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Death Angel > Killing Season > Reviews
Death Angel - Killing Season

The season for buzzkilling - 62%

autothrall, February 24th, 2012

I think it's a good thing that I've experienced Death Angel's latest album, Relentless Retribution before revisiting their post reunion backlog, because at least that album gives me some hope that the Californians might once again reach the memorable standards that they set so early on. Even if their modern sound is quite different than The Ultra-Violence, I'll be happy as long as the songs conjure up some genuine excitement and impressive riffing. Like The Art of Dying before it, their 2008 effort Killing Season was yet another effort to which I could only extend a lukewarm reaction, a modern and turgid brand of thrash/groove metal which, if not for a few of Mark Osegueda's vocal lines and the logo on the album cover, I might have mistaken for an entirely different band...

While Killing Season felt more angry and consistent than their long anticipated 4th 'comeback' album, it generated a whole set of problems all its own. Or, if not 'problems', reasons that it failed to hit the bar raised by their 80s albums. Instead of that filthy speed metal momentum that once coursed through their compositions, this is largely a groove based album, with a lot of riffing that reminds one of Pantera, or Machine Head, or other 90s stewards of tough guy slugfest metal that evolved straight from the thrash of the previous decade. The guitars focus heavily on thick palm muting and rock grooves, often like a less stoner post-Blind Corrosion of Conformity. There are a decent share of Bay Area chugging sequences that recall Exodus or Metallica, as in the track "Dethroned", but I found the slower grooves far less despotic and threatening than, say "Voracious Souls", and the faster, driving note progressions to leave much to be desired. But probably the most obvious comparison here would be to the 'modern' Anthrax sound circa The Greater of Two Evils or We've Come for You All. When Mark's spitting out those mid-ranged lines, he has a lot of bite to his voice sort of like a more acidic John Bush, and the pummeling breadth of the guitar tone is not unlike Ian and Caggiano.

Not really my thing, not at all. However, like The Art of Dying, I would be remiss to not admit that an obvious effort was placed in the songwriting here. Unlike that album, where you might hear Death Angel fly off the handle and bust out some grunge inflected track, most of the contents of Killing Season follow a logical, fluid architecture that seems like the band had more of a commitment to its style. They come out fighting in "Lord of Hate" and never really let up as they hammer out material like "Sonic Beatdown" or "The Noose". There's a bit of an emotional side conjured through the acoustic guitars or Osegueda's carefully constructed chorus lines. The lead work, melodies and effects that Cavestany and Aguilar dispense here are generally quite creative, like the octave chords carving out "Lord of Hate" or the funky filtering that introduces "The Noose" or "God vs. God", but I felt like the rhythm guitar riffing left a lot to be desire. Whether I'm hearing the pedestrian if somewhat intense chugging of "Sonic Beatdown" or the voluptuous rock curves of the "Steal the Crown" chorus, it never seems to stick with me.

If an album like this had come out around 1993-1994 when A Vulgar Display of Power was in massive rotation, I think it would have done quite well and felt pretty fresh, a more aggressive successor to Act III. But not something with the killer chorus hooks and attitude that would endure down through the decades after that. As it stands, Killing Season suffers from a lot of that same, banal writing that the recent Onslaught reunion or Rob Dukes fronted Exodus records seem to phone in. The production is dense and potent, and in particular I think they did a decent job arranging the vocals here and ensuring that something interesting was going on with the guitars even when the bottom end riffing was tepid and predictable. But the underwhelming groove influences, and the lame, 'you go girl' affirmation lyrics in songs like "Sonic Beatdown" and "Steal the Crown" drag it down considerably, and I wouldn't be caught dead singing any of this in the shower, where I might once have lathered up while howling "KILL...AS ONE!" I'd rank this a fraction higher than The Art of Dying, but nothing special.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

2008 is the killing season - 97%

19ThePreacher88, April 7th, 2010

This album and Act III are the only Death Angel albums I own. They are also the only Death Angel albums I've heard, aside from a song or two here and there, so don't kill me for this, but....

