"Death Angel were one of the most promising bands of the thrash metal movement of the 1980s, but they suffered a terrible bus accident while on tour in 1991, and fans would have to wait 14 years for the follow-up to "Act III" from 1990.
The follow-up was to be "The Art of Dying", which is very much a mixed experience. There are some face-ripping metal songs on this album to be sure, such as the fierce thrashers "Thrown to the Wolves", "Prophecy", "Spirit", and "Land of Blood" all of which are mostly quite good tracks ("Land of Blood" limps a bit too much for my tastes), the Motörhead-like "Thicker than Blood", "No" and "5 Steps to Freedom" are more in the vein of traditional metal, and are also quite good tracks, while "Never Me" and "Famine" are more inspired by alternative rock/metal, and these are probably the tracks that impress me the least.
Given the presence of so many uptempo thrash songs, I think that many old school thrash metallers will like this album, which should also appeal to fans of power metal and traditional heavy metal.
(review originally posted on metalmusicarchives.com)"
"Death Angel's third release "Act III", while essentially still a thrash metal release, contains a noumber of elements from other genres, and that may be one of the reasons why many hardcore thrash-heads dislike it; at the same time, a lot of people with other musical preferences liked it for its broad variation.
In many ways, "Act III" was ahead of its time in the perspective of rock in general, as it contains many elements that would become iconic of both alternative metal and hard rock later on, such as elements from funk and folk, and the use of acoustic guitar ballads, which bands like Extreme and Mr Big would later beat like a dead horse. The ballads on "Act III", however, are actually not bad, I think. What I particularly like about this album as that, even though Death Angel experiment with more mainstream elements, they never stray too far from their thrash metal roots. I also like how the band challenges traditional song structure and genre boundaries by incorporating elements from various styles into one another.
While I don't think that all thrash metal fans will enjoy this album, I think it will appeal to fans of alternative metal and maybe also more adventurous thrash fans (I think that, if you're into 90s era Suicidal Tendencies, there's a chance you might like this too).
(review originally posted on metalmusicarchives.com)"
"2010 is a good year for metal. There have been so many good releases across the board. "Relentless Retribution" by thrash metal legends Death Angel is yet another addition to this year's string of magnificent releases.
The album certainly lives up to its title as it contains several ass-kicking thrash metal tracks which draw on both traditional thrash metal of the 80s, groove metal of the 90s and modern thrash metal of the noughties with references to melodeath as well, and, this being Death Angel, there is melody and progression aplenty. "Claws in so Deep" contains all of these elements, and "Truce", "I Chose the Sky" (the chorus of this song totally kicks butt!), "Where They Lay" and "River of Rapture" are all out thrashers, and "This Hate" even draws on hardcore punk and is more of a crossover thrash track.
"Relentless Retribution" is a heavier, melodic yet brutal affair, as is "Into the Arms of Righteous Anger", which also contains a breakdown that would make any metalcore musician green with envy. "Absence of Light" is also a heavier, and slightly quirky, track which could have been inspired by Metallica's "Death Magnetic" album and some of Slayer's heavier tracks.
"Death of the Meek" is a midtempo track which contains some frenzied killer riffage and a more melodic, almost alt. metal, chorus. While all the other tracks are killer, this is, for the time being, my favorite off the album.
"Opponents at Sides" is more of an alt. metal track and "Volcanic" is a nice mellow acoustic ballad.
In all, "Relentless Retribution" is one of the best thrash metal releases of the year, and it proves that Death Angel are still among the heavy metal elite. Recommended to fans of thrash metal, old school as well as new school.
(review originally posted on metalmusicarchives.com)"
