Dark Angel

Dark Angel

Dark Angel is a thrash metal band from Los Angeles, United States, active from 1981 to the present. The band is associated with metal, technical thrash metal and thrash metal, and is part of the Los Angeles thrash metal scene.

Style and reputation

The group is known for a very fast, heavy sound with long songs, frequent tempo changes, extended instrumental sections and dense lyrics. This style earns them the nickname “the L.A. Caffeine Machine” and the slogan “too fast, my ass”.

Drummer Gene Hoglan is widely regarded as one of the strongest underground metal drummers.

Recordings

Dark Angel releases four demos before its debut full-length album, We Have Arrived, in 1984. In 1986, the band releases Darkness Descends, an album that becomes one of the key records of thrash metal’s mid-1980s peak.

The band follows this with Leave Scars in 1989 and Time Does Not Heal in 1991. These later albums show increasingly progressive song structures. Time Does Not Heal is notable for containing 246 riffs and for lyrics that deal with serious subjects, especially psychological issues and trauma.

Line-up and related activity

Members listed with the band include Mike Andrade, Rob Yahn, Don Doty, Jim Durkin, Jack Schwartz, Lee Rausch, Gene Hoglan, Eric Meyer, Mike Gonzalez, Jim Drabos, Ron Rinehart, Dan Lilker, Brett Eriksen, Cris McCarthy and Danyael Williams.

At one point Dave Mustaine asks Eric Meyer to join Megadeth, but Meyer stays with Dark Angel. After the band breaks up in 1992, it briefly reunites in 2002, but Ron Rinehart’s injury forces the cancellation of touring plans and the group goes on hold. Rinehart also forms the band Oil in 1997 after converting to Christianity.