Posts Tagged ‘angel’

Testament Vocalist Chuck Billy Reveals ‘Dream’ to Finally Share the Stage With Metallica

Nuclear Blast California is the American Mecca for thrash metal. With top thrash innovators such as Metallica , Testament , Autopsy, Exodus , Death Angel and more having risen to fame together in the early ’80s, a very tight-knit brotherhood has been created between these musicians. Despite this bond, Metallica and Testament have never toured together, and during our recent chat with Testament singer  Chuck Billy , he told us it’s his “dream” for the two acts to share a bill. Between Metallica and Testament, there are 62 years of thrash history shared among the two acts, with Metallica forming on 1981 and Testament coming together in 1983. Both bands are constantly performing with the world’s biggest thrash acts, such as Metallica headlining numerous ‘Big 4′ shows with Slayer , Megadeth and Anthrax , while Testament toured extensively in 2012 with Anthrax and Death Angel. Testament are even scheduled to headline another iconic tour in 2013 when they hit the road with Overkill . With these simple facts presented, it’s almost unfathomable to believe that Metallica has “never toured or played” with Testament, but according to Billy, it’s 100 percent true. “The band that we’ve always looked up to is Metallica,” reveals Billy. “From day one the songwriting, the aggression of the music, the vibe and what they stood for has always been an iconic goal for us to try and reach. Unfortunately, we’ve never gotten to perform with Metallica. So hopefully one day they look down and say, ‘They’ve come to our shows in the Bay Area, but we’ve never toured with them or played with them before.’ Maybe one day we will get our dream met and we’ll be able to play some shows and share a stage with them. They’ve always been one of those bands we’ve looked up to. I’ve always looked up to James [Hetfield] as a songwriter and a performer.” We can declare with a deep sense of certainty that there is no thrash fanatic out there who would miss a Metallica / Testament tour, so we issue this challenge to Metallica; once you’re finished writing and recording the new album, we call upon you to draft Testament for your next world tour! Who agrees with us? Let your voices be heard in the comments section below. Stay tuned for our full interview with Testament’s Chuck Billy. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/testament-overkill-more-to-embark-on-2013-dark-roots-of-thrash-tour/” title=”Testament + Overkill 2013 Tour Dates” align=”center”]

Death Angel’s ‘The Ultra-Violence’ Rocks New Carl’s Jr. Commercial

There’s nothing like a little Death Angel music when you’re trying to set a sinister mood and that’s exactly what the creators behind the latest Carl’s Jr. advertisement were looking for in promoting their Jalapeno Turkey Burger. The hard-riffing Death Angel’s song ‘The Ultra-Violence’ provides the soundtrack to the 30-second spot, which centers on a man taking a solid chomp on the restaurant chain’s latest sandwich. The star of the spot eyes the burger over slowly before defiantly going in for the first bite as a cymbal crash coincides with the sound of him crunching through the sandwich. He pulls out one of the jalapenos, staring it down before cockily flicking it in his mouth only to have the heat from the jalapeno better him in the end. As he sweats upon his brow and tries to cool his tongue, a shot of the sandwich appears with the text reading, “Lean, But Mean.” The spot ends with the announcer teasing the sandwich, “The Jalapeno Turkey Burger, with pepper jack cheese and spicy Santa Fe sauce … new at Carl’s Jr,” over some major guitar riffage from the band. ‘The Ultra-Violence’ song itself clocks in as a 10-minute-plus instrumental. It’s featured on the band’s 1987 debut, also titled ‘The Ultra-Violence.’ Death Angel spent much of 2012 on tour with Anthrax and Testament and expect to release their highly anticipated ‘A Thrashumentary’ DVD early this year. The group is also eyeing some spring recording time to start work on their next album. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/death-angel-mark-osegueda-talks-nonstop-touring-a-thrashumentary-dvd-more/” title=”Next: Death Angel’s Mark Osegueda Discusses ‘A Thrashumentary’ DVD” align=”center”]

Metallica’s Kirk Hammett Jams With Death Angel at ‘Too Much Horror Business’ Book Launch