Damn, what a fun album. I had never heard of Death Angel before until I found this for $4 in a bargain bin with the words "Bay Area Thrashers" tacked on the front. Naturally I spent the four bucks after seeing song names like "Lord of Hate", "Dethroned", and "God vs. God".

This album took me totally by surprise. From the acoustic intro of "Lord of Hate" leading into a modern-inspired guitar lick, I was drawn in because of how different it was. There was a small amount of disappointment though, don't pick up this album expecting something that sounds like the new Exodus. I would actually say this is a cross with Anthrax and a new kind of sound. It's fucking awesome.

The guitarwork? May not be too technical, and it certainly doesn't have 100 mph set to cruise control, but the riffs are memorable. For me, anyways. I love most of the riffs and guitar solos this album offers, and I love the vocals as well. They aren't aggressive, but they're not soft either. The vocals are perfect. The lyrics are great.

I listen to "Steal the Crown" when I'm tired and need something to make me, (and I quote the chorus), "GO!!! GET UP AND GO!!!". It works.

I guess what I'm saying is, this album is a must have for all metalheads. It is a fun record with excellent musicianship. We all know that is hard to find nowadays when it comes to thrash.

My Thrash Pick for 2008 - 69%

BudDa, November 15th, 2009

Fine, this was a shit load of experimentation especially in the incorporation of funk. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Funny, that didn't even get to me in the slightest bit and unlike most thrash acts that where released last year, I have listened to this album more times than I care to remember. I'll tell u one more thing, its cause of this kind of stuff (the funk) that makes this album what it is-an exciting, thrash attack of 2008. Lets just back up a bit and realize the magnitude of that statement.What I am actually saying is I prefer this to Testament's Formation for Damnation, Destruction's D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N and other smaller names that released awesome thrash records last year (Hexen, Torture Squad, Toxic Holocaust, Guillotine etc, etc)

Songs like ‘Lord of Hate’, ‘Sonic Beatdown’, ‘Carnival Justice’, ‘Steel the Crown ’,‘ Soulless’ and ‘God vs. God’ underline my interest in this record There’s really nothing special about this album only that unlike most thrash artists-Death Angel have decided to keep it simple and funky. Of course songs like ‘Lord of Hate’ and ‘Sonic Beatdown’ will certainly pass the litmus test for "Pure fuckin' thrash" acts with the later destined to becoming some kind of thrash anthem. However, Killing Season also contains songs that can pretty much hold their own in ‘Carnival Justice’, which by the way, is my favorite on this record and also has the most ridiculous bass-line ever conjured up on a thrash record; ‘God vs. God’, which has this almighty groovy feel that is impossible to get enough of and then the mother of all ridiculous-ness. ‘Steal the Crown’. Fuck me; the bass intro is nothing short of awesome. Then, the funky bass line at the chorus from around 1:30 to 1:50 is some of the most enjoyable pieces of shit I listened to last year.

On about half the songs, the guitarist pretty much goes unnoticed and only comes alive during the Solos. That, folks, is the biggest downer to this album. The riff writing prior to the solos leaves a lot to be desired and to be quite honest; one can hardly remember any stand out riff on Killing Season apart from the ones on 'Lord of Hate' and 'Sonic Beatdown'. Seriously, on a couple of songs that he should have stood out like on ‘Carnival Justice’, ‘Steal the Crown’ and ‘God vs. God’, he’s busy being butt whipped by his bassist. Of course, that normally wouldn't be a problem only that this is a thrash record...its supposed to be riff driven!!

Special mention goes to Galeon-the drummer, who is no longer with the band, for his exceptional work on ‘Lord of Hate’, ‘Sonic Beatdown’ and ‘Resurrection Machine’...and Osegueda-the vocalist who vaguely reminds me of Anthrax's Joey Belladonna. Like I said before, this aint Pure Fuckin' Thrash but it’s Thrash capable of giving u a sore eye and bloody nose...

