name, was it the result of a great promotion on Music For Nations had done
for you or…?
Rob:
"Maybe that helped but I think in
general Europe was just more hip to the sound. Even though the Bay Area Thrash
bands had their following in the Bay Area, Metal always was more appreciated in
Europe."
On
those ’87 tours, you played as encore a brand new song 'Dehumanization'
which was never used later surprisingly, what went wrong with that tune?
Rob:
"This interview is like being on
a show called 'This Is Your Life' (laughs). How do you know that? That's true, how do you know that?! I'll tell
you, 'Dehumanization' is going to be coming out, the demo recording is
going to be one of the bonus tracks on our re-release of "Frolic Through
The Park". So it was just another song that got weeded out ,we wrote alot
of stuff, more than the album could
hold, picked through songs and some of them just couldn't get on there."
Did
you find a big difference between the European fans and the U.S. fans?
Rob:
"Yes
- European people, they spoke
a whole different language (laughs)... in general like I said before they just
seemed a little more hip to Metal in a different way, I can't really explain it
but..."
Late
’87 was spent to complete the material for the second opus which was recorded
in March '88 with Vain again, with help from Rob and Andy, did Vain had a bigger
hand on this recording than on the first as far as arrangements or whatever?
Rob:
"Maybe a little bit more with the
arrangements... yeah he's got a good ear and he's got some good ideas and he
collaborated on some things."
How
come 'Devil’s Metal' which was performed since ’84 was used on this
album while songs like 'Silent Killer' or even the song
'Frolic...'
didn’t make it on any album?
Mark:
"Again it's an odd one...
we went
back before "Frolic..." and we recorded more little demos for
ourselves. For the time that we were in and how much we thought we had
progressed - just what was going on we thought we wanted to put on
"Frolic..."
-
that 'Devil's Metal' musically still holds its
own but lyrically was a little elementary. But still that's why we only put it
on the CD as a bonus track and with no lyrics. It was another ploy for people to
buy the CD and it was another rare track, to see those who actually knew of DEATH
ANGEL prior to us getting signed, and other riffs from
'Silent Killer' and
'Frolic Through The Park' were used in
later DEATH
ANGEL songs that we
created."
Songs
like 'Confused',
'Open Up' and
'Bored' sounded really different,
was it spontaneous written material honestly since it sounds so different from
the rest?
Mark:
"As far as 'Bored'
-
that was written more like...
me and Rob and the rest of the band was heavily
listening to U2 at the time, during the albums "War" and "The
Unforgettable Fire", even earlier than that with "Boy" and
"October", we were listening alot of that. We really liked The Edge's
guitar playing, that 'chicka-chicka-chicka' sound, a lot of simplicity with a
lot of just catchiness and we were blown away by the dynamics that him and Bono
had together, I saw them live and I was just blown away. So Rob and I wrote that
song and it wasn't necessarily meant to be a DEATH
ANGEL song, but we did demos of the
song and local radio stations started playing these demos and live we did the
song a couple times as a joke and it really caught on, people started loving it
so Enigma really wanted to put it out. It kind of came by accident. 'Confused'
- we wanted to write a heavier, kind of slow song and that
came about that, and as far as 'Open Up'
- again it's because we were
listening to a wide variety of music, such as U2, Funk and we wanted to expand
our horizons as much as could but still remain a powerful band and we thought we
could lend to the genre so."
“Frolic...”
was a concept album, who and why did you have the idea to do that?
Rob:
"Ah, that was Davy Vain's idea
(laughs)... I think I had this weird concept
- it started as a title for one of
our other old songs we never put on an album...
and surely there's a question in
this interview about why that didn't appear on an album. The actual song has
nothing to do with the concept
- the song was about taking a walk through the
park and getting slaughtered by some maniac that is waiting in the park to kill
people. We used it about going through the stages of your life."
Would
you say that “Frolic...” was somewhat an experimental album comparing to the
other releases?
Rob:
"Yes I would say so."
The
KISS cover 'Cold Gin' was used by Enigma on a promotional 12” single, did
it open some doors for the band on a more mainstream market?
Mark:
"I think it might have in some
Rock stations but in all honesty when it boils down to it 'Bored'
opened up even more doors than the 'Cold Gin' cover. It was us paying
homage to a band that kind of KISS
- it was mine, Rob's and Dennis' first concert
ever, we all went together, 1979 at the Cow Palace and they were like a major
influence on us."
