It's nice to see so many good bands of the 1980s come back after years of obscurity. Death Angel, one of our favorite Bay Area thrash metal bands, was naturally among the most anticipated reunions for surviving thrash metal maniacs all over the globe. The band made up of five cousins whose parents came to the U.S. from the Philippines, released three classic albums ("The Ultra Violence", "Frolic Through The Park" and "Act III") in the 1980s and then suddenly broke up in 1991 after drummer Andy Galleon was seriously injured in a car accident and singer Mark Osegueda decided he had had too much of the show business. After years of numerous projects that did little to rival the glory of Death Angel, the band was brought back to life especially for playing the benefit concert for Testament's Chuck Billy and has been carrying on ever since. In this interview with Mark done by phone on the eve of Death Angel's departure for a major European series of festivals, we decided to avoid usual themes like the background for disbanding and the purpose of getting back together, since they are all covered in detail on the band's official side. Our goal was to explore what's less publicized, but no less interesting.

Let's start with the Bay Area Thrash festival that happened last weekend (March 29). How was it like? Did you enjoy taking part in it?

It was amazing, it was wonderful just because it was good to be fully established again. The first time we played a thrash festival here was Thrash of the Titans, a kind of a benefit (for Chuck Billy, back in 2001 - ed.), and we only rehearsed for it two times. This time, we got to go out with a lot of great bands that we knew, and we got up there fully established. It went great. We played in a new place that was just re-opened, it's called the Avalon Ballroom. It's a beautiful room and the crowd was wonderful.

How is the present day audience different from the one Death Angel had in the 1980s?

Hmm… (laughs) They seem to be a little older. (cracks) We actually did two shows in Holland, and at the show we played at the Effenaar Club in Holland the crowd was very mixed. There were a lot of young people there as well. One main difference I noticed is that back then thrash was so new, so aggressive that everyone viewed it as a release and a violent thing. Now people have had time to adjust to it and they take it very seriously, but not so violently. Everyone has fun and a great time. You know, there's a lot more people in the crowd smiling and singing along now. Before there was just a lot of pure aggression. (laughs)

Were there many old fans coming along to see the band again? Were there any meet-and-greets?

Oh yeah. The crowd response has been wonderful. At all the shows that we've done so far, we always go out to talk to the fans and there are people out there that have more memorabilia on us than we do. (laughs) They've been really receptive and wonderful.

You're about to take part in the No Mercy festival series in Europe with some extreme metal bands such as Marduk and Malevolent Creation. What do you think of them and of this type of music in general?

To tell you the truth, I have not heard Malevolent Creation, I've heard Marduk, and you know what? I think they all have their place and I think it's just wonderful now, because way back then they couldn't put bands like this - thrash bands with death metal bands - on the same billing. The venues just didn't know what to do. Now I think it's great that they're meshing all these types of music together because it's all still very powerful. Together we can work well on each other's crowd and play to larger crowds. It seems like people are being a lot more open-minded today. Hope we'll make the best of it. (everybody cracks)

Our next question is not related directly to Death Angel, but still we have to ask it, as you have just played with Testament. How is Chuck Billy? Does he still have to undergo any treatment?

We (Death Angel and Testament - ed.) have recently done two shows together. We did one down in Hollywood with Halford and then one most recently with San Francisco with Halford again, and both times he was very strong, very healthy again. Apparently he's in remission, so he's doing really good. That's why Testament is back together touring. If it wasn't for Chuck, Death Angel would have never reformed. (laughs) Unfortunately it was under negative circumstances, we reformed to help him and realized that we love playing together, and hopefully it will work out great for everybody.

What kind of setlist are you having at the moment? At the Thrash Of The Titans, you concentrated mostly on the songs from your first album "The Ultra Violence" (1987). What do you play live now? And why in particular did you choose "The Ultra Violence" back then?