What I expected: a fresh surprise! - 91%

Agonymph, December 10th, 2008

Four years had passed since Death Angel’s crushing comeback album ‘The Art Of Dying’ and Rob Cavestany revealed in interviews that the band had been on the verge of breaking up again, but luckily, a new album hit the shelves. And in good Death Angel tradition, the album sounds surprising. Surprise is the expectation for the four thrashing cousins and relative newcomer Ted Aguilar. But the biggest surprise of the album is how remarkably fresh it sounds.

Now, I don’t know how much new producer Nick Raskulinecz – who has also worked with the likes of StoneSour and the Foo Fighters – has to do with this, but he has blessed this album with a great sound anyway. Crisp and clear and every instrument is audible the way it should be heard. This means Andy Galeon, probably the world’s most severly underrated drummer and one of the very few Metal drummers who has a certain “swing” in his playing, has plenty of room to excel, but also bassist Dennis Pepa is audibly doing some amazing fretwork. Many bassists on Thrash records get buried in the mix, Pepa deserves better and luckily gets better.

Compared to ‘The Art Of Dying’, it’s a pleasant surprise to hear how aggressive and energetic ‘Killing Season’ is. The album title may have given that away, but the energy displayed in ‘Sonic Beatdown’, one of the most awesome Death Angel-songs to date, still kicks you in the face when you least expect it. There aren’t any ballads or notably “soft” songs on this album and although I thought that would disappoint me, I hardly notice it.

Once again, Thrash Metal is a term that doesn’t really do to the band any justice. It’s the basis, but the first real riff on the album – the main riff to ‘Lord Of Hate’ – shows exactly what I mean: it’s a thrashing riff, but at the same time, there’s sort of a Hard Rock-ish feel to it. Part of that has to do with the fact that Rob Cavestany never felt the need to necessarily limit himself to the standard chord schemes of the genre, which (still!) makes him one of the best guitarists on the planet. Also, all the songs are quite catchy, which could be a turn-off to many Thrashers, but is very enjoyable for yours truly.

Although the quality on ‘Killing Season’ is consistently high, there were three songs that jumped out of the bunch for me right away. I already mentioned ‘Sonic Beatdown’. Death Angel has hardly ever sounded so energetic as in that song. The choirs shouting the title in the chorus finish the whole thing. Killer. There’s no other word for it. ‘Soulless’ is a tad more melodic and features some awesome double lead vocal work by Cavestany and Mark Osegueda. The latter does his best job to date on this album and therefore it hardly bothers me that the other members don’t sing lead vocals on a few songs. The amazing midtempo main riff is probably the album’s highlight, riff-wise.

‘Resurrection Machine’ closes the album and is closest to a ballad Death Angel comes on ‘Killing Season’. The song starts with a beautiful, tranquil intro with acoustic guitar and some subtle lead work and shifts into a powerful midtempo stomper. The pre-chorus, with once again a great interaction between Cavestany and Osegueda, is awesome and so is the more laid-back middle part of the song, which is sung by Cavestany. I’m under the impression that Raskulinecz and Cavestany put a lot of effort into producing the vocals for this song, but I guess you’ll have to hear it to understand what I mean with that.

But there’s plenty more to enjoy here. ‘Buried Alive’ has everything that Metal is about, the Death Angel way. That means there’s not only the riffs and the pounding rhythms, but also the great backing vocals. And that speedy second half ain’t unpleasant either! ‘When Worlds Collide’ features a purely awesome, Rock ‘n’ Roll-ish main riff that would have Black Sabbath and Pantera fighting over it if the band put it for sale on eBay. That jazzy interlude to ‘Carnival Justice’ that leads into the brilliant solo section was a surprise that put a wide smile on my face and ‘Lord Of Hate’ is just a very powerful opener. The acoustic intro goes into the first song much more naturally than the one to ‘Thrown To The Wolves’ on ‘The Art Of Dying’.