In
June ’88 you were back in Europe for a new headlining tour, weren’t you
supposed to come over as support for NUCLEAR ASSAULT at first?
Mark:
"You see, I don't even remember
that. I myself don't know if that ever was supposed to happen."
Was
it hard doing that tour considering your album was only released in July ’88
near the end of the tour so the public wasn’t really familiar to the new
stuff?
Mark:
"It was interesting because that
album was supposed to be released simultaneously there and in the states and
what had happened, a subsidiary in
Europe lost their distribution. So we got out there with no album except for in
England with Music For Nations
- but outside of England no one had it and it was
quite interesting as we did have a set that combined the two albums so it was
odd. But some people had bootlegs already of the album so that helped
- you know
back then people were so voracious for any type of Thrash music all over the
world, let alone a San Francisco Thrash band so the crowds were still wonderful,
very wonderful."
How
did you end up being distributed by Virgin in Europe this time and not by M.F.N.
anymore - except in U.K.? Did you get a bigger promotion and tour support with
Virgin?
Mark:
"I would say when it finally
caught on - but not to take away from Music For Nations because M.F.N. were
absolutely wonderful
- Under One Flag for "The Ultra-Violence", they
were great for setting up promotion and getting the material out there, it's
hard to say. It was a different level but the warmth of being on M.F.N. was
great too."
On
that tour you appeared at the prestigious Roskilde festival in Denmark and at
the Kushrock festival in Finland, any memories of those somewhat huge fests?
Mark:
"Oh yeah
- both festivals were amazing
- as far as Roskilde that was the biggest show
DEATH ANGEL
had ever played,
75,000 people, it was with STING and INXS, it was mind blowing, I mean it was
1988, we were kids and we just had an amazing time. We got great reviews for the
show and it opened a lot of doors for us there in Denmark and it was phenomenal.
The Kushrock fest in Finland too was amazing, we couldn't believe the response
we got there. We had never been up there that far north in Finland, it was a two
night festival and on the second day it was U.D.O. and DEATH
ANGEL along with a bunch
of other bands but we were the top two. The day prior included Stevie Ray
Vaughn, it was just unbelievable and the crowds were unbelievable, they were
chasing us down the streets and stuff, it was amazing! I have fond memories of
both."
Then
a month later, you started a full U.S.
/ Canadian tour with RIGOR MORTIS as
guests. Did you have the feeling that the crowds were bigger on that one? In
other words, do you think it increased your fan base in the States?
Rob:
"Yes, we had a lot more people.
We had a bus for the first time and we were playing bigger clubs, on "The
Ultra-Violence" tour we were out in a van, some of the gigs were really
small and on "Frolic..." it
definitively picked up, packed out the clubs, good clubs."
How
come that RIGOR MORTIS near the end of the tour pulled out and you had local bands
as support from that point?
Rob:
"Was it due to Mike (Sciccia)
joining MINISTRY? No, that was way later... I don't even remember that
happening. I thought they did the whole tour."
Late
December ’88 saw the band doing two shows in London as support for the mighty
MOTÖRHEAD and a headlining one at the Stone which kind of closed a chapter as
the band spent ’89 to write and record the third album, anything to say about
those shows?
Rob:
"I don't remember it particular,
MOTÖRHEAD shows were great, everytime we've played with
MOTÖRHEAD was fuckin'
great, we had a blast but I don't have an exact memory about those particular
ones or about The Stone one you're talking about. We played at the Stone so many
times man, I can't define one show from the next but they were all ripping
shows, pretty much every shows that we did back then ripped and that was fuckin'
fun and had a great time at every single one."
So
what happened exactly during ’89 as it was when you split from Enigma to go
with Geffen? How did you end on that major label?
Mark:
"Odd enough, I think the buzz was
getting around about us in a very big way and that's when METALLICA was really
exploding so I think major labels were looking for their own thing, basically
that's how major labels think and operate, they're looking for their own
METALLICA, you know what I mean?! A+R people extend their hands and at that
point we had made such a large name for ourselves and I think we had enough
variety in our sound and originality that they expressed an interest. From then
on we got the ball rolling with Geffen and made the jump
- and it was an absolute
jump."
