DEATH ANGEL Guitarist Offers Recording Update

DEATH ANGEL guitarist Ted Aguilar has posted the following message on the band's official web site:

"The recording date got changed. We are now set to start January 3rd. We will do all the basic tracks & mix the record all of January except for 2 days (will tell you at the end of this post). A few reasons why we pushed the date.

"1) [Guitarist] Rob [Cavestany] got very sick. He caught a bad flu type sickness while out in Europe. Thank the gods of metal that he's feeling so much better now & we're back in the jam room Monday.

"2) We all wanted to write more tunes. We wrote while we were out on the European run (at soundchecks coming up with riffs or hanging out in the back of the bus jamming ideas in the middle of the night). And we did come up with lots of ideas that are turning into songs. It's good to have lots of songs to choose from too. It would totally suck (IMO) to just go in & record what we have, get everything done, then write a few more songs during or after the process which totally KICK ASS!!! and doesn't make it on the album. We can't afford that luxury (sp) of writing & recording an album in a plush studio.

"3) Not only are we writing more tunes, we also want to rework on the other songs as well. After listening to pre-production demos, we all have ideas on making the songs better. That's whats good about pre-production. You write a tune, record it & go home (or vacation hahahha) and listen to it. Sometimes the song(s) are good the way it is or sometimes it takes a few listens and maybe change a few things or just basically scrap the whole song. We're checking out lots of different guitar ideas, vocal ideas etc. As for song titles, we only have working titles. By the time [singer] Mark [Osegueda] actually does his vocal tracks, the title probably would change. We played a few new tunes live (here at home & in Europe) which is '5 Steps of Freedom', 'The Devil Incarnate' & 'Prophecy'. I think those songs are set in stone, but don't hold me too. Like I said, it could change.

"With the producer role, Brian Dobbs. Here's the situation. He's not there to help write our songs or rearrange our existing songs. We write the tunes & he's there to capture the vibe, the energy & performance & make it sound good. He's got great experience under his belt. We met up with him & the vibe was great. The record will sound HUGE!!!!

"A lot of people are looking for the next 'Ultra Violence' or 'Act III' (or a mixture of both) and some even 'Frolic'. We don't look at those albums to say 'DAMN, we have to write shit that blows this away.' 'Cause at the end of the day, you can't. Those albums are classic. But we do look at those albums for influence to write the new record. SLAYER for example. They wrote 'Reign in Blood'. That record RULES over all. They never wrote another 'RIB' like we all wanted them too, but they wrote great records after 'RIB'. They still kept the SLAYER sound. Hope I made sense here.

"OK, the 2 days off in January. We're breaking from the studio to play a gig in Sacramento. We got asked to support (by the band themselves) the DEFTONES at the Memorial Auditorium Jan. 21st. Yeah, it's a nu-metal crowd, but it's a great gig & we can show these hot topic wearing fools what real metal is. Plus, it was great to know that the DEFTONES themselves asked us to support them in their hometown."