DARK ANGEL Hopes To Release New Studio Album By Mid-2023

On August 19, drummer Gene Hoglan of reactivated California thrash metal pioneers DARK ANGEL confirmed to Oxygène Radio's "Metal Zone" that he and his bandmates are continuing work on new material. "Absolutely," he said. "We are writing right now. I've been writing for the last decade, really, just putting down DARK ANGEL riffs and all that. So now that we're really moving forward with DARK ANGEL…

"When we reformed a number of years ago — about a decade or so ago — it was for just a bunch of concerts," he explained. "And then we all jelled together so good, I'm, like, 'Man, let's keep this together. Let's start writing.' So [DARK ANGEL guitarist] Jim Durkin and myself have been writing a ton of stuff. So hopefully by the middle part of 2023, we hope to have a new album out. We're hoping.

"My schedule has been so crazy," Hoglan added. "All I can do is just keep working on material. So at some point before 2023, I hope to get the drums recorded and the guitars and get all the rest of the record on the road. But we're hoping."

DARK ANGEL's first CD since 1991's "Time Does Not Heal" will feature the lineup that has performed sporadic live shows since reuniting in 2013: Hoglan, Durkin, Eric Meyer (guitar),Ron Rinehart (vocals) and Michael Gonzalez (bass).

Durkin has been sitting out some of DARK ANGEL's recent gigs. He was replaced at the shows by Hoglan's wife Laura Christine.

This past February, Hoglan said during a Twitch livestream from his home that he and his DARK ANGEL bandmates were "in the process" of making a new album. "That's actually one of the reasons I can't be doing TESTAMENT stuff this year. Because, [with] DARK ANGEL, we are writing a record, we are moving forward," he said. "Just a week and a half ago, two weeks ago, I just had Mr. Eric Meyer from DARK ANGEL in this room. We were jamming it out, we wrote a new DARK ANGEL song.

"I've been moving forward with writing. We have gigs coming up, so this year, it won't be heavily, heavily, heavily DARK ANGEL, but now that my schedule's open, I can commit a little harder to some DARK ANGEL gigs," he explained. "We do intend to be in the studio before the end of this year. So I have a lot of work ahead of me, and so does Jim Durkin. He's been sending over songs, riffs, stuff like that, [which has been] super exciting. We're all of the same mindset of making this just the most absolutely kick-ass DARK ANGEL record that we can."

DARK ANGEL released two albums with Don Doty on vocals — 1984's "We Have Arrived" and 1986's "Darkness Descends" — before he exited the group and was replaced by Rinehart (after a brief stint with Jim Drabos in 1987). The band issued two more studio LPs — 1989's "Leave Scars" and the aforementioned "Time Does Not Heal" — before calling it quits in 1992.