I
understand you had around 35 songs ready for “Act III” to choose from,
something quite unusual for a Thrash band as it's something which has more in
common with huge Hard Rock bands such as DEF LEPPARD, AC/DC…
Mark:
"That's what jumping to a major
label is like back then. I'm not sure how it is now, but that's how it was, we
came up from an independent album, you come up with eight songs, ten songs,
those are going to be on the album. This one, you get on a major label, you get
major backing, we were working with Max Norman who produced "Blizzard Of
Ozz" and "Diary Of A Madman", big studios with new equipment, and
fortunately as well as unfortunately you are working with producers, you're
working with A+R guys who are going back and forth and dumping a significant
amount of money into you compared to say an indi label so they want the product
to be good. So between all parties we just wanted to come up with the ultimate
album, so a lot of times we were getting frustrated by it and a lot of times
they were, but in the long run bless the fact that we did because we came up
with "Act III" which in the long run we are all very proud of."
So
the album was produced by Max Norman, did he had a lot of input on how the
material sounded like considering how polished the material is on this release?
Rob:
"It was a combination of his
professional input and outlook and us coming to our third album and getting
better arranging and creating albums and getting deeper into it so we were
better at making albums and he was
fuckin'... god damn! He's an experienced guy man, you are talking the guy that
produced "Blizzard Of Ozz" man, the money that we worked with, the
studios, the equipment that we used, the time that we had to work on it,
everything was incredible."
Was
it a lot more different to work with him than with Vain as a whole?
Rob:
"Everything equipment wise was a
huge jump and the experience of recording was a huge difference to the two
Enigma albums simply because the budget was completely different
- everything was
like up ten levels of the game."
Would
you say that the move that can be heard throughout the three albums is due in
part to the fact that you were expanding your musical horizons listening to
different musical styles?
Rob:
"Always
- we are constantly
progressing to different music, opening our ears to different shit and by
"Act III" we were evolving out of the plastic bubble of listening to
only Metal. Like after a while you
start listening to different sounds and other shit and you like the music
because of the musicianship or just some killer guitar player and sure enough we
had expanded our musical tastes and our influences."
'A
Room With A View' was released as a promo single, was it
the
band’s choice
to try to make a hit out of this song or was it a label idea?
Rob:
"A combination - label suggestion
and us thinking that it was probably a very good idea..."
Did
you get a lot of criticism in the Bay Area or elsewhere as you were the first
Thrash band to come up with a ballad?
Rob:
"No, as a matter of fact it trips
me out that this song is plenty of people's favorite song. With our entire
catalog of songs a lot of people remember 'Room With A View' the most,
so I don't picture any fuckin' criticism at all which is pretty cool."
More
videos were shot for this album, 'A Room...',
'Seemingly...', how do
you view those compared to the earlier efforts of
'Voracious...' and
'Bored'?
Mark:
"Again, it's major label versus
an independent label. As far as 'Voracious Souls' and
'Bored', we hit at a time when MTV was just beginning to play Metal
bands, actually 'Voracious Souls' never made it on to MTV because of
the lyrics - at least the American MTV. And 'Bored' did, but then again both
those videos were shot in like a day, in less than a day, just a few hours. When
say you get to the major label, 'Room...' and
'Seemingly...'
are doing with major directors and again that's when Metal was hitting big with
METALLICA and stuff so we had major directors hitting us up then. 'Seemingly...' was done by a director named Matt Mehurnen, and that
was the first Metal video he ever directed, but prior to that he did U2 'With Or Without You', Tracy Chapman
'Fast Car', so we were
his first Metal band and 'Seemingly...' was big into the black and the
white and shadowy things, and then after that he did 'The Unforgiven'
(METALLICA) and after that he was doing nothing but Metal videos. MTV was more
accepting of it and the way we saw it wasn't selling out, we just saw it as
seeing our music reach as many people as possible and that helped to get
there."
Rob
seemed to be the main songwriter and even the mainman in the band, didn't it
- at one point maybe
- create conflicts, some tension or was it something the whole
band was happy with?
Dennis:
"Never been a problem
- I think
it's naturally always been that way."
Rob:
"So anything that you've been wanting
to say or feel about me, say it! (huge laughs)"
Talking
about tension, did the family relationship in the band has ever been threatened
for some reasons like when Geffen dropped the band in ‘91 or anything else?
Dennis:
"No. I don't see any reason why."
Over
the years, you and Rob continued to perform 'Thrashers'
as singers
live
instead of Mark, any reasons besides the fact that you originally sang it in
’84?
