DEATH ANGEL To 'Stick With The Brutality And Technicality' Of 'The Dream Calls For Blood'

Conny Schiffbauer of Rock Hard magazine conducted an interview with vocalist Mark Osegueda of San Francisco Bay Area metallers DEATH ANGEL at this year’s edition of the Bang Your Head!!! festival, which took place last month in Balingen, Germany. You can now watch the chat below.

Speaking about the musical direction of DEATH ANGEL‘s forthcoming follow-up to 2013’s “The Dream Calls For Blood” album, Mark said: “We actually had a plan, to a certain degree. When we started working with [producer] Jason Suecof for the last two records, [2010’s] ‘Relentless Retribution’ and ‘The Dream Calls For Blood’, we thought we were gonna do two records intense like that and kind of go back [to the more] melodic [direction of 1990’s] ‘Act III’, but the last two records, we’ve been loving so much writing that style, and the crowds have been enjoying them so much. And I think we’re gonna kind of stick with the same brutality and technicality and, yeah, kind of keep writing this route. ‘Cause one thing… In our minds, even if we think we’re being more brutal than we’ve ever been, it’s inevitable that we are obsessed with melody, so there’s always gonna be melody that separates us from, say, different thrash bands or extreme bands, because we always veer to a melody and catchy hooks. No matter how brutal we think we’re being, we like to throw in hooks, so we’re just gonna carry on how we’re doing now and try to pick as many of the young punters there and keep our stronghold on the old punters.”

As previously reported, DEATH ANGEL will enter the studio on October 1 to begin recording its new album for an April 2016 release via Nuclear Blast.

Asked by Groovey of Groovey.TV what fans can expect from the follow-up to 2013’s “The Dream Calls For Blood”, DEATH ANGEL guitarist Ted Aguilar said: “It’s gonna be DEATH ANGEL. In my personal opinion, I don’t think we’re gonna try to top [‘The Dream Calls For Blood’]. You can’t recreate that moment in time. ‘The Dream Calls For Blood’ is ‘The Dream Calls For Blood’. This next album we’re writing… I mean, we’ve got some songs; [we’re] four songs in. No lyrics yet, but… It’s always gonna be heavy. The foundation of DEATH ANGEL is still there, but it’s kind of hard to describe what direction we’re going in until it’s recorded, mixed and mastered. ‘Cause the way DEATH ANGEL writes, we write a song, but it’s always evolving — up until the point of recording. Even when it comes down to the mixing. It’s just, like, ‘Ah, let’s change that up.'”

He continued: “‘The Dream Calls For Blood’, it’s a great record. We’re proud of it. And the next album, it’s just gonna be DEATH ANGEL in our mindset today. I’m not gonna say, ‘It’s gonna be this,’ and it ends up being a little different. Who knows what this album is gonna sound like? [But] it’s gonna be good.”

DEATH ANGEL released “A Thrashumentary” on July 24 via Nuclear Blast. The DVD was directed, shot and edited by Tommy Jones (KATAKLYSM, SOILWORK, LAMB OF GOD, CARCASS, TESTAMENT) of Videohammer Studios. The release also includes a full live album titled “The Bay Calls For Blood”.