DEATH ANGEL Is Preparing To Record Tenth Studio Album

San Francisco Bay Area metallers DEATH ANGEL will enter the studio in a few weeks to begin recording the follow-up to 2019's "Humanicide" album.

On Saturday (June 29),DEATH ANGEL drummer Will Carroll took to his Facebook page to write: "So….I'll be entering the recording studio in a few weeks to track drums for DEATH ANGEL's tenth studio album. It will be my fifth album with the band (seventh if you count the 2 live albums).

"Rob [Cavestany, DEATH ANGEL guitarist] and I have been working our asses off demoing and rehearsing these songs to get them as tight and as well thought out as possible.

"This is the longest preproduction I've ever been a part of and the longest for the band since I've joined.

"We've been jamming to the songs live while listening to the demos (with drums and second guitar taken out) along with a click. It took some getting use to but things are flowing great now.

"This is the most prepared I've ever been for a recording.

"These new songs are a wild Thrash Metal ride and beyond.

"Let's do this."

This past March, DEATH ANGEL guitarist Ted Aguilar told El Planeta Del Rock that he and his bandmates had "a bunch of songs, a lot of skeletons" for their upcoming LP. "We spent the first three months of this year writing. We didn't do any activity — just writing. And I actually saw Rob a couple of nights ago, and it's going well. There's a bunch of skeletons, as we call it. There's a lot of ideas that we're waiting for [singer] Mark [Osegueda] to put some vocals on. But we're taking a break right now, because I think next week we start rehearsals for [our tour of] South America. So we have to [go], 'All right, let's stop the writing.' We've gotta get back and put together a really good setlist for South America and do the tour. Then, when we come back, we'll probably take a week off, then we go back into writing. Which is perfect timing, because when we get back from South America, Mark's gonna be busy [touring] with Kerry King [SLAYER]. So it's perfect timing 'cause while Mark's doing the Kerry King thing, we're gonna be at home and just — the priority is the new record."

Osegueda is the featured singer on King's debut solo album, "From Hell I Rise", which arrived on May 17 via Reigning Phoenix Music.

Earlier in March, Osegueda told El Planeta Del Rock about the songwriting process for DEATH ANGEL's next LP: "It's going great. And we're excited about it. That's where DEATH ANGEL is right now, writing the new record… I think I was at [Rob's] house on Thursday and I laid down vocals to a demo of a new DEATH ANGEL song. And there's more songs I've gotta start writing the lyrics and melodies for, 'cause him and Will are in the studio and Rob has been tracking Will's drums on these songs for demos and now it's time for me to catch up and write more lyrics and melodies. It's happening. And the only thing that's gonna slow it down — and I don't mind; we're all excited about it — starting next week, we'll switch the gears into rehearsing for the Latin American 'Humanicide' tour. So we'll be rehearsing for the Latin American 'Humanicide' tour, go on that tour, which we're not trying to rush, then we'll come back, take a moment to breathe, and then it's right back into writing. That'll be the main focus after that."

Asked if there is any chance of DEATH ANGEL releasing a new single this year, Mark said: "That's a good question. I don't know. We're more of an album band. 'Cause we wanna write a whole bunch of music and cherry pick the best songs that we think will make a solid, solid, vicious record, especially after — [it being] the follow-up to 'Humanicide' and being that it's already been, we're going on five years since the last [studio album]. So I think we wanna get the best product possible."

In a separate interview with Elevar, Cavestany confirmed that new DEATH ANGEL music was in the works. "I don't like divulging the 'play by play'; I'd rather news came out when there is substantial information to speak of," he explained. "That being said, I can tell you there are around seven songs we are currently working on and I'm currently getting deep into the writing zone, which is my happy place. If we can manage to stop saying yes to every tour offer (we love to tour),then maybe we can finally get this new album done. The plan is to record it this year."

Also in March, Carroll said that he was "stoked" about how DEATH ANGEL's new music was shaping up. "The creative juices are flowing and things are moving along at a very productive rate," he wrote on social media. "One more song and we'll have reached our goal we set for ourselves before rehearsing the songs we're doing down in South/Central America in April. Once that tour is over and we're back home we get straight back to making these demos."

He added: "I can't wait for the DA fans around the world to hear this new material and hopefully we'll make some new ones along the way. Exciting times indeed."

Five months ago, Will said that he and his DEATH ANGEL bandmates were "hard at work getting" the band's next album "written and completely demo'd."