Dennis:
"We wrote it when Mark wasn't in
the band, so that's why we continue to sing it."
How
come that Rob happened to be the main vocalist for 'A Room...' and that he
was doing more and more vocal parts on this album?
Mark:
"Rob was writing a lot of
acoustic material at that time, Rob was a deep kind of character and he had a
lot of emotional baggage around during this time. He was getting stuff out,
writing a lot of acoustic stuff and he pretty much wrote that song all on his
own, presented it to us and we thought about a way to make it heavy and after a
while we spiced it up so I would sing some and do harmonies because we always
wanted to work on harmonies like the bands we grew up listening to, which was
pretty rare for a Thrash band back then to do that. Then eventually they started
writing more, him and Andy, singing more for harmony reasons and after a while
it did well."
Then
following a short warm up set at the Omni, Oakland in April ’90 with VIO-LENCE
and FORBIDDEN, you embarked for a new European tour with FORBIDDEN and VICIOUS
RUMORS as support.
You performed in never before visited places like Spain,
Italy, France and in bigger halls than before...
What about the Dynamo festival
you did on June 4th where you played a 95 min set and you easily won the crowd? Does
that festival remain as one of your fave performances ever?
Rob:
"Yes,
that I remember.
Headlining Dynamo on "Act III" was incredible. Me and Gus had fuckin'
technical difficulties through out the set with our amps and shit, I was so
pissed. Looking back it was a killer show probably because I was very aggressive
for the performance, taking it out on the guitar. Back then I used to get real
mad about shit and it wasn't easy to roll with the fact that something was going
wrong but now I look back on it and think it was completely great. Gus was
talking about some sabotaging that went on, I got over it later."
Early
July ’90 you went
to Japan for the first time, how did it happen that you
had never been there before and how was it to play in front of such die
hard Metallers?
Dennis:
"I don't think we ever had the
offer to go outthere or the budget to go out there until the later years. It was
just incredible
- it was the closest we ever got to feeling like it must have
been for THE BEATLES. People swarmed us the whole time that we were there, the
people make little dolls of you."
Then
it was time to start a new U.S. tour with FORBIDDEN as guest again, and you were
booked in bigger halls
this time, theatres, but according to the material I have
on video, the halls weren’t that full in some places despite the major support
behind you, would you say that the decline of interest towards the Bay Area
Metal scene was a reason for that?
Dennis:
"I think it was the beginning of
the scene being open to Metal starting to open up to the bigger venues, outside
of the four big Thrash bands. Most of the other bands were still playing the
clubs and not trying small theaters. The doors were just beginning to open up,
along with timing."
You
also headlined the Milwaukee Metalfest this time and critics all agreed to say
that you were destined to become the next big thing considering how professional
and mature your live performance and material
was, so where do you think you
failed as you didn’t enter the league of the big four
-
METALLICA, SLAYER,
MEGADETH, ANTHRAX?
Dennis:
"We ended
it - I think if we didn't get into that accident we would have kept on
going, we definitively would have been... we would have been the Fab Five
instead of the big four."
Rob:
"If we had stayed together
something would be different about the band today. We could have been on the
road to total destruction because with what was going on at that point...
personally I know, none of us...
nobody was grounded in the right way, the reality from the non-reality because
we had been doing it since we were kids and we were getting crazier and crazier
and having fun, and stuff but dude I tell you if things might have gone further,
bigger who knows by the next album something tragic might have happened to
somebody because we would have gotten into a terrible dispute with each other
and just really not even talking to each other anymore but it ended the way it
did and now it's cool, we are hanging out with each other, we're having a good
time together."
During
December ’90, your previous label, Enigma, released a live album “Fall From
Grace” which contained a live recording from ’88 in Amsterdam.
How did you
feel about it as I understand that it was done without your approval, correct?
Rob:
"We hated it
- we were so pissed
about it, we made them discontinue it."
That
same month as you were doing a Southwest tour with CHRIS POLAND as guest, an
accident between Arizona and Las Vegas happened with the RV, leaving Andy having
cosmetic injuries
-
and at first a fear of brain damage
- and Mark losing a part of
his toes, do you remember what happened exactly?
Rob:
"Should we go through the whole
accident? Well we crashed..."
Dennis:
"Mark had to get a glass toe (huge
laughs). Like Tony Iommi. Whatever you said, that was what happened, it was
terrible but he has recovered from then."
