Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to lead singer Mark Osegueda of Bay City Thrash band Death Angel. Osegueda spoke about the writing process of the songs on the bands latest release Humanicide , the famous band bus crash that broke up the band and if there was any possibility of a The Bay Strikes back tour. The bands ninth album Humanicide was released May 31st 2019 on Nuclear Blast.
Watch the interview here
When asked if they did anything different this time around on the new album compared to last album
“This time we let Ted Aguilar write a song on the new record [Laughter, in a joking manner] called Alive and Screaming and actually I’m very fond of the songs. Ted had the riffs and Rob kind of pieced it together and I came up with the melody. Over the years we’ve kind of come up with a good formula that’s working really well. Usually Rob comes up with a basic structure of a song and presents it to the guys, then we will make a demo of it and then I’ll usually hash it out and melodies and lyrics from there. On this new album we were kind of riding on the high of our last album The Evil Divide and just kind of really wanted to stick with a lot of melody but still a lot of aggression. We took both the melody to a new high and pushed the aggression to definitely definitely a new high. We have a formula that works and we’re sticking to it and I’m not saying we’re making the same album every time it’s just with the same kind of passion.”
When asked about how such a legacy band can have so much aggression after so many years
“I’m hard wired hot. We’ve been doing this a long time, we’ve put in our hours, months, years and definitely put in our miles. We see some Heights that other bands have reached and at the same time we’re still in a sense struggling to make ends meet so that alone is you’re inspiring enough to have to angry behind what we’re doing.”
When asked about the meaning behind the song ‘Humanicide’ off the new album
“It looks like at the unfortunate direction that humanity is heading towards and somethings got to change or it’s going to be inevitable our future. If they keep getting dehumanizing us , this divide and conquer kind of technique without people realizing that it’s happening it’s gonna get tragic really fast.”
When asked about the meaning behind the song ‘Divine Defector ‘off the new album
“When I first got presented the demo I almost didn’t know what to make of it because it was very intense with blastbeats. I just wanted to write something that met the intensity of the song. I think I achieved that with the vocal performance on it and lyrically it’s just it’s coming from a very aggressive place. It’s about being pretty much back into a corner and just just being relentless in your attack back.”
When asked about writing the song ‘Aggressor ‘
“Rob actually the music the lyrics and melody. Rob writes songs with my voice in mind and when we’re recording he always tries to push a bit more aggressiveness out of it.”
When asked about the song ‘Revelation Song’ off the new album
“Revelation song, it’s that’s one of the more melodic Tunes on the record for sure. I’m very fond of that song it’s definitely one when I get to hit my more melodic side and do a lot more clean singing. When the song hits the chorus the main riff almost has like a powerful seventies rock kind of thing.”
When asked about the song ‘The day I walked away’
“I absolutely love that song and there was a time when there was discussion if it was gonna make the album or be a bonus track or whatnot and I kind of definitely championed for that making it at least as a bonus track. The feedback on that song has been overwhelmingly positive”
When asked about the famous bus crash that led to the band breaking up after the making of Act 111
“It happened after playing a show in I believe in Arizona, Phoenix or Tucson and heading to Las Vegas for the next show. In the wee hours somewhere in the desert the driver of the vehicle fell asleep and when he came to he over corrected and the accident happened. It was a very unfortunate because Andy our drummer did get very hurt and it did sideline the band and the record company of course wanted us to carry on and keep touring because the album was fresh and the record had a lot a big buzz behind it. But there was no way we were just going to tour with Andy in the hospital like that. At that point we were going through a lot of stuff internally with legal problems and so that tour although there were a lot of highlights there was also a lot of bad behind the scenes things. A lot of meetings. We had a lot of legal problems ,so it was kind of eating away at the core of the band which a lot of people couldn’t see from the outside. But for us it was definitely eating away at us. I think after that accident I kind of took it as a sign that I’ve had enough with with everything that was happening to us legally business-wise. How many times we’ve been screwed over and it looked like more and more was on the way and I just took a look inside and said you know it’s been a good run for me I’m done. We did have five contracted shows in Japan that we already signed contracts for and we couldn’t afford to not do. So we did them without Andy. ”
When asked about when they will start working on new material
“Rob said what’s going to start happening is he’s gonna start compiling more things on the road and presenting to me so we can get you know things knocked out faster or even more songs to choose from for the next record. I’m hoping it does happen because it’s just less rushing at the end [Laughter] I don’t write a song lyric until the songs in front of me and then I come up with a melody and then I start reading the lyrics cuz I mean I my mind melodies and lyrics are inspired by the feel of this song . I do have a lyric book I do write down certain phrases as i come across them for future references for lyrics. ”
When asked if The Bay Strikes back tour will come to North America (featuring Death Angel, Exodus and Testament)
“I’ve seen some rumors floating around everywhere of course, we’ve not been approached so I could not tell you that you know I’ve heard anything. We’ve not been approached as a band as far as the Bay strikes back to Tour but I do know there is interest for North America, South America, Asia, Australia. So we’re gonna see how it does in Europe and you know there’s talk of you know taking it worldwide, if the buzz keeps coming and you the bands are available.”
