Death Angel - The Ultra-Violence (1987)^{Release ID: 2888}

This is a difficult album for me to review. On the one hand, it's an extremely impressive feat for a bunch of 18-year-old cousins to release something so technically awesome with so many stupendously great riffs as their debut album all the way back in 1987. On the other hand, there are a few tracks on here that I don't really rate, the vocalist can at times get a bit annoying and their tendency to muck around and just do whatever whenever stops the album from being truly memorable throughout.

But credit where credit is due, when they put their heads down and wrote music, such as with The Ultra-Violence instrumental and Voracious Souls, the results were damn good. The Ultra Violence is a cult thrash album with good reason, but I still can't listen to the whole album without losing my enthusiasm for it. A little overrated but not by much.

This is just coming off of their first two demos for educational purposes, and The Ultra-Violence has rerecordings of all three songs on the second demo, Kill As One.  The biggest problem with that demo was the cheap production sometimes got in the way, but the production on their debut album, while not perfect, captures the energy they're performing with.  It gets right into the thrash spirit really easily, and I mean REALLY easily.  As far as the basic thrash standard goes, not only so they make it look like an advanced technique, but they make it look like they can easily do it whereas others can't.  This is a level of power and aggression that even Coroner can't reach, despite the fact that most of these songs are written with the absolute basics and nothing more advanced than that.  Hell, "Evil Priest" has some Kreator-level thrashing!  But the album isn't just pure thrashing.  As "Voracious Souls" proves, Death Angel likes to get unpredictable and think outside the box whenever necessary.  And believe it or not, there is rarely any fluctuation between the quality of these songs.  Not once do Death Angel lose their incredible force and spirit.  Every track is a perfect exercise in thrashing force and speed, and not once does the band stray from this path unless their taking a more artistic and creative approach.  Even as I was writing things for other websites, my focus on their energy and compositions never once strayed.  This is an album I can find myself easily returning to just for fun, despite the fact that Death Angel are not phenomenal writers, just phenomenal performers.

I clearly remember coming home late one Friday night and turning on the TV to watch a metal show that was showing on the UK's Channel Four back then, catching the video to Voracious Souls and being completely blown away. I subsequently managed to track down The Ultraviolence and it quickly became one of my favourite thrash albums with not a single dud track in my opinion. It's amazing to think that DA were still teenagers when they recorded it (drummer Andy Galeon was just 15).

The squealing intro to Thrashers kicks us off in supercharged style with a breakneck celebration of thrash itself and we never need to look back from thereon in as one frantic riff after another is torn off. I know vocalist Mark Osegueda isn't to everyone's taste, being a bit high-pitched for some, but I personally think his singing is perfectly fine. The riffs are dynamic and uncompromising, particularly the aforementioned Voracious Souls and the solos are searingly hot laser beams of sound, so what more do you want from an 80s thrash album?

Sadly, Death Angel were never this good again, but the vast majority of metal bands don't even get close to making one album this brilliant, so I'll settle for that.

I've never really gotten into Death Angel & time doesn't seem to have altered my opinions on this album. I love the raw thrashy production & there are plenty of great riffs but I think the song-writing is a bit lacking in maturity & sophistication (which is hardly surprising given their age). Also, although I don't mind Mark Osegueda's more aggressive vocal style I have a bit of trouble accepting all the out of key stuff when he tries to actually sing. He would have been far better off simply screaming his head off throughout the whole album than attempting to sing notes that he clearly can't hit. Luckily the production & raw energy of the band makes up for some of these negatives. They're at their best when they keep it a bit more basic & simply thrash out on tracks like "Kill As One" & "Mistress Of Pain". In fact I do find myself really enjoying parts of most of the tracks but I don't think I actually love any of them in their entirety as I always find something that lets the rest of the song down (like some dodgy vocals or a few substandard riffs). Not bad but overrated in my opinion.