The
next weekend, a benefit was held at the Omni to raise money for Andy medical
bills and members from METALLICA, EXODUS, HEATHEN, FORBIDDEN, TESLA, Chris
Poland showed while Dennis and Mark performed 'Veil...' and
'A Room...' as
acoustic versions...
Dennis:
"Yeah it was Mark and I that did
those acoustic versions."
What
was the general vibe in the band from that point since Mark left DEATH
ANGEL after a
final gig in Omiya, Japan in April ’91 (Chris Kontos,
ex-ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT
etc, playing drums) to continue his studies and leaving the whole
music business? What happened exactly?
Rob:
"The general vibe was just
shitty. We didn't want for that to happen but it happened and accepted it as
destiny."
The
band without Mark performed some shows in the Bay Area following that split as
THE PAST doing acoustic sets.
First can you tell us how many shows you played
under THE PAST and also which songs? Why did you choose to play those shows
under that moniker?
Rob:
"Just a handful of shows and it
was just a bunch of acoustic songs that I had written on my side, just to play
and have fun. I called it as THE PAST as a tribute to the things that we had
been through before."
Geffen
dropped the band around that same time
- mid ’91, as it seems the sales of
“Act III” failed to live up to their expectations.
Anything to say about
that and that transition period?
Mark: "Geffen didn't drop the
band while the band was still together
- the band broke up, then we got dropped.
It had absolutely nothing to do with the sales. The band broke up and they
treated everyone like individuals, put options on some people and didn't keep
options on others. If DEATH
ANGEL had remained together we would have had another album
on Geffen."
At
one time Geffen also tried to market the band as D.A. instead of DEATH ANGEL,
how did you feel about their choice?
Did you agree with it because of course
D.A. sounded a lot more mainstream and acceptable?
Mark:
"We didn't mind it at the time,
just for the simple fact that what we were trying to do was getting our music to
reach a larger audience, get a larger fan base and that's why we were trying to
get MTV, to get 'Room With A View' in heavy rotation, but back then
just the stigma of having a name like DEATH ANGEL MTV before they would even
watch the video was like Headbangers Ball without even hearing the song. The
song was very easy to digest for everyone, it was just a standard Rock ballad
and so they sent it to them as D.A. with hopes that it would and years later I
talked to a person that used to work at MTV and they said it missed heavy
rotation by two votes
- so that's the only reason why. We were trying to expand
our sound as much as possible and back then DEATH ANGEL was pigeon holing us
past Thrash Metal
- and tons of Black and Death Metal bands started coming up and
out around that area and they had names similar. Eventually we started to get
put on to all these shows with all these Death, Black Metal bands which is
nothing against those genres but it's not what we play. Now it's great that they
are having mixtures of shows like that, but back then it was really odd."
Looking
back, seeing the problems you had got with Enigma before and with Geffen with
the band name, would you have choosen something else, less
deathly / evil
sounding, when you were ready to sign your first deal?
Mark:
"No, because
now we are so proud of the name that it doesn't even matter (laughs). Proud to
be DEATH ANGEL!"
Summer
91 saw the band opting for a new name, THE ORGANIZATION, can you tell us what
motivated that choice? Was it like a new start for the band?
Rob:
"THE ORGANIZATION name came from one of the songs, it was cool. I was excited to do a new band
and we just looked at it as a fresh start and we wanted to jam and we were very
excited, very into it."
A
three song demo was recorded early ’92 and you also rejoined forces with
former manager
/ friend
/ roadie, V.J. Benz at the time.
What kind of response did
you receive for that demo effort from people in general but also from DEATH
ANGEL fans
considering the more Rock sounding nature of the material?
Rob:
"(laughs) It was depending on who
it was from, but it was pretty much a mixed response I'd say. Especially people
who knew we were constantly
evolving and progressing, of course the hardcore fans, the people who listen
mainly to heavier music so they were probably disappointed by it, we didn't play
any DEATH
ANGEL music in that band so they were disappointed about that but what can
you do, you can't please everybody."
Then
André Verhuyssen from the Dynamo festival invited you to play a 45 min set at
this fest in June ’92 despite the fact that you were labeless, what kind of
response did you get from the crowd who had celebrated DEATH
ANGEL two years earlier
and who didn’t know who THE ORGANIZATION were?
Rob:
"Great.
It was killer. That was a great fuckin' show, I remember being very
excited and very happy about it, the crowd was very warm to us, always in
Holland and... great time."
