It’s true to say there are perhaps as many Bay Area Thrash bands producing music today as there were in the heyday of Thrash back in the late eighties, and with the same levels of consistency and inconsistency that dogged the first wave of Thrash two decades ago. Many of the reformations of the so-called founders and innovators of the Bay Area scene have been tinged with more than an element of commercial rather than creative motives, and lucrative tours and subsequent albums have lacked the gusto and integrity for which their earlier albums had become synonymous.

The reformation of Death Angel took many by surprise and the release of 2004’s “The Art Of Dying” came as an even bigger surprise by it’s cohesive song writing and the feeling of a band at the top of it’s game. Not at all what you would have expected from a band dissolved for over a decade prior to the albums release. Four years on and Death Angel are back with their latest opus “Killing Season” and like its predecessor this too shreds to the bone.

Unlike many of their contemporaries Death Angel’s progression from album to album was a wonderment in itself, from the raw youthful brutality of “Ultra Violence” to the more subtle, yet no less provocative “Act III”, with many heralding “The Art Of Dying” as the bans best material to date. Well forget all that as “Killing Season” amalgamates all that was good, potent and innovative from the bands back catalogue and drives it into a whom new dimension. Death Angel always were and have remained one of the stand out bands to emerge from the Bay Area, distinct in both attitude and sound, and never more so is this demonstrated than with “Killing Season”.

 The distinction between “The Art Of Dying” and “Killing Season” is a simple one. “The Art Of Dying” had a number of classic sounding Death Angel tunes while “Killing Season” is a classic sounding Death Angel album. Every song has its place and complements the other to form a majestic symphony of Thrash metal. Thoughtful and unique in its creation, “Killing Season” has ensured Death Angel have continued their dynasty in style and regardless of commercial enterprise this is an album fit to be held in regard of some of the genres greats.