Band : Death Angel
Album title : Relentless Retribution
Label : Nuclear Blast
Distribution : PIAS
Release date : August 2010
Review : CD

Relentless Retribution is the sixth studio album of Death Angel, a Bay Area thrash band that was founded in 1982 in San Francisco, split up in 1991 and reunited in 2001. Since that reunion in 2001, we saw the release of the albums The Art Of Dying (2004) and Killing Season (2007), followed by the DVD release Sonic German Beatdown – Live In Germany (2009).

The only remaining original members today are singer Mark Osegueda and guitar player Rob Cavestany. They are accompanied by guitar player Ted Aguilar (who joined them in 2001), bass player Damien Sisson (who replaced Dennis Pepa after his departure in 2009) and drummer Will Carroll (formerly of Vicious Rumors, who replaced Andy Galeon after his departure in 2009). And even though these recent replacements were hard to deal with for the family-related core members, the new recruits prove to be excellent musicians. In fact, maybe thanks to the addition of Carroll and Sisson, there is a recovered boost of energy and aggression to be heard on Relentless Retribution.

Another fact that might have something to do with the reborn thrash metal sound of Death Angel, is the job producer Jason Suecof (Trivium, DevilDriver) did on this album. But it’s not all about brutality on Relentless Retribution. Just like on the album Act III (1990), Death Angel demonstrate their subtle side with a track like “Claws In So Deep”, where an acoustic intermezzo from Rodrigo y Gabriela finishes the song. Another proof of that same subtlety is the acoustic song with clean vocals “Volcanic”, which reminds a lot of the spirit of songs like Seemingly Endless Time and A Room With A View from the Act III album. Relentless Retribution contains 12 songs and has a playing time of 57 minutes. Highlights of the album are the opening track “Relentless Revolution”, “Claws In So Deep”, “Truce”, “This Hate”, “I Chose The Sky”, “Volcanic” and “Where They Lay”.

In November and December 2010, Death Angel take part in the Thrashfest together with Exodus, Kreator and Suicidal Angels. For Belgium and the Netherlands, there are tour dates on November 28th in Trix Antwerp, December 12th in Melkweg Amsterdam and December 18th in Effenaar Eindhoven. And I’m quite sure that we will see Death Angel on the festivals in Summer 2011.

85/100

Erik.