Did
you play a warm up show at the Dynamo club the day before by the way? If so did
you include DEATH
ANGEL songs on that set, something you didn’t do the day of the
festival?
Rob:
"I don't remember, we might have
"
Was
it hard getting that Metal Blade deal? Was it by the way only a distribution
deal or...? What was that “Unsafe Unsane Recording" thing named on the
two albums also?
Rob:
"No just a distribution deal. A
friend loaned us money to do the recording
and they licensed it and put it out. Unsafe Unsane Recordings? That was our own label."
How
did you describe THE ORGANIZATION music personally as it was still mainly Metal?
Rob:
"Not really
- it's kind of very Heavy Rock with Metal in it, with lots of different influences in
it, but I don't know if it's like true Metal in the sense of the word because it's got alot of influences out of Metal, lots of the stuff is not Metal on there so..."
Also
was it an obvious choice to have Rob as lead singer or did you try out other
singers before you decided on him?
Rob:
"No I just wanted to sing."
How
did you get offered that support slot for FIGHT in October ’93 all over
Europe?
Rob:
"Somehow we got offered and it was killer. Lots of fun man! It was great man, we had a fuckin' good
response all the time."
(well, I remember the show they played in Hamburg, Germany and there they didn't
really get any response AT ALL! - Frank)
In
February 94 you played in Montreal, Canada in front of a very small crowd.
Was
it only a one off show or was it part of a US
/ Canadian tour you did there? Did
you have the feeling that most people gave up on you and to a certain
extent on the whole Bay Area scene?
Rob:
"I don't remember that exact one
show... I recall playing Montreal as a part of the tour. I guess some people
that are only looking for that kind of music, I guess because THE ORGANIZATION
music was different from DEATH
ANGEL and it wasn't intended that we were trying to be
like DEATH
ANGEL so..."
What
can you tell us about the digipack CD
release
of that first album in Europe
on Bullet Proof which had four bonus tracks added, three live tunes and a studio
cover of Tom Petty's, 'I Need To Know'?
Rob: "That's one of my most
favorite release that we had, different artwork and stuff. We also did an all
acoustic version of 'Wonder' like with a whole different arrangement
of this song which is one of my favorite songs that we did, I love that version
that we recorded on there..."
In
May '94, you appeared at the Dynamo festival
for the second time.
It seems André
had a lot of faith in you guys as it was quite a rare privilege to play
so often there, something very few bands have accomplished besides you and
TROUBLE…
Rob:
"Just great man, the Dynamo
festival is one of the greatest shows to play and every single time that we played it we were very excited and very thrilled and
André's a great guy, we love André and we really appreciate him for believing
in us because of him we had alot of great times coming out to Europe."
Do
you think the fact that
you introduced the
DEATH
ANGEL songs 'Stagnant'
and 'Seemingly Endless Time'
in your set increased people's interest in the band or just
simply gave a chance to the old fans to hear some old killer tunes
again?
Rob:
"Maybe so
- we didn't really do it
that much though."
Why
did you choose to include only stuff from “Act III” and nothing
from the other albums
- minus “The Ultra-Violence” intro to
'Seemingly…'?
Rob:
"We were barely going to do
anything off "Act III", we wanted to change our sound and be the new
band."
Also
there was a change of look as some of you cut their hairs etc, was it somewhat
done to follow the process to be less and less Metal sounding and looking?
Rob:
"Not necessarily for that
- it
just went along with that era of our lives, that phase of our lives."
Then
in ’95 comes “Savor The Flavor", an even more Rock sounding affair
where Metal had almost disappeared, how do you explain that? I mean what made
you go towards a somewhat more laid back direction?
Rob:
"Just natural progression. I mean
Rock music is the music we listened to more than Thrash or Metal, most of us
listened to straight up Rock, alot of old school bands and stuff so I liked to
put music out like that too, I still want to sometime. I don't only wanna play
the Metal that DEATH
ANGEL plays which is a great thing that we like to play but...
different styles of music."
What
about the sales of those two albums? Did they live up to your expectations
considering it was a new start for you and you had to built a new following?
Rob:
"No
- but there are a lot of
factors involved that lead up to why the albums didn't sell that well. The fact
that whatever we put out wasn't DEATH
ANGEL material and stuff like that but certainly
had to do with the fact that we had a very poor structure of a label with no
promotion, no support. We borrowed money from friends to get anything going. We
toured and we did the hard work behind it but I think with a better push and the
right team behind it could have done much better."