I could go on and on and on telling you how good this album really is – and that is basically what I just did for about 750 words – but to really understand the brilliance of this album or Death Angel in general, one should hear it. As for me, this is even better than ‘The Art Of Dying’. ‘Killing Season’ is my second favorite Death Angel-album, second only to the brilliant and hardly comparable ‘Act III’-album. It’s not that far behind though!

This is more like it. - 82%

hells_unicorn, September 17th, 2008

In this day and age, classic thrash is even scarcer than the most expensive of precious metals. Even despite putting a good deal of years behind its initial fall from prominence in the early 1990s, some bands just don’t seem to have the heart to fully thrash out, save perhaps a couple of younger retro-thrash acts who mostly seem to be paying tribute to the past. A lot of people throw the blame for the groove metal takeover on Death Angel, based on their early half-thrash release “Frolic Through The Park”, though the style was really more popularized by Sepultura and Pantera later, so more credence would be given to said album being an experiment gone horribly wrong. Nonetheless, the band basically left the genre of thrash and didn’t completely come back.

When you get down to it, the band exhibits a lot of the characteristics of a thrash band, but also a fair share of other styles on their latest offering “Killing Season”. The album cover itself suggests that maybe we’re in for something akin to Slayer’s “Divine Intervention”, but in actuality what arrives is closer to mid-80s Megadeth and Anthrax. Acoustic guitar sections are employed regularly and the songs are equally as melodic as they are riff driven, despite the otherwise general tendency away from the funk/metal style that also featured a higher level of melodic material. What you end up with is something that is closer to the glory of the original Bay Area boom, but just a tad bit short of the gold. But in comparison to what normally passes as thrash today, its way ahead of the curve.

The obvious winners on here combine a sort of quasi-epic feel to what is otherwise a fairly straight up approach of riffs and aggression. The opening track “Lord Of Hate” basically sets the tone for a very solid listen, coming forward with this simple yet unforgettable 12 string acoustic guitar intro that loosely pays homage to Black Sabbath’s “Sign Of The Southern Cross”, before launching into a simple yet infectious and thrashing variation on the same intro. It takes on a power metal character with a slight epic feel as it generally engages in gradual changes, building upon a basic foundation while giving Mark Osegueda the stage to sport his sharp edged, angry vocal delivery.

The rest of the songs that follow after tend to either run with this compact yet epic formula or resort to a more bare bones thrash attack more befitting of their Bay Area roots. “Sonic Beatdown” and “Carnival Justice” take the latter approach and start off cooking with simple and slowly developed riff sets while Osegueda maintains some semblance of a melodic center while simultaneously shouting out his left lung. They employ these somewhat groove oriented breakdowns before the solos on a regular basis, which actually tend more towards a bass-oriented, punk-like reference rather than the quirky funk stuff that diluted their post-“The Ultra-Violence” material. Other songs such as “Resurrection Machine” and “Dethroned” bring back the acoustic intros followed by the idiomatic upper mid-tempo power/thrash that somewhat parallels “So Far, So Good…So What!”.

There are some modernistic recording effects that occasionally filter in and out of these songs, but it doesn’t reach the overbearing levels peculiar to most groove bands. There are some songs that make extensive use atmosphere during some sections, but with only one really looming exception, the songs tend away from an all out groove feel. This lone exception “God Vs. God”, the only real crapshoot on here, combines all of the clichés first established on Anthrax’s “Sound Of White Noise” and Machine Head’s “Burn My Eyes”, namely annoying as hell 3 note drones spliced together with hypnotic tribal drum beats, quirky guitar effects and slightly hard core sounding vocals. Fans of both power and thrash metal would do well to simply employ the skip button on here and enjoy the other ten songs.