Kevin Winter, Getty Images / Liz Ramanand, Loudwire Metallica ‘s Kirk Hammett is making the rounds showing off his ‘Too Much Horror Business – The Kirk Hammett Collection’ book of horror memorabilia, but during a stop in San Francisco to promote his page-turner, he worked in some music for those in attendance as well. Hammett welcomed Death Angel as guest performers at the event and joined them for a set. The show took place at San Francisco’s Public Works Thursday night (Nov. 1), with Hammett hopping onstage to jam. The set included a performance of the Metallica classic ‘Trapped Under Ice.’ As for the new ‘Too Much Horror Business’ book, Hammett made sure to not only include the items he owns, but also a little conversational background on how the items came to be in possession. Speaking about the interview portion of the book, the guitarist explained , “It was important for me to be able to interject some of my own personality into the book, to bring it to a different place. I didn’t want it to be a stock coffee table art book, I didn’t want it to be a reference book, I didn’t want it to look like an auction catalog, which a lot of art books end up looking like, at least to me. It was important to me to interject some of my own personality and some of my own humor and my own opinion on this stuff. How and why I’m into all this stuff. It was a way for me to make it more my book than just another coffee table book.” He added that while it’s hard to narrow down his favorite horror films to just a few, he rates the original ‘Mummy,’ the ’70s low-budget ‘Dracula Vs. Frankenstein,’ and the 1935 film ‘Mad Love’ among the best. As for Death Angel, they too have something to promote as their ‘ A Thrashumentary ‘ DVD is expected to arrive in early 2013. Watch Death Angel Play ‘Trapped Under Ice’ With Kirk Hammett Watch Death Angel and Kirk Hammett Jam at the ‘Too Much Horror Business’ Launch [button href=”http://loudwire.com/kirk-hammett-next-metallica-album-3d-film-2013-orion-music-festival/” title=”Next: Kirk Hammett Discusses Metallica’s 3D Film + Orion Festival Future” align=”center”]

Death Angel’s Mark Osegueda Talks Nonstop Touring, ‘A Thrashumentary’ DVD + More

Liz Ramanand, Loudwire Death Angel frontman Mark Osegueda was the guest on Full Metal Jackie’s radio show this past weekend. He spoke all about their continuous touring schedule and also revealed details of new Death Angel material. He also spoke about the band’s DVD titled ‘A Thrashumentary,’ which is scheduled for an early 2013 release and much more. If you missed Jackie’s show, read the full interview with Mark Osegueda below: What’s happening? Happy, happy, happy and touring because that’s all we do. [Laughs] Seriously, you guys have been on the road for two and a half years now. Yeah, actually I think a bit longer than two and a half years – I think it’s been two years and eight months, just shy of three years. What I’ve just discovered is that Mark has been without a phone for two weeks? Two weeks! I lost my phone at Atlantic City, the last night of the Anthrax tour and I’ve been surviving out here. It’s been enlightening, it’s been odd. It sounds funny to go crazy like “Oh my Gosh, two weeks without a phone” because at some point in time we were without cell phones but nowadays we look at our phones every two seconds. It’s insane, it’s absolutely insane. I was the last of my friends to get one but now it’s gone. I ordered a new one. I lose a phone once every couple years. Death Angel’s been on tour for a really long time and now that you’ve wrapped up a year of touring with Anthrax and Testament. What will you miss most about those guys musically and personally? Gosh, well I just saw Frankie Bello at sound check. [Laughs] He told me to ask you, you were supposed to bring the Fer… Fernet Bronca, yes I love it. An Italian digestive that’s just beautiful and ugly and viscious and me and Frankie and Scott [Ian] we imbibe in that quite often on tour. I love the Anthrax guys so much, known ‘em for years — Charlie [Benante] there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for Charlie, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for Charlie, Frankie, Scott – I love all the guys Rob [Caggiano], Joey [Belladonna] they’re just wonderful. I miss them already, I miss them. Seeing Frankie I felt a little teary eyed almost, it’s like “Yeah!” When they played I would sit behind Charlie every night and just watch them play. That’s probably what I’ll miss most, just watchin’ Charlie play – he’s a freak of nature. How does so much time with those bands plus the reaction you got while on tour with them inspire your creativity in terms of new music for the next album? Oh in a huge way, namely that tour was so good for us – breaking into a new audience completely. So many people out there may have seen the name Death Angel that are into thrash or what not but we were playing to so many people that had never ever seen us play live so we were winning people over every night. We’re hungry obviously touring for three years straight and I think it’s going to help for the next one. The next one is just going to be vicious. [Laughs] How much Death Angel do you hear in the current generation of younger thrash bands. What do you like most about how they’ve built upon your foundation? I definitely hear hints here and there. We’ve played with a lot of bands who are just flat out like “You guys inspired us” and I could tell with a lot of the younger thrash bands that they’re not lying. [Laughs] I love it, I love the new wave of thrash – I think it’s great. I have two favorites at the moment right now. My two favorite bands of the new wave thrash is Suicidal Angels from Greece, they take more from the book of Slayer and I love Havoc I think those guys are just great. They’re great live, they have great attitudes and they’re fun. I want to talk about the long awaited DVD which we’ve been hearing about for quite some time, ‘A Thrashumentary’ — it’s going to be released early 2013. Mark, in the moment living in the midst of everything, a band doesn’t necessarily see the whole big picture around them; in putting together ‘A Thrashumentary’ DVD what did you realize for the very first time about Death Angel? That’s a fine question there. [Laughs] What did I realize about us? I think the biggest thing was how surprised I was at how many people in bands that I respect truly had a mutual respect for us. When I was looking back at the edits and some of the interviews, the things people were saying about us – it made me take a step back and it just really humbled me but also at the same time it gave me new smile lines. [Laughs] What could you tell us about a timeline for the next Death Angel album? Right now, the plan is to hit the studio in April and so right now we’re about eight skeletons deep, musically. Lyrically I better start grabbing that pen because Rob [Cavestany] is winning. I got to catch up. You won’t be able to leave any voice memos for yourself, because you don’t have a phone anymore. Yeah, exactly. The thing is, once I start writing I get in a flow and it’s going to happen. For this next record we plan on writing a good twenty, twenty-five songs and picking out the best eight, ten. We’re on fire right now, we are. [Laughs] Full Metal Jackie will welcome Frank Bello of Anthrax on her next show. Full Metal Jackie can be heard on radio stations around the country — for a full list of stations, go to fullmetaljackieradio.com .

