| Written by Alex Stojanovic TRACK LISTING Extinction Level Event Circular Firing Squad Woke Up To Blood Apex Predator Sea Of Heads Atavistic Scalar Weaponry Scarface The Room E Pluribus Nemo Terror Construct Extraction Tactics Release Date: September 5, 2025 Label: Reversed Records Website: www.reversedrecords.com/dark-angel www.facebook.com/darkangelthrashofficial |  |
DARK ANGEL IS:
Ron Rinehart - Vocals / Eric Meyer - Guitars / Laura Christine - Guitars / Mike Gonzales - Bass / Gene Hoglan - Drums
Ron Rinehart - Vocals / Eric Meyer - Guitars / Laura Christine - Guitars / Mike Gonzales - Bass / Gene Hoglan - Drums
Can you imagine an album's origins of creation dating back to the year you were born? That's exactly the case with Dark Angel's LONG awaited new album. It has been one of the most discussed and most anticipated albums amongst the thrash community, with its origins being traced back to 1992 after the tour for Time Does Not Heal, and the beginning of metal's darkest period. After the first reunion was kind of short-lived, a second reunion occured in 2013 that's still going today, and a new album was one of the primary focuses for the band. With Gene Hoglan being a man of many bands and touring heavily with many of them, especially with Testament, Dethklok, Zimmer's Hole and Death To All, it's pretty clear why progress on the album has been glacially slow, as he's one of the main songwriters in the band.
Known for packing their songs with riffs, especially on Time Does Not Heal with the "246 riffs" claim, it was pretty clear that we were going to get the same kind of deal with the new album. Now, the last couple of years have been a bit of a tough time for the band with the sudden passing of Jim Durkin, whom the album is dedicated to, but the band soldiered on bringing in one of metal's most badass female guitarists Laura Christine, who is also Gene's wife. Here we are now, 34 years later after the release of Time Does Not Heal with their new album Extinction Level Event. Now, before I get into talking about the album, after all the hype this album created, the first word that came to mind when I listened through the album for the first time was "What?"
It's quite difficult to fathom how Dark Angel could release a triple shot of classics like Darkness Descends, Leave Scars and Time Does Not Heal, then have a 3-decade long gap between albums, and release such probably what I consider the most soulless and boring thrash album of 2025, or even the last few years. Even though the odd cool riff here and there makes its presence known, there's nothing that can sugarcoat the soulless songwriting and vocal performances. This album sounds like it was put together by a brand new young band that hasn't even honed in their craft at songwriting, and just focused on making an album sound aggressive by slapping together generic thrash riffs that have been beaten to the ground a million times and vocal patterns that have no shape or memorability, all while screaming "DEATH TO POSERS!"
Let's talk about the first two singles that were released ahead of time. When the title track was first released, the response was rather mixed, but I did see more people commenting on how mediocre the track was. It felt like taking a bite out of a really stale piece of bread, because there was no flavour or any sense of euphoria that came out of the experience. "Circular Firing Squad" contains a small handful of decent riffs, but it's another pillar that doesn't have enough support to save the bridge from buckling. We had all held out hope that these two songs were rather just duds that just happened to be released by mistake, and that the rest of the album would leave a trail of destruction behind. Newsflash: that didn't happen.
As the rest of the album played on, I didn't find myself headbanging with the stank face on at any point, and my excitement was killed off rather quick. Even if some of the song titles were eye-catching, the songs themselves failed to live up to the appeal of the titles. Closing track "Extinction Tactics" is the only other moment that had more than a few decent moments, and really sounds like classic Dark Angel. It feels like it would've fit right at home on Darkness Descends and the vocals have some shape and memorability compared to the rest of the album. The other huge elephant in the room is the mix. It's rather clumsy and sounds like it was mixed in someone's basement rather than a real studio. Last year, I gave Kerry King's debut solo album a pretty scathing review, and nothing will change my mind, but I think that album has more memorability than Extinction Level Event.
Now, even though Dark Angel were never a huge band, they still rightfully earned their place as one of the leaders of the second wave of thrash bands in the 80s, have maintained a dedicated cult following, and Darkness Descends, Leave Scars and Time Does Not Heal will always be classics. Although they aren't big enough of a band to rely solely on past glories for survival, that's honestly all people are going to want to hear in a live setting. I'm obviously not going to lose sleep over the fact that one of thrash's most respected bands released a bad record. Even if my favourite band of all time released a new record that was a complete letdown, I still wouldn't lose sleep over it, unlike some fans out there, because there's plenty of other great stuff out there to enjoy.