For the old school thrash fan who can tolerate a little bit of genre intermingling, this is among the better albums to be released this year. While it may not be the all out classic that this band’s debut was and those put out by several of their San Francisco cohorts in the late 80s, it is worthy of the band, which is more than I can say for some of their older works. Experiments are few on here, the presentation is fairly predictable even with some good acoustic work, but these songs are definitely memorable and pack a good amount of hard edged goodness. It’s almost enough to make me forget that this is the same band that put out “Frolic Through The Park”.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on September 17, 2008.

The thrash revival gets a solid boost - 80%

gk, May 28th, 2008

Thrash metal has seen a huge revival of late. It might have all started with Exodus’s stunning comeback Tempo of the Damned but from that point onward it seems to have snowballed into the second coming. There are new bands popping up almost every day that retread the glory days of the 80s and plenty of reformations and comebacks. The Bay Area’s Death Angel made the comeback in 2004 with The Art of Dying which was decent enough as far as being a nostalgia trip but nothing more than that.

This year sees the band release its fifth studio album called The Killing Season and I’m quite happy to report that the band has written an album that will stand up to Frolic In The Park and Act III. The album opens with the one-two punch of Lord of Hate and Sonic Beatdown. Terrific grooves, full on thrash like its 1988 all over again and Mark Osegueda’s vocals have never sounded this good. The band sounds great too. Relative newcomer and replacement for Gus Pepa, Ted Aguilar sounds like he now belongs in the band and along with original guitarist Rob Cavestany plays some kickass thrash riffs.

The Noose shows off an infectious rock n roll swagger while When Worlds Collide (sounds a lot like Bush era Anthrax) , Carnival Justice and Buried Alive all show off a healthy thrash aesthetic. God Vs. God has Osegueda’s best vocal performance ever and is another kickass song combining a sense of Pro-Pain’s bruising grooves and an almost Killing Joke sense of dynamics while always sounding like Death Angel.

The songs on this album all flow with an energy and sense of purpose that’s highly enjoyable. Coming across mostly like vintage Death Angel with a slight sense of the NYHC cross-over sound and some surprisingly traditional heavy metal parts, The Killing Season is very enjoyable and more importantly sounds relevant in 2008. This is not a band that’s simply re-hashing past sounds but seems to be constantly moving forward within the thrash metal framework.

Originally written for http://www.kvltsite.com

Vanilla Season - 55%

betweentheeyes, April 29th, 2008

Let me start off by saying that I haven’t heard anything from Death Angel since Act III, so I bought this album with no delusions of grandeur. Much like Exodus’ return, Death Angel reunited to milk the udder of bay area thrash’s teat, and I’ve come to realize that aging men do not write great thrash songs. Still, I had heard bits of “Dethroned”, and thought this cd might be worth a purchase, and thus begins my review of Death Angel’s latest effort.

The album starts off with a short acoustic intro, which doesn’t bother me, and quickly enough blasts into older thrash-worthy Death Angel. Like the previous reviewers have stated, the beginning of this album is pretty damn good. The production value is very crisp, all the instruments in the mix are balanced well, and Osegueda’s harsh vocals are diminished from “The Ultra-Violence”, but still above average.

If this album was an EP with just the first three songs, I would’ve rated it much higher than I did. The first two songs, “Lord of Hate”, and “Sonic Beatdown” feel thrashy and speedy, which is what I expected to have continue through the entire cd. These are highlight tracks. Also decent is the 3rd track “Dethroned”, which although is obviously more groove than thrash, has a great solo in it that also makes it a competent track.

Then tragedy strikes. The rest of the album is slower groove metal, and Death Angel does horribly at executing it. I can’t think of one track on the rest of the cd that doesn’t feel like mediocre filler. People that aren’t familiar with great thrash might think this is acceptable, but it’s not. Osegueda’s voice fails at this point of the cd, with signs of his aging voice and clean vocals not complimenting the already watered down guitar attack.