Morbid Angel’s David Vincent Dishes on North American Tour, Latest Album + More

Season of Mist Records Morbid Angel frontman David Vincent was the guest on Full Metal Jackie’s radio show this past weekend. He spoke all about the band’s headlining North American tour with Dark Funeral and Grave. Vincent also spoke candidly about his troubles crossing the border into Canada as well as Morbid Angel’s latest disc ‘Illud Divinium Insanus.’ If you missed Jackie’s show, read the full interview with David Vincent below: Morbid Angel out with Grave and Dark Funeral through late October; tell us how the tour’s been going so far. This tour has been going really well, we’ve had some great shows – a lot of support, a lot of excitement. It’s been a long time since Morbid Angel’s toured the states so a lot of the hoopla that we’ve garnering in Europe and South America and elsewhere, we’re now able to bring it home and show everybody what we’ve been up to for the past so many years. A band can’t really say that they’ve made it without being denied entry into Canada. What are border crossings like for a metal band especially Morbid Angel? You know I got to say that we’ve been back and forth about this, we did have some challenges getting into Canada – this happens to bands throughout their career. I’ve personally never had a problem getting into the country and this particular agent, the agents up there – if they decide they want you in or they don’t want you in then that’s pretty much what’s going to happen, all reasons be damned. It is what it is, my main thing with it is I just don’t like disappointing fans, when we’re that people plan on going to – luckily they worked it out, both the promoters in Montreal and Toronto are standup people and they honored people’s ticket prices and be refunded and stuff. That’s all the business side of it, the real crime here is that the border agents they don’t care about their promoters, apparently they don’t care about their Canadian citizens who are fans and I would hope in the future that they wouldn’t be so benign to some of these concerns. You’ve been getting good reviews on this current tour, so, David, how will that most affect what you do going forward? Well I think the main thing is we enjoy touring … we enjoy playing and really getting down and showing people what we’re all about. It has been several years since the band has done a complete stateside tour. We’ve been out doing west coast stops, flying in special events, Maryland Deathfest, we did that this year – just sort of larger events but not really gearing up and getting everybody all suited up for battle and getting on the tour bus. It’s feeling fresh, the bands that we’re touring with are really good bands both of which we’ve been friends with for a number of years. Everything’s going well and like I said the response has been really good and we’re riding it all the way home to our final show which is in our area, in the Tampa Bay area on the 21st of October. The latest record ‘Illud Divinium Insanus’ was your first Morbid Angel album in 16 years, in what ways did you find your creative relationship with Trey [Azagthoth] had changed and what about that changed relationship would you like to explore next? One thing about Morbid Angel is that there’s never been any rules and it’s an interesting perspective, we just kind of go in and do what we do and sometimes it blossoms – every flower is a different color and a different smell and this album it surprises people, a couple of track on there and then there’s a couple of other tracks that are as Morbid Angel as you can get. People are coming around, it was slow going at first, people were going “What are these guys doing here?” and night after night I’m getting comments, people are like, “I finally really listened to it and I really like it, it just took me a while.” That’s no different than some of the other records we’ve done in the past so everything is going as planned, thanks for asking. You’re a guest on the new Chaostar album and rumor has it in a narrative sense? Yeah, you find out things – you’re the metal oracle these days. How’s voice over work satisfying compared to singing or playing? When there’s something creative that I can identify with, it’s easy when you have like minds sharing a creative outlet – it’s good stuff so I’m looking forward to seeing what the end result is going to be. What’s the best way for people to keep up with you on what’s happening, is it your personal Facebook or Twitter? Sure the easiest thing to do is official David Vincent on Facebook and you can keep up with me and all the day to day idiocies and stupid things that happen along with special messages to the fans. It’s a cool thing, I’ve realized that these things are important so that’s where people can go and I read it. I do have some people to help me from time to time. We do get busy overseas and sometimes and even in the best of third world countries, internet is something to be coveted. I’m just really excited about a lot of this stuff and we’re looking forward to pounding our way through the states. Full Metal Jackie will welcome Joe Duplantier of Gojira on her next show. Full Metal Jackie can be heard on radio stations around the country — for a full list of stations, go to fullmetaljackieradio.com .