You know, for the Thrash Of The Titans, as I said, we only got to rehearse twice. A lot of the stuff on the later albums had A LOT of changes and stuff, so we really didn't have the time to rehearse it. Now it depends if we're headlining or not. If we're headlining, we do a very well rounded set with acoustic stuff and everything. If we're not headlining and we have like a 45-minutes set, we try to cover the basics. We try to do things from all three albums, but you know, there are certain songs that the crowd wants and we can't deny them. We have "The Ultra Violence" there still, because the crowd loves to hear the early stuff, but we also do a few gems off of "Act III" (1990) and "Frolic Through The Park" (1988). Right now we're writing new material, so God knows where the future lies.

How is the work on the new stuff progressing? What do the new songs sound like?

Right now the songs we're working on are very fast and powerful, there are a lot of changes in them.

And how about some melodic and acoustic stuff, will it be added?

Yeah, I'm sure. Right now we're working on more powerful songs, because we want people to know that we're back for real, but by the time we actually record an album, I'm sure that we're gonna have acoustic stuff and everything we want. One thing we're always very proud of is how we can add to songs as much as we possibly could. We always wanna be able to do our own thing and express ourselves the way we want to.

That's great! How many songs are written? When can we expect the new album to be released?

There's still a long way. We're still in the early negotiations stage, labels are now approaching us and stuff, we're taking our time right now and writing songs, and we're gonna take our time to see who's got the best deal offered. It's not necessarily the biggest deal, but we want to get a label that will be the most into us, that will pay attention to us and really wanna be behind us.

Why isn't Death Angel's original guitarist Gus Pepa involved in the reunion? What is he doing at the moment?

Gus Pepa actually moved back to the Philippines, he lives in the Philippines and no longer plays music, he hasn't played music in years. Originally we asked him, and he wasn't interested. We carried on and we found a replacement, a friend of ours Ted Aguilar. We met him years ago, because he was a Death Angel friend from the early demo days, he was always seen at shows. Years ago when Gus quit Death Angel, he was selling his guitars and Ted even bought his guitar. (laughs) When we got back together to re-learn the songs, Ted was always a huge Death Angel fan, and at first it seemed that he knew the songs better than us. (laughs)

Will you go on with another band of yours, Swarm? Their site hasn't been updated for a year. By the way, what music Swarm performs? We haven't heard this band, because their CDs seem nowhere to be found in Russia.

Swarm right now is on a hiatus. Death Angel is taking the front seat now, and we're gonna continue with it as long as we can. Right now we've got so much energy put in Death Angel, so much attention of ours has been drawn to it, and unfortunately Swarm is gonna be on a pretty long hiatus right now, I can't see it really reforming anytime soon. It was definitely a more rock-based band, it was more straight-ahead rock, very powerful, but still… There was just one guitar, the songs were more rock-oriented, and the lyrics were more of rock lyrics. It's nice, but it's also really nice to play in Death Angel again, it's wonderful how powerful it feels.

The next few questions will deal with early days of Death Angel, if you don't mind. As far as I know, by the moment you joined Death Angel, the band had already existed for a couple of years. Who were the founders of it?

Rob and Andy founded it. The band formed in 1982, Rob was playing guitar and Andy was playing drums, they had very cheap guitars with small amps, and Andy had just really bad drum kits. Dennis kinda stood up and sang and then Dennis finally learned how to play bass and they taught Gus how to play guitar. That's how they formed and they had that band together for about two years under the name Death Angel. At first it was more like a metal band, more like Iron Maiden, Tygers Of Pan Tang and stuff like that, those were their main influences. After that as you grow up in Bay Area, you start hearing more new bands coming out, all those bands like Metallica - we had never heard anything like that. (laughs) It was so fast, and we got wrapped up in it, because it's our city, and we saw Bay Area bands and their music getting faster and faster and heavier. And I joined Death Angel in 1984, and then the band was pretty much a thrash band. (laughs)

As long as you mention Metallica, how did you first meet Kirk Hammet?

We met at a record signing, the "Kill 'Em All" record. After that album came out, we saw them play at a small club in Berkeley called the Key Stone Berkeley with Armored Saint as openers. We went there and went to the record signing the next day, and the record store owner was selling the early Death Angel demo there, the first demo prior to me joining the band, it was called "Heavy Metal Insanity". And he introduced us to Metallica. After that we were always at the same clubs watching the same shows, and we heated off. And Kirk would always come to our shows and eventually he took an interest in us and produced our "Kill As One" demo, the first demo with me on it.