Looking
back, what areas on every album of each band you did would you have improved
personally?
Rob:
"I believe strongly that the
music on those albums is great
- I love the songs on those albums and everything.
I would just wish that we had a better label and a better push behind it, just a
better machine. We did our work, writing the songs and recording and performing
and promote the material ."
From
that point, what happened to the band as nothing was heard later from THE
ORGANIZATION?
Rob:
"We just quite literally had had it."
What
were the best moments and worst you have witnessed in the 18 years you have
spent in the Metal scene?
Mark:
"The best moments I ever recall
spending are again just the amount of travelling we got to do, the shows I
mentioned in prior questions like headlining the Ritz in New York, headlining
the Warfield in San Francisco, headlining the Paradiso in Amsterdam, headlining
the Dynamo Festival. Those are probably the best memories that I have. The worst
memories I have are our accident
-
that's absolutely the worst memories that I
have - and signing a bunch of shit that we had and seeing the repercussions of
that that we shouldn't have signed."
Which
records and shows have marked your mind the most?
Mark:
"All three DEATH ANGEL records
-
but "The Ultra-Violence" and "Act III" especially. Obviously
"The Ultra-Violence" because it was the first album and "Act
III" because it was just such a major jump."
DEATH
ANGEL reformed for a one off gig in S.F. August 2001 for a benefit show to raise money
for Chuck Billy’s medical bills, can you tell us how it went?
Mark:
"I was the most sceptical of the
members who wanted to do it, and I ended up just having a blast. And my feelings
before we went on were just intense adrenalin and sheer excitement and it
blew me away how much fun I had. It was wonderful, magical and in all honesty I
didn't want it to end, so I'm glad we are going on."
I
was extremely impressed and found your show to be the most intense of all, it
sounded like you had never been gone from the scene, for how long had you
rehearse for that?
Mark:
"We had two days rehearsal
(laughs)! We had a new guy in the band with Ted Aguilar (from SIFT) on guitar,
but he's been with DEATH
ANGEL from the beginning, he was a fan of
DEATH
ANGEL and came to all
the DEATH
ANGEL shows back then, prior to "The
Ultra-Violence" days. He
bought Gus' guitar off of him when Gus quit DEATH
ANGEL and when it came to re-learning
some of the songs Ted knew them better than we did, so it was a natural fit. We
had two times to rehearse as far as with the whole band but me, Rob and Andy
were on tour with our band SWARM with Jerry Cantrell and we got back so Rob and
Andy were coming up with stuff during soundchecks whenever we got them on that
tour which was rare. After that we just listened to the albums in the van and
just tried to learn it as best as we could from there. It was second nature
because we have been playing together for so long. There's always going to be a
connection via the fact that we are family. We got on stage and it felt magical
for all of us. I had an amazing show, they gave us an hour and we didn't have an
hour's worth of material worked out. I told them to give me time and I can make
it an hour (laughs), we got off stage at 59 minutes. People said I talked too
much but we could have played more songs if we had more songs rehearsed.
Nowadays you come see DEATH
ANGEL we can play for an hour and a half and I'll say what
I need to say."
You
were supposed to appear at that Brazilian Thrash Of The Titans festival during
April 2002 but it was cancelled at the last minute, do you have an idea why?
Mark:
"I don't know why
- to tell you
the truth that was never really completely honestly presented to us, it was
hearsay to us. No one ever approached us about it, so I don't even know."
The
summer 2002 saw finally the real DEATH
ANGEL comeback as you played two shows in the
Bay Area followed a few days later by two Dutch shows which included the Dynamo
Open Air Festival, so first of all what made you go for an almost full time
comeback?
Rob:
"It started with the Chuck Billy
benefit, we did it for Chuck
- that was the only reason that were gonna do it, we
were going to do one time for that, had a blast, a great response, felt the
vibe and wanted to do it some more."
How
did the S.F. crowd at The Pound react to that first real headlining show since
1991? Did you see a lot of old timers in the crowd and would you say that this
show attracted a newer generation also?
Rob:
"It was amazing, you were there.
It was packed, sold out, we went under a different name even (as KILL AS ONE) and we sold it out, all the vibe was there and the emotion was high of
that packed house, and coming back and play in S.F., it was a great time, a
great show."
