DEATH ANGEL — The Dream Calls for Blood (review)

DEATH ANGEL — The Dream Calls for Blood album cover

Album · 2013 · Thrash Metal

5/5 · 2013-10-19
Time Signature

Detonate...

Genre: thrash metal

Fuck! Fuck! Holy fucking fuck?!? What’s happning to Death Angel these days? I mean they’re totally on fire! They kicked ass on “Relentless Retribution” and when I saw them live at Thrashfest 2010 in Amager Bio, Copenhagen, they deliveered one of the most intense and joyful thrash metal concerts I had seen in a long time. On “The Dream Calls for Blood” continues the Death Angel’s own thrashfest, taking their music to new heights of aggression and inspiration.

As with the preceding album, “The Dream Calls for Blood” explores aggression and melody, but this time there are hardly any quiet moments other than a couple of acoustinc intros, and Death Angel sound angrier than ever before. I mean, we are literally talking one ultra-violent sonic beatdown after another. The melodic element that has always set Death Angel apart from their peers is still there, but it definitely has to share the front seat, often even taking the back seat, with ferocious old school thrash metal riffage of varying degrees of technicality.

After a stragely dissonant and haunting clean-guitared intro, the gut-punching thrasher ‘Left for Dead’ kicks in with fierce riffs, angry vocals, pounding drums, and riot yells in the chorus. I mean, what a way to open an album! The attack continues in the following track ‘Son of the Morning’, which features virtually all the aesthetics of ass-kicking old school thrash metal, including wah-induced guitar leads and a heavy bridge. ‘Fallen’ maintains the breakneck tempos and frenzied thrash riffs, while the album’s title track combines muscular riffs with speed metal pace and clockwork precise drumming. ‘Succubus’ is a heavier affair, but no less aggressive, while ‘Execution – Don’t Save Me’ offers one of the few quiet moments of the album in the form of an acoustic intro, which eventually gives way to another heavier affair that draws on more traditional metal. ‘Caster of Shame’ is another fast yet muscular track, and ‘Detonate’ starts out with an almost epic intro, which morhps into a combination of jungle-beats and driving bass-patterns, followed by crunching and precise thrash aggression. ‘Empty’ and ‘Territorial Instinct / Bloodlust’ may be the finest tracks of the album invovling neoclassical guitar solos and bass-tapping – thus reminding us that Death Angel have always been a technically proficient thrash metal band.

The performance is super tight across the board, and the production is excellent. The guitars are razor sharp, fitting the aggressive music perfectly. Yet, the bass is audible and has a nice round sound to it which adds the bottom that much old school thrash metal actually lacks. The album is historically important in the sense that it is, as far as I know, the first Death Angel album to feature leads by Ted Aguilar, who has otherwise served as a rhythm guitarist. Moreover, this album probably features some of Rob Cavestany’s fines and most elaborate leads to date. The band’s five members definitely have the right to be immensely proud of this excellent thrashfest of an album.

This is thrash metal at its best and while Overkill’s “Electric Age” was the thrash metal album of the year in 2013, “The Dream Calls for Blood” is very likely to end up being the thrash metal album of the year in 2013. Fans of old school thrash metal should definitely check out this onslaught of face-ripping and ass-kicking thrash metal tunes.