Death Angel, Ivory Blacks, Glasgow 27/6/12

It’s been 25 years since the release of The Ultra-Violence by Death Angel so I was looking forward to tonight’s gig where the guys were playing their first album in its entirety as well as few other tracks.

First band on was Thrashist Regime, who was starting to whip the crowd up in to a great frenzy when I arrived with their solid trash sound.  However I only see part of 2 songs before I went off to interview Ted from Death Angel. I’m looking forward to catching a full set by these guys soon.

Main support was from  Circle of Tyrants. The guys kicked off their stunning set with ‘Manipulation of the Masses’ before blasting into ‘Financially Raped’. CoT had brought along some of their fans with them and they hardly needed any encouragement to open up a pit and get it moving as well as a few stage divers launching themselves into the crowd. ‘Headhunter’ and ‘Subconscious Suppression’ go down a storm. CoT combines a distinctive groove whilst slamming you with delicious heavy old school thrash beats; they always play a tight and powerful set. They bring their set to a close with ‘Fallout’ then ‘The Punisher’ where we see some intense pit action before the guys leave the stage and the crowd head off for a well deserved drink as Ivory’s is literally steaming hot by now!

Circle of Tyrants setlist

• Manipulation of the Masses
• Financially Raped
• Headhunter
• Subconscious Suppression
• Fallout (short version)
• The Punisher

Death Angel takes to the stage and launch into the first song from The Ultra-Violence – ‘Thrashers’ which sounds superb ‘Evil Priest’ goes down a treat as well same as ‘Voracious Souls’, the folk in the pit are going crazy and there is quite a lot of stage divers getting up on stage before hurling themselves into the pit then going back up for another turn.

‘The Ultra-Violence’ the pit slows downs while this sublime instrumental which lasts over ten minutes is played in front of us. It shows that they can do more than just straight old school thrash even back then! Normal pit action resume during the opening chords of the mighty ‘Mistress Of Pain.  

After Mistress, vocalist Mark Osegueda takes time out to have a chat with the crowd and says “It’s like a fucking popcorn machine in here, I like that, we like that. Your making us feel at home with all the fucking stage diving, thank you very much. Even better your making us feel at home back in 1987 when this shit came out it became a part of something very special. The reason we know that as here it is 25 year later, we’re playing it and we are getting this kind of fucking reaction. Thank you so much”

I have to agree with him and to be honest I couldn’t have worded it any better. ‘Final Death’ slays Ivory’s in style and then the final song for The Ultra-Violence is ‘I.P.F.S’ this is a short sweet burst of brutality!

After a short break the guys play us three songs from ‘Relentless Retribution’ their latest album, these where ‘Relentless Revolution’, ‘Claws In So Deep’ and ‘Truce’ which all sound stunning and have the pit moving, They close with ‘Thrown to the Wolves’ which comes from ‘The Art of Dying’ album during the final song even a few of the girls in the crowd are up joining in the stage diving as well as the pit going absolutely mental.

For me it was honestly fantastic to hear The Ultra-Violence played in full. It sounded superb and Death Angel really know how to put on a fabulous show, interacting with the crowd as well as looking like they are having a superb time on stage. Seeing the reaction from crowd/pit this helps highlight the longevity of the album plus the band, it shows they have never lost their unique sound and style and they can still recreate it to this day with a different line up! Awesome night that is currently one of my favourite gigs of the year so far.

Death Angel setlist

• Thrashers
• Evil Priest
• Voracious Souls
• Kill As One
• The Ultra-Violence
• Mistress Of Pain
• Final Death
• I.P.F.S

•  Relentless Revolution
• Claws In So Deep
• Truce
• Thrown to the Wolves

Some of my photos from the gig click here

My interview with Ted Aguilar click here

Links

http://www.deathangel.us
http://www.youtube.com/user/deathangelofficial

http://www.facebook.com/deathangel
http://www.twitter.com/deathangel
http://www.myspace.com/deathangel