DEATH ANGEL Singer: How METALLICA's KIRK HAMMETT Ended Up Producing Our First Demo

DEATH ANGEL singer Mark Osegueda recently spoke to RadioactiveMike Z about how his band ended up getting METALLICA's Kirk Hammett to produce its first demo, 1985's "Kill As One". He recalled (hear audio below): "[Kirk] took us under his wing when we were very, very young, prior to being signed. We would give him tapes of new songs. We'd see him at Ruthie's Inn or any of those local clubs and we'd give him cassette tapes of new stuff we'd written. It was literally in our rehearsal room. So what we'd do is we'd get our tape recorded or boom box, hit 'Play' and 'Record', stick it in a carboard box and throw a jacket over it and put it in the middle of the room, and that's how we'd record these new songs. And I'd give 'em to Kirk when I'd see him at these shows, just hoping he'd listen. Next time I'd see him at a club, he [would be like], 'Hey, I really dug that new song you wrote.' And eventually he approached us and was, like, 'I'd really be interested in producing a demo for you guys.' How are you gonna say no to that? So it was brilliant. We recorded that up in Glen Ellen, California, which is up in the Wine Country. We went up to the studio there, and over weekends, when we weren't at school, we would go up there and stay at the studio and just record on the weekends. And we did that for about three weeks — three or four weeks even — and it worked out great. And eventually, that's the demo that got us signed to Enigma that released our first two records."

DEATH ANGEL guitarist Rob Cavestany told Metal Refuge that working with Hammett was a "totally inspiring" experience, "because at that point in time, 'Ride The Lightning' had just come out, and so we were just freaking out that we were going to be doing this demo with the guitar player who was on 'Ride The Lightning', for God's sake! Basically, we were already kind of somewhat friends anyway, from just around the scene here and there. This was before METALLICA was untouchable. At that point in time, they were actually our local mentors in the scene, and we had just done some shows, either we were just about to do the shows, or we just did a couple shows with METALLICA at this place called the Kabuki nightclub in San Francisco. It was actually METALLICA, ARMORED SAINT and DEATH ANGEL. It was a great time. Kirk came in and basically just brought his experience to the recording studio with us, and also took his vibe and energetic and enthusiastic way that he was. It was just extremely thrilling for us at the time."

In recent years, Hammett has joined DEATH ANGEL on stage to perform the the METALLICA song "Trapped Under Ice" and the BLACK SABBATH classic "Heaven And Hell".

DEATH ANGEL's latest album, "The Evil Divide", was released in May 2016 via Nuclear Blast. The CD was once again recorded at AudioHammer studios in Sanford, Florida with producer Jason Suecof (TRIVIUM, DEICIDE),who previously worked on 2010's "Relentless Retribution" and 2013's "The Dream Calls For Blood".