Video Premiere: DEATH ANGEL's 'I Came For Blood'

The official JayLaced Productions-produced music video for the song “I Came For Blood” from San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal veterans DEATH ANGEL can be seen below. The track is taken from the band’s ninth full-length album, “Humanicide”, which is being released today (Friday, May 31) via Nuclear Blast Records.

With “Humanicide”, DEATH ANGEL has maintained its throne in the universe of thrash while still managing to remain progressive in their style. They apply a wide variety of different elements to their music, always pushing to add newness to their sound. This time around they’ve included everything from acoustic bits to guest musicians to even (for the first time) the notes of a piano. All 10 songs flow seamlessly yet each leaves its own distinct impression.

For the fourth album cycle in a row, DEATH ANGEL returned to producer and friend Jason Suecof (DEICIDE, TRIVIUM) of Audiohammer studios for the recording and mixing, along with the mastering of the legendary Ted Jensen (SLIPKNOT, PANTERA) of Sterling Sound, who added the final touches and brought it all to life, with artist Brent Elliott White (LAMB OF GOD, MEGADETH) providing the ominous cover artwork.

Guitarist Rob Cavestany told United Rock Nations about the inspiration for the album’s title: “‘Humanicide’ is basically the self-extinction of the human race. It is very dark, in a kind of a dark time [with] the way that things are going around the world these days. It’s no secret — all you have to do is turn on the news, go on social media, talk to somebody on the streets. You’ll see that there’s a bit of a problem going on between relations of humanity. It’s hard to get away from it; it’s ever-present. It’s not like it’s a brand new situation — of course, it’s been going on, but the thing is, you see it more and more now because of social media… Everyone knows the same feeling. There’s just a lot of tension happening, especially between the relations of humans. Our band has experienced this since we first started in the ’80s, being that for one thing, we were all young and these Filipino cousins that didn’t fit the normal look of the heavy metal band. We experienced harsh people all over the place for no apparent reason but because they weren’t able to accept other people, or something other than what they think is how it’s supposed to be, and that seems to be the problem persisting today. People are just thinking that whatever the way they do things or the way their particular scene is, that’s how it’s supposed to be everywhere else. They’re not accepting of others, and it’s getting really blown up in a bad way these days. The powers that be are not helping these situations — a lot of them aren’t. This gives great inspiration for the kind of aggressive style of a concept that belongs in heavy music like this. You need to focus on some heavy topic one way or the other — it’s not like singing about lying in the park in a bed of flowers having your Valentine date with you. This kind of movie that is presented in this genre is more of an intense, dark horror film. That’s kind of where we’re coming from.”

Regarding DEATH ANGEL‘s decision to work with Suecof again, Rob said: “I just love the clarity and the power of the final product of the production that we get working together out of his studio. I think his records come out sounding very clear and strong and bright, and you can hear everything. I just love the clarity and the separation of the instruments. He’s like retaining an old-school feel, but combining it with a modern production feel. That’s what we’re shooting for. The working relationship that we have together, we’ve become really close friends. We’ve been working together now for four records over practically a decade, so we know each other really well, and we kind of know what we’re thinking, we know what we’re trying to get out of each other and we know how to work together.”

“Humanicide” track listing:

01. Humanicide
02. Divine Defector
03. Aggressor
04. I Came For Blood
05. Immortal Behated
06. Alive and Screaming
07. The Pack
08. Ghost of Me
09. Revelation Song
10. Of Rats and Men
11. The Day I Walked Away (bonus track)