It’s a shame that bands like Death Angel can’t remember what thrash should sound like. Long gone is the aggression and rawness of the 80s thrash scene. Left in its place is vanilla, a cash-grab, a lackluster album.
Death Angel’s guitar section was always the highlight of their previous albums, but unless you’re a groove metal fan, you’re going to be disappointed here. I can’t recommend this album to any thrash diehards, like myself. Time for the angel of death to take this Death Angel away.

Killing Season - 87%

Uprising, April 24th, 2008

After the 2004 comeback album “The Art of Dying”, Death Angel have finally released their anticipated 2nd reunion album. As you may know, reunion albums are mostly an accumulation of years of inactivity and therefore shelved ideas and some recent inspiration. For example, Exodus’ Tempo of the Damned included quite some material from Gary Holt’s thrash/groove experiment from the late nineties, therefore providing the band with lots of quality material.
For me, the quality of the following releases (SHKM, TAEA) is going downhill, so a reunion doesn’t necessary lead to an infinite supply of quality music.


So I was even more wondering whether Death Angel could pull off a second release, without falling into generic neo-thrash riffing. Fortunately, the DA guys have never really been bound to one genre: sure the Ultra-Violence is full on bay area thrash, but Frolic is showing quite some punk influence where they successfully incorporated the, at that time popular, funk style on their 3rd album Act III. The Art of Dying showed a perfect hybrid of Death Angel: bone crushing thrash, diminishing groove and sensitive melody all combined to the one sound I’d like to call the “death angel sound”.


On their 2008 output, “Killing Season”, they’ve taken up yet another approach to their famous thrash ‘n roll music, taking on a far more aggressive style then on any previous record. After a short acoustic intro, the album starts off with Lord of Hate, a nice fast-paced thrasher with a killer breakdown section, changing to an entire different tune without losing the original idea. Great stuff. The 2nd song, “Sonic Beatdown” already starts before the opening track is finished, and presents us with some quality groove pumping madness and a fabulous lead section, proving that Rob Cavestany is still one of the most original lead guitarists of the genre. Then the slower “Dethroned” starts off with another acoustic intro, going into a mid-tempo rocker with a cool Room-with-a-view-kind of solo. “Carnival Justice” takes us right back into the fast-paced thrash from Frolic, with the kind of goofy guitar lines like only DA could pull off in a song like this.
Then comes the middle section of the album: the mid-tempo tracks Buried Alive and Soulless are definite proof slow songs don’t necessary mean less heaviness. These songs crush. The pace is picked up half way through “The Noose” and after an acoustic outro, the beginning of “When Worlds Collide” sounds like Diamond Head on crack, providing some good head banging material and a great groove laden middle section. Then, “God vs God” takes us back to the spacey stuff from the devil incarnate, opening up into a cool open-chord thrasher. After the short rocker “Steal the Crown”, the album closes with the 7 minute masterpiece “Resurrection Machine”.


Musically, Death Angel never were a band that liked to show off, shredding with the speed of light or playing in 3634 bpm. What they did do, however, is rocking your socks off with groovy riffs, catchy melodies and ditto vocal lines. Despite the aggressive approach this album is still 100% Death Angel. The guitar work still consists of original quality riffing, with Rob still playing all the leads, which I must add are some of his best to date. And if you’ve ever witnessed this band live you know that Andy Galeon is a hard hitter: pounding his drums like he’s got a bet on how many skins he can rip on one tour. That energy can really be heard on the cd, accentuating the fast-paced rhythm’s so you just have to bang your head like no tomorrow. The bass-work is as usual, with Dennis Pepa presenting some cool intro riffs and groovy bass lines, fitting the music perfectly. The real star on this album is Mark though, his sometimes hysterical vocal approach works really well with the new material, and some choruses just have to be sang along to.


