ANGEL DUST — Into the Dark Past (review)

ANGEL DUST — Into the Dark Past album cover

Album · 1986 · Speed Metal

4/5 · 2020-05-07
siLLy puPPy

After Venom unleashed its landmark debut album “Welcome To Hell,” it was sort of an invitation for metal bands to become ever more extreme and would lead to many forks in the metal road. While generally described as speed metal as it wasn’t quite thrash and despite the early blueprints not even close to black metal, it seems that other English bands were too busy following in the footsteps of Judas Priest and other NWOBHM pioneers therefore Germany seems to have been the nation that picked up on the opportunity to take speed metal into ever faster gallops with bands like Blind Guardian and Helloween having become the most famous. The Dortmund based ANGEL DUST was yet another pioneer that straddled in between the early heavy metal of the 80s and the more extreme thrash that was gestating around the same time.

Formed in 1984 and heavily influenced by Venom to the extent that the band even took its moniker from Venom’s debut album, this quartet of Romme Keymer (vocals, guitar), Andreas Lohrum (guitars), Frank Banx (bass) and Dirk Assmuth (drums) started out as a mere garage rock band but quickly honed its chops to become one of the 80s most ferocious speed metal acts. The band released its debut INTO THE DARK PAST in 1986 and although would go through a series of lineup changes and change steer its style into a more progressively infused power metal still nonetheless unleashed one of the must hear speed metal contributions in the 80s when thrash metal was coming of age, death and black metal were still in diapers and Helloween was just making the ole switcheroo from speed to power metal.

Musically this one’s a beast. Starting with some atonal classical piano sounds it adds some synthesizer sounds which is the calm before the storm because once the thundering din of the twin guitar assaults strike, it’s a speed metal roller coaster for the rest of the ride. Obvious antecedents include bands like Running Wild, Exciter and even Motorhead but ANGEL DUST delivers a more sophisticated blend of knotty riffing and a sniff of thrash metal sensibilities although this speed metal rampage is more akin to the typical NWOBM only on steroids. Musicwise INTO THE DARK PAST is flawless with excellent twin guitar attacks that offer the perfect mix of crunchy riffing and sizzling face melting solos. The bass is completely independent and never gets buried and the drumming prowess matches the technical chops of any tech infused extreme metal band of the day.

Perhaps the one weak point for ANGEL DUST at this point is the vocals. While the expected delivery of speed and power metal is a more operatic performance, Romme Keymer’s rough and tumble style is more akin to Lemmy of Motorhead which gives this album a bit of street cred grunginess and although i don’t exactly love his style, it’s certainly not offensive to the ears in any way and in many ways actually matches the rather filthy guitar distortion and semi-sloppy playing style however he does belt out a few high squealed yelps. Overall the album feels like it’s just a few baby steps away from entering thrash metal territory but then again that’s what speed metal was all about wasn’t it? This is not my favorite speed metal album of the 80s but there is no denying the excellent musicianship and the balls to the wall energetic drive so this is certainly one who is seeking out the 80s excesses of speed metal cannot miss out on.