Death Angel - Humanicide (2019)^{Release ID: 8431}

Sooner or later, these eighties thrash bands who were not arbitrarily chosen as "the big four" will have to realize that the reason albums like Master of Puppets, Rust in Peace, and Among the Living are all time classic records is because of their bass presence, not just their riffage. Death Angel have been around long enough to know this, yet they continue to push out the same album with the same mistakes every three or four years. I'll stick to modern Testament until they decide to stop make ...And Justice For All clones.

The problem Death Angel have is mediocrity seems to abound most of their material to my ears.  I have never really been gripped by the "importance" of their earlier material in comparison to their peers.  Nowadays there is only really Overkill that churn out anything in the way of quality thrash metal from the old guard.  Their latest offering does not help Death Angel reach the dizzy heights that "Wings of War" achieves for the aforementioned New Jersey legends.  This is not to say that "Humanicide" is a bad record.  In the main it is let down by just not being as cutting, chugging or invigorating as Overkill's 2019 offering.  Comparison to other relevant marketplace bands aside, Death Angel do still display sufficient levels of youthful spunk to drown most small household pets and they compliment this well with some mature song writing and noteworthy lead work in the guitar department.

I just cannot fend of the feeling of sterility in their sound though unfortunately.  For all the while I enjoy the ferocity of "Divine Defector" the texture feels a little too polished to hold any traction for me to sink my teeth or nails into.  Likewise, the ferocious delivery of "Aggressor" is let down by a more than clunky feel to the vocal style.  Instead of coming off as challenging or defiant they just sound a little sub-par somehow.  The arrangement of this track however shows real promise it has to be said and takes me back to my point about maturity and noteworthy instrumentation earlier.

"I Came For Blood" charges in like a Motorhead track but is soon laid victim to the same vocal problem I highlighted earlier which soon makes it sound like a really naff nu-metal track.  The slow picked intro to "Immortal Behated" offers some hope of consistent structure but is soon robbed of this promise with some odd psychedelic edge to the guitar and ill thought out staccato vocals.

Soon enough (by the halfway point) the album sounds predictable and just very poorly balanced as the lead work continues to show real potential but the constant clash with the vocals and often triggered sounding drums just spells an excess of use of the skip button I am afraid.