How did your family react when so many of their relatives became heavy metal musicians?

(cracks) They thought we were kidding, but we were out of trouble at least. You know, we'd always be at rehearsals, we were always writing. At first it was a little odd to them, because the crowd was so extreme and so violent back then. But they got very proud, because the crowds were really large, and they were very supportive.

By the way, is that true that all the five original members of Death Angel are cousins?

Yeah, that's true. They're all first cousins, but I'm like a second cousin.

We have heard many stories of brothers and cousins being in the same band, quarrelling all the time and one of them finally quitting. Was it different in your case? Was it difficult for you to get along?

Yeah, I think it's probably a little harder when you're brothers. I've known a lot of brothers in bands, and I can see that. But we at least didn't live together. (laughs) We knew each other and we got a chance to really know each other inside and out before we even played in the band. We knew each other's shortcomings and we were ready for each other's eccentrics when we went on the road. By the first tours we already knew each other inside and out, so there were no surprises anyway. I think that's the downfall for a lot of bands, they have to go on tour and they realize that there are sides of people that they never knew. (everybody laughs)

Why don't you sing on the song "Thrashers" from the first album?

You know, they chose to sing the song they wrote prior to me joining.

One more question about the first record. What does "I.P.F.S." stand for?

"I.P.F.S." stands for 'intense puke feeling syndrome'. (total laughter on both sides of the line)

In a recent interview you said there are plans to re-release Death Angel's three studio albums. Is there any news about that? And what about re-releasing the "Kill As One" demo, maybe as bonus tracks?

Right now we're in negotiations about re-releasing the first two, "The Ultra Violence" and "Frolic Through The Park". If so, we're definitely gonna put bonus tracks on them, demo versions of some songs that are actually on the albums and also some songs no one heard before.

Will you remaster the demo tracks or will you put them on the CD as they were?

We will probably master them as good as we possibly can.

I have a recording of your performance at the Dynamo Festival in 1990, and while introducing the ballad "Veil Of Deception", you say something like, "If you don't like slow songs, go home and f**king play them on 45!" Was it hard for you to get ballads through to the audience back then?

You know, when we're onstage, we have so much fun together, but our songs are very serious, especially on "Act III" a lot of things we wrote about were very very serious and close to us. So the songs mean a lot to us. When we're playing live we have so much fun together, and a lot of time in between songs we would be cracking jokes and stuff. For a lot of people it would set them up to relax, so they can understand what we're gonna do know now. We wanted them to realize first that the song is acoustic, but it doesn't mean that it's not heavy in its own way.

Actually this recording we're talking about is a bootleg. What do you think about bootlegging in general? I'm not talking about bastards who sell bootlegs, I'm talking about people from countries like Russia where it's next to impossible to see some bands, so they get bootlegs. Do you think bootlegs can help the band get more fans in this very case?

I think bootlegs are great! (cracks)

Have you heard any bootlegs of Death Angel?

Yeah, I've heard a bootleg of one of our San Francisco shows, that's wonderful.

Do you mean the Thrash Of The Titans show?

No, that's a club show, and the sound is really fine, but I haven't heard any European bootlegs. I'm not against bootlegs, because we still see this as an underground movement, I still think thrash is a sort of underground movement, that's what it was based on when it first started. We were recording demos and sending them out worldwide. Prior to Death Angel being sighed, we were playing in L.A. and New York, and the crowd was singing our songs, because there was this underground tape trading, and now it's CD trading. That's what keeps it alive, and I think that's absolutely wonderful.

OK, let's move on. Apart from "Bored", I don't know about any other videos by Death Angel. Did you shoot any more videos in the 1980s?

Oh yeah, absolutely. Off of "The Ultra Violence", we did one for "Voracious Souls", then we did "Bored" off of "Frolic Through The Park", and then off of "Act III" we shot two videos. We did one for "Seemingly Endless Time" and then one for "A Room With A View".