At this point, I don't know what else to tell you. I always say to take mine and any journalist's words with a grain of salt, because everyone's ears are different. I know there are people out there that have fully enjoyed the album, and if you're reading this and you're one of those that enjoyed it, that's great, keep on enjoying it. However, I'm definitely siding with the bunch that feel that this album failed abysmally to live up to the hype and expectations surrounding it. Dark Angel could've easily joined the group of classic thrash bands to have crushing comebacks with new music after long gaps between releases like Testament with Formation Of Damnation, Anthrax with Worship Music, Exodus with Tempo Of The Damned, Sacred Reich with Awakening and so on, but this is just laughable. It's a comeback deserving of the "trainwreck" label, which is depressing for a legendary band.
Known for packing their songs with riffs, especially on Time Does Not Heal with the "246 riffs" claim, it was pretty clear that we were going to get the same kind of deal with the new album. Now, the last couple of years have been a bit of a tough time for the band with the sudden passing of Jim Durkin, whom the album is dedicated to, but the band soldiered on bringing in one of metal's most badass female guitarists Laura Christine, who is also Gene's wife. Here we are now, 34 years later after the release of Time Does Not Heal with their new album Extinction Level Event. Now, before I get into talking about the album, after all the hype this album created, the first word that came to mind when I listened through the album for the first time was "What?"
It's quite difficult to fathom how Dark Angel could release a triple shot of classics like Darkness Descends, Leave Scars and Time Does Not Heal, then have a 3-decade long gap between albums, and release such probably what I consider the most soulless and boring thrash album of 2025, or even the last few years. Even though the odd cool riff here and there makes its presence known, there's nothing that can sugarcoat the soulless songwriting and vocal performances. This album sounds like it was put together by a brand new young band that hasn't even honed in their craft at songwriting, and just focused on making an album sound aggressive by slapping together generic thrash riffs that have been beaten to the ground a million times and vocal patterns that have no shape or memorability, all while screaming "DEATH TO POSERS!"
Let's talk about the first two singles that were released ahead of time. When the title track was first released, the response was rather mixed, but I did see more people commenting on how mediocre the track was. It felt like taking a bite out of a really stale piece of bread, because there was no flavour or any sense of euphoria that came out of the experience. "Circular Firing Squad" contains a small handful of decent riffs, but it's another pillar that doesn't have enough support to save the bridge from buckling. We had all held out hope that these two songs were rather just duds that just happened to be released by mistake, and that the rest of the album would leave a trail of destruction behind. Newsflash: that didn't happen.
As the rest of the album played on, I didn't find myself headbanging with the stank face on at any point, and my excitement was killed off rather quick. Even if some of the song titles were eye-catching, the songs themselves failed to live up to the appeal of the titles. Closing track "Extinction Tactics" is the only other moment that had more than a few decent moments, and really sounds like classic Dark Angel. It feels like it would've fit right at home on Darkness Descends and the vocals have some shape and memorability compared to the rest of the album. The other huge elephant in the room is the mix. It's rather clumsy and sounds like it was mixed in someone's basement rather than a real studio. Last year, I gave Kerry King's debut solo album a pretty scathing review, and nothing will change my mind, but I think that album has more memorability than Extinction Level Event.
Now, even though Dark Angel were never a huge band, they still rightfully earned their place as one of the leaders of the second wave of thrash bands in the 80s, have maintained a dedicated cult following, and Darkness Descends, Leave Scars and Time Does Not Heal will always be classics. Although they aren't big enough of a band to rely solely on past glories for survival, that's honestly all people are going to want to hear in a live setting. I'm obviously not going to lose sleep over the fact that one of thrash's most respected bands released a bad record. Even if my favourite band of all time released a new record that was a complete letdown, I still wouldn't lose sleep over it, unlike some fans out there, because there's plenty of other great stuff out there to enjoy.
At this point, I don't know what else to tell you. I always say to take mine and any journalist's words with a grain of salt, because everyone's ears are different. I know there are people out there that have fully enjoyed the album, and if you're reading this and you're one of those that enjoyed it, that's great, keep on enjoying it. However, I'm definitely siding with the bunch that feel that this album failed abysmally to live up to the hype and expectations surrounding it. Dark Angel could've easily joined the group of classic thrash bands to have crushing comebacks with new music after long gaps between releases like Testament with Formation Of Damnation, Anthrax with Worship Music, Exodus with Tempo Of The Damned, Sacred Reich with Awakening and so on, but this is just laughable. It's a comeback deserving of the "trainwreck" label, which is depressing for a legendary band.
FINAL RATING
| | |
RSS Feed