The production is surprisingly old school, and not like the modern tight hammered Sneap-sound most bands are using nowadays. Once again, this really fits the music: all of the instruments can be heard perfectly, and Mark’s vocal lines become one with the madness.
I’m glad the band chose for this kind of approach, and they really show that quality thrash still exists. Every track on this album is killer, and how cheesy it may sound: not filler.


The digipack version comes with a cool bonus dvd, featuring a short live show (50 min.) with decent sound, definitely worth getting. Great stuff.

Not even in a crippled animal sanctuary - 17%

zeingard, March 20th, 2008

Death Angel have not had the most impressive track record; 'The Ultraviolence' is their claim to fame and whilst it is some quality thrash (released by teenagers no less) the rest of their albums have been failure after failure. Their indulgence into funk and groove proved to be their fatal downfall, they're that rare breed of band who had everything going for them and then cocked it all right up by trying to be progressive or interesting and failing badly I might add. 'Killing Season' begins on quite a good note but spirals down into the infinite chasms of suckitude with a velocity only matched by a fucking black hole; damn you Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation!

Don't get me wrong though, the first two songs smoke hard as and allude to the early days of thrash albeit with some allusions to groove and hardcore, but fuck it, they work so well you'd have to be nothing short of a ignorant mongoloid to say otherwise. Despite the Metallica-ish acoustic intro (seriously guys, fucking stop doing the same shit as Metallica) "Lord of Hate" has some solid speed/thrash riffage throughout and never lets up, pummelling your grey matter into a fine paste that would spread nicely across some early morning toast. Even that half-assed scream from Oseguda gets the adrenaline flowing and makes for a fucking brilliant beginning to any album, regardless of genre, it is rather deceptive considering what shall follow this thrash-fest. "Sonic Beatdown" is a good dose of fun too, with some simple riffs and an amazing solo section, at this point in the album it's quite understandable to think 'What can go wrong?' Let's just say, everything can go wrong, very wrong. Horribly wrong. Holocaust level wrong. Possibly beyond even that.

The elements present in the later songs range between borrowing from their more abhorrent funk-influenced middle-era albums and everyone's 'favourite' genre; groove metal. Maybe it's the sleep deprivation or the alcohol poisoning, but I just don't see how these bands can't use their old methods, perhaps even build upon them. I mean to say that thrash metal has definitely had it's shining moment, but albums such as 'Rust in Peace' or 'By Inheritance' showed us that it was very possible to evolve and make thrash a superb and wondrous genre whilst still adhering to it's primary tenants of riffs up the ass and solos down your oesophagus. Oh, and crap vocals. Even these 'retro-thrash' bands recognise that thrash was the metal way to go, but let's not dispute their lack of originality because when you take into account bands like Fueled by Fire, all you can see is blatant Bay Area Thrash masturbation. You would assume, well at least you would if you possessed at least below average mental faculties, that these older bands would take up the challenge posed by these new upstarts. Show them how it's done, so to speak. But it seems, the older bands lost their balls some place in the 90's, and thus we end up with the latter part of this album; repetitive groove riffage with banal song structuring. The dropping of guitars, the lack of riffs, the breakdowns, the insipid pirouetting into funk based or other obtuse sections that have no real place in heavy fucking metal.

'Killing Season' is just another album to chalk up, yet another failed attempt at an 80's thrash band releasing an album in a modern age and for some reason taking a shot at appealing to modern sensibilities, that aren't very sensible in any sense of the word. Death Angel will never be what they were, I realised this before I even began to listen to this album; their earlier releases had given me some sort of indication of their direction, but those first two songs... So manipulative, coercive and deceiving. A heart broken over the lack of outright thrash that seemed to linger about in the five or so minutes of this album, and I'm afraid nothing can help repair this damage. Except maybe listening to 'Pandemonium' or 'Extreme Hatred' ad infinitum might help to at least cover up the wounds inflicted upon the soul of thrash, but nothing shall erase the scars left by yet another classic band fucking that wound and pumping it full of their disgustingly groove-laden semen.