Let's
talk now of course about the Dutch shows where you always had a strong fan base,
so how did that go?
Rob:
"That was ripping. The show at
Effernaar the night before the
Dynamo, when we headlined the club, we sold it out and that was better than the
Dynamo show itself because we headlined, the sound was
just so kick ass man, the whole vibe, the crowd was singing with us, the whole
fuckin' place was packed, it was twice the size of the Pound show. Packed with
people singing all the words, amazing. That was one of the best show we ever
played."
I
was surprised to hear that 'Wrathchild' (IRON
MAIDEN) cover, something
totally unexpected, who came up with the idea to add this in the set?
Dennis:
"We just messed around
with it and sometimes Andy
would do the intro to it..."
Rob:
"I don't know why it seems to be a
weird song for us, that's one of my favorite fuckin' bands
and the early MAIDEN
albums are just about one of the hugest influences ever so... in the early days
we used to do
'The Trooper'." (Well for a band who stopped to do
covers live since 1984, I guess it's natural to say that it was a surprise huh?!
- Laurent)
From
what I heard the Dynamo Open Air fest show was recorded as you planned to issue
the show as a live album but lately there's rumors around saying that it won't
happen because you're not satisfied with the recording, is that correct?
Rob:
"Nope, they
didn't record it. They weren't able to get the recording equipment, which is
just as well, it was a great show but as far as recording it and releasing that
particular performance, it just wasn't our best."
Dennis:
"Maybe we should have recorded the
Effernaar show, that would have been better."
Rob:
"It's painful to know that if we had
recorded that show somehow that would have been our fuckin' live album
right away but it wasn't recorded."
Is
there any chance that Gus would rejoin the band at one point despite the fact
that it seems he has relocated to
the Philippines?
Rob:
"I really couldn't tell you and like never say never about anything but at this particular moment and
time it doesn't look very likely."
What
can we expect from the DEATH ANGEL camp in the near and distant future?
Rob:
"You can expect a new album next
year hopefully by spring followed by a full tour in the summer. I'm sure the
stuff I'm saying right now will be passed already but we're going to Europe in
November, hopefully Australia in October, we're doing that east coast
week in September. The two re-releases should be out soon as well of the
first two albums, at least by early winter with bonus tracks on each one."
For
the upcoming new studio album, can we expect something close to what you were
doing back then soundwise and songwritingwise or would you say that it might be
more modern sounding in terms of the musical approach?
Rob:
"Oh no it will be totally
different, it will be way mellower, not even heavy, not technical...(laughs)
This is sarcasm."
Dennis:
"It will be exactly like the latest LINKIN PARK album, exactly!
(laughs)"
Rob: "Put it this way, it'll be kind of
like, more like THE ORGANIZATION but even way more lighter and poppier and slower and Metal than that
(laughs)"
Well
would you say everything was covered from DEATH ANGEL to THE ORGANIZATION?
Rob:
"Yeah
- but there's probably a lot
of stuff you missed but we're probably get that in the second testament of DEATH
ANGEL."
By
the way, do you think a reunion gig from THE ORGANIZATION can happen sometime in
the future just for fun?
Rob:
"I think it could happen, except
I guess Ted would be involved."
Anything
to add?
Mark:
"From the original interviews I
gave I was saying that we would probably never reform beyond putting out a live
album with some b-sides and that would be it. Since the demand is out there and
the love is out there I am eating some of my words and say, just be patient, DEATH
ANGEL is in the studio right now writing another album and we are coming out with
some new material, and then we will hit as many places in the world as we can
with intensity and excitement."
Rob:
"I lived in the same place for
nine years and I moved. I've got a lot to add
- I need to add a few things. First
of all, when we started in Andy's garage, when Joe was hanging out...
anything to
add?! You don't leave anything for me to add! I want to add something but
there's nothing I can add without repeating something in there."
Laurent
Ramadier
Conducted
by the Swissman
Transcription
by Matt Coe
Discography:
DEATH ANGEL
The
Ultra-Violence (Enigma, 1987)
Frolic
Through The Park (Enigma, 1988)
Act III (Geffen, 1990)
Fall
From Grace (Enigma, 1990)
THE ORGANIZATION
The Organization (Metal
Blade, 1993)
The
Organization (Bullet Proof - digipack incl. bonus tracks, 1993)
Savor
The Flavor (Metal Blade,1995)
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