Are you planning to release a compilation video one day so we can finally see all these clips?

Yeah, our ultimate goal is to come up with a DVD of all our videos, live clips, etc. Within the band we have tons of live footage, and we'll put the best of our footage together and eventually release a DVD.

On your official website, I have found a very strange item in Death Angel's discography - "Easternfront 2: Live At Ruthie's Inn". What is this?

Ruthie's Inn is a club at Berkeley where a lot of bands played. Lots of seminal bands - Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth, us, Vio-Lence, Testament, everyone played there. "Easternfront" is a compilation album with live tracks by all the bands who used to play there. It's a two-album set, one album is live tracks, and one album is demo tracks. We're actually on the demo-tracks disc with a demo version of "Mistress Of Pain".

And what song did you contribute to the soundtrack for the infamous movie "Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3" (1992)?

It was the song "Bored".

What inspired you and the other band members to write the song "Why You Do This" (from the album "Frolic Through The Park")?

(Cracks) I remember that Rob wrote the riff, and it was very punk rock sounding, a kind of hyper-upbeat punk riff. Lyrically-wise, it came off a joke. The title "Why You Do This" stems from a joke that we would always say and laugh. Have you seen the movie "Exorcist"?

Yeah, sure.

At one point, when the priest is exorcising the girl, her head spins, she is possessed, she has different voices, and the voice of the priest's mother comes out of her. And she says, "Dammit, why you do this?" (laughs) So we'd always say 'why you do this' and we'd laugh. (everybody cracking)

Am I right in thinking that "Mind Rape" (off of "Frolic Through The Park" again) is a song about Charles Manson?

Yeah, it's definitely inspired.

Why did you find that necessary to tackle this topic?

We just kinda thought that it was interesting. People can let another person control them, let alone kill for the person you worship. I find it odd, I truly believe that it's wonderful of people to believe there's a higher power out there, but I find it very hard to believe that a higher power is the one they see on TV. It's just fascinating, I don't know if people are that weak-minded or need some sort of guidance so bad.

We were very very surprised to hear you cover "Cold Gin" on the kind of album that "Frolic Through The Park" is. And you also played "She" live. Are you big Kiss fans?

We were huge Kiss fans growing up. A Kiss show was the first ever concert for me, Rob, Dennis and Andy in 1979. It was amazing, they still had the make-up and stuff. From that point on we pretty much knew that that's what we wanted to do. Kiss is a band that we all love.

Did you perform any other cover versions live?

We never recorded any of that with Death Angel, but we always do cover tunes. We've covered everything, we've done Kiss songs, we've covered "Electric Funeral" by Black Sabbath, "She's Not There" by The Zombies, "83rd Dream" by The Cult, we've covered a lot of different songs live. Most recently we've been covering "Wrathchild" by Iron Maiden.

Are you planning to record a cover for the upcoming studio album?

Right now we're only gonna do our new material. But if we ever come up with a live thing, there will probably be a cover tune.

You said in a recent interview that you don't really listen to thrash metal any longer. What kind of music are you listening to?

I'm a big fan of AC/DC, Sabbath and stuff. I don't really listen too much to thrash, what I do is listen to stuff that I really like, such as the first three Metallica albums, early Megadeth, I like early stuff. As far as newer stuff coming out, I'm really kinda lost at it, because I tend to grasp things that really moved me when I was young, "Highway To Hell" or early Maiden. I'm a fan of everything, Black Sabbath to Billie Holliday, I love it all.

Will you buy the new Metallica record when it comes out?

I'm sure I will get an advanced copy. (laughs) Kirk's my best friend.

Have you ever played with Megadeth?

Death Angel played with Megadeth many times, the first show I ever played with Death Angel onstage was Megadeth and Death Angel at The Stone in San Francisco, I think it was November 24, 1984.

Oh, that's one of the two shows when Kerry King was on the guitar with Megadeth, right?

Yes!

