DEATH ANGEL 'Would Love' To Release Double Album As Follow-Up To 'Humanicide'

In a new interview with Monterrey Rock, DEATH ANGEL bassist Damien Sisson spoke about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's follow-up to 2019's "Humanicide" album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "We are currently in the writing process right now. I wanna say we're probably a good — I wanna say we're, like, six or seven songs in. And, gosh, I shouldn't say too much about the album because so much — as I've found from the four albums I've done with DEATH ANGEL, from when you first get the first riffs or the first demo tapes to when it's done, so much changes. Art changes, direction changes, lyrics change, structure changes."

He continued: "Ambitiously, we'd love to go the LED ZEPPELIN route and have like a 'Physical Graffiti' double album. We're not sure if we're gonna have enough material, 'cause it's gotta be good material. You can't just stuff two albums' full of riffs; it's gotta be good material. So, in the event that we don't get two albums, a double album, done, then we hope to really just come through with 10 really strong songs on a new album."

As for a possible release date for the new DEATH ANGEL album, Damien, who has lived in Mexico since 2019, said: "I can't really say when the release is; we're not in the recording studio yet. Knowing the way the industry works, I can't imagine this album getting out in 2024, which means probably and hopefully an early release of 2025. I would hope for in the first quarter, somewhere around March, April of 2025, hopefully a new album is dropping. We're engaging in a new touring cycle. We're ramping up and trying to hit all the markets again, hopefully Southeast Asia, Europe. It'd be great to have the opportunity to come back to South America or Latin America. But I know once we have a new album out, the idea is to try to support it as much as we can."

This past March, DEATH ANGEL guitarist Ted Aguilar told El Planeta Del Rock that there were "a bunch of songs, a lot of skeletons" for the band's next album. "We spent the first three months of this year writing. We didn't do any activity — just writing… 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."

Osegueda is the featured singer on SLAYER guitarist Kerry 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."

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, DEATH ANGEL drummer Will Carroll said that he was "stoked" about how the band'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.

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."

In January, 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. "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 does his parts and Mark 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.