"It felt good to get back to work with Rob Cavestany," Will wrote on January 26. "It's a real challenge to not rehash the same ideas and beats from previous albums but I think so far things are sounding fresh and inspired."

Last July, Aguilar told Vikram Chandrasekar about the band's songwriting process: "Well, when it comes down to writing, it's all Rob. It's all Rob. It starts with him. He comes up with a basic structure and him and Will get together and they hash it all out and they record it. And when they get it to a point where, 'Oh, yeah, this is great,' then they send it off to everyone else. And Damien [Sisson, bass] does his parts and Mark [Osegueda, vocals] will listen to it and try to write lyrics and melodies. And I'll listen to it and I'll touch base with Rob: 'What do you want me to do here? Do you want me to play something here? Or do you want me to do something different?' 'Cause Rob has a vision and you kind of wanna see his vision. And as soon as the song comes together to where we play it quite a few times, then we could throw in our ideas, like, 'Hey, maybe that part should be a little longer,' or, 'Maybe cut that out,' or Will will go, 'I wanna do something different here instead.' So, you know, Rob has a vision, we listen, we play along with it. Then if we feel like there needs to be changes, we express our concern, and Rob is really good at, 'Yeah, let's give it a try.' So we try everything. And it comes down to, 'All right, this is what works.' So it starts with Rob. And with regarding the lyrics, every now and then Rob will pick out a song: 'I wanna write lyrics for this song.' And Mark goes, 'Go ahead.' But Mark writes all the lyrics, and what he does is with the music, he'll listen to it over and over by himself. I don't know where he goes. He goes into the far corners of the earth by himself, with the headphones and music, and he'll come up with so many types of different melodies and stuff, and then come up with the ones he's happy with and lay it down on the demo form. Then when we get into the real studio, then things start to evolve 'cause we've played it so many times or we listened to it so many times that when we get in there, [we go], 'All right, let's try this.' It's always evolving to the point where it's handing it in to get mastered. Some songs stay kind of the same from what it was, but we just put more energy into it. Some songs have been rewritten quite a few times, so it differs. Rob's the songwriter, and on the last album I wrote one song. Yeah, it's how it is. And right now I'm writing some stuff, and how it goes is I'll write some stuff, I'll send it to Rob. I always tell him, 'If it's good, use it. If not, if you find parts are good, use it. If it's not good, it's okay, dude.' I'm just throwing some stuff out there, 'cause he knows what the DEATH ANGEL sound should be. And if he likes it, he'll use it. If he doesn't, my feelings are not broken."

DEATH ANGEL released a live album titled "The Bastard Tracks" in November 2021 via Nuclear Blast. Recorded live at The Great American Music Hall in their hometown of San Francisco on May 22, 2021, and streamed live soon after, "The Bastard Tracks" was described in a press release as "a deep-cuts collection of rarely and never performed songs from the band's catalog" that was released digitally and on CD, vinyl and Blu-ray.

In October 2020, DEATH ANGEL released a four-song EP, "Under Pressure". The effort included a cover of QUEEN + David Bowie's "Under Pressure", followed by a new track titled "Faded Remains", plus acoustic versions of "Act III"'s classic "A Room With A View" and "Humanicide"'s "Revelation Song". The EP was mixed by Max Norman (OZZY OSBOURNE, MEGADETH, BAD COMPANY) and mastered by Ted Jensen (LAMB OF GOD, MACHINE HEAD, HALESTORM).

Released in May 2019 via Nuclear Blast, "Humanicide" saw DEATH ANGEL returning to producer and friend Jason Suecof (DEICIDE, TRIVIUM) of Audiohammer studios for the recording and mixing, along with the mastering of the legendary Ted Jensen (SLIPKNOT, PANTERA) of Sterling Sound, who added the final touches and brought it all to life, with artist Brent Elliott White (LAMB OF GOD, MEGADETH) providing the ominous cover artwork.

In March 2020, Carroll spent almost two weeks on a ventilator in an intensive care unit at a Northern California hospital after being diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. He first got sick when he and the rest of DEATH ANGEL spent more than a month on the road in Europe with TESTAMENT and EXODUS as part of "The Bay Strikes Back 2020" tour.

DEATH ANGEL was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Metal Performance" for the "Humanicide" title track. It was the group's first Grammy nomination.

Carroll joined DEATH ANGEL in 2009 as the replacement for the band's original drummer, Andy Galeon.

Will can be heard on the last four DEATH ANGEL studio albums: "Relentless Retribution" (2010),"The Dream Calls for Blood" (2013),"The Evil Divide" (2016) and the aforementioned "Humanicide".