Wow!! That sounds interesting, but let's skip Megadeth and move to the following: I was very surprised to find out that you were a guest at a recent San Francisco show by The Doors guitarist Robby Krieger. How did it happen? Are you a fan of The Doors?

I'm a huge fan of The Doors. I've always been a fan of great frontmen, and I think that Jim Morrison was an amazing frontman, I love the early Doors. I really love the 1970s rock. In Swarm, we did a cover of an obscure Doors song called "My Eyes".

What is your opinion of the upcoming Doors reunion with ex-Cult singer Ian Estbury on the vocals?

I've heard about it, but I'm not interested in it at all. (cracks again) I'm a purist when it comes to stuff like that. It's one thing to replace a rhythm guitarist, but it's another thing to replace Jim Morrison. (laughs)

Some bands in the 1990s seem to have taken your ideas, such as the cross of thrash metal with funk and even rap, and developed them further. What do you think of, say, Rage Against The Machine?

I think Rage Against The Machine were an absolutely wonderful band for what they did. They were great, very powerful, very motivated. I'm not much into rap rock, but in this type of music they were the best and the only band of that genre that I would like. I think they're powerhouse musicians, and they had a great energy, too.

What about Mordred?

I know the guys from Mordred really well, though I haven't met them or phoned them for a while. I respect them as musicians, I know they're contemporary, but I've never really listened to them that much.

What would be your response if you were invited to the position of a vocalist in a very prominent band, for example, the one Slash and other guys from Guns N'Roses are putting together? What would you say to them?

That's an interesting thing, I've never really been in such situations. I would go down and jam with them to see how it's like to jam with them and have fun. But as about committing myself, I don't know if I can do that, I'm very committed to Death Angel. It would definitely be fun to jam, because I like to play music with as many different people as possible, it's always an experiment. I'd go down and jam. (laughs)

What do you think is the rarest item in Death Angel's history, both merchandise-wise and CD-wise? Is there a limited edition EP released like in 10 copies only or something?

Hmm… (pause) That would probably be a cassette with our first demo "Heavy Metal Insanity", early T-shirts with the original logo prior to the release of "The Ultra Violence", and also a single pressing of "Cold Gin / Bored".

Probably it's one of our last questions for tonight. What should be done to bring Death Angel over to Moscow for a gig or two?

Wow, I would love to play, we wanna play as many places as possible. We've always wanted to play in Moscow but we've never had the opportunity to get there.

Were you surprised when you got the proposal from Russia to do this interview? Were you surprised that people in Russia actually know Death Angel?

I was excited, but I can't say that I was surprised, because I find that if you're a metal fan, you seem to be pretty resourceful no matter where you're at. And back in 1990, on the Act III tour Death Angel played the Tartu music festival in Estonia.

Wow!! We were not aware of that!

I think it was a two- or three-day long festival, and we were the only band not from behind the Iron Curtain. We didn't think that anyone had ever heard of us, it was a hard show to be booked, and we got there and we drove down the corner in the bus, and there was a huge Death Angel banner and people were greeting us. It was really odd, because we were told it was impossible to get our releases there, but they were saying they get them at the black market back then and were saying how expensive they were for the people. All the mob was singing and smiling and welcoming us. We actually have a video from that show, but there's no audio, it's just video.

Well, we're out of questions now, and we'd like to round this up by saying thank you very much and wishing you good luck. We're really anxious to hear the new stuff that you're writing.

Thank you guys very much, we can't wait to get out to Europe and probably we'll see you there some time.

Don't disband again, please!

Oh, no no, we're tighter than ever and we get along great, we're writing and writing and writing.

Could you say a few final words to Death Angel fans and fans of thrash metal in general?

Thanks for sticking around, sorry for the 12-year hiatus. (laughs) We're gonna write as much material and music as possible and try to keep coming up with great music, and we're gonna try to play as many places as we can. If you have a chance to see us live, please do, because we give 100 percent onstage and we love to play for our fans, we love to play music. Thanks for all the years of support.

Special thanks to Michael J. Murphy for arranging this interview

Felix "the Comrade", Roman "Maniac" Patrashov
April 5, 2003

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