Death Angel guitarist Ted Aguilar has offered his take on what he sees as a loss of individual identity in modern metal, in a new interview with Pipeman of the “Music Feeds the Soul” podcast.
On the diversity that defined the Bay Area thrash scene, Aguilar said (transcribed by Blabbermouth): “The cool thing about the Bay Area is that every band was different. Anthrax sounded different from Overkill, Death Angel sounded different from Testament. Even the vocalists sounded different — Mark [Osegueda] doesn’t sound like Chuck Billy. Chuck Billy doesn’t sound like Sean Killian, and no one sounds like Zetro [Steve “Zetro” Souza of Exodus]. All the vocalists were very unique on their own.”
That distinctiveness, Aguilar said, is what he finds lacking in much of today’s metal: “There’s some incredible players out there. They could run circles around us. But I’m talking about identity — I can’t tell who from who. You know, it’s oversaturated with a lot of bands that basically sound the same. Some of it may be YouTube and social media, where everyone is trying to follow a template of what they think works. Back in our day, you had to figure things out. You had to be a band together, in a room with everyone learning from each other, bouncing ideas. There’s something about that organic chemistry that comes through in the music.”
Death Angel is currently on the second leg of their “Act III” 35th anniversary U.S. tour, which launched May 1 in Phoenix, Arizona with support from Vio-lence and Incite. The run wraps June 21 in Santa Cruz, California.
Death Angel was formed in 1982 in Daly City, California by members of the Pilipino-American Galeon family. The current lineup features vocalist Mark Osegueda, guitarists Rob Cavestany and Aguilar, bassist Damien Sisson and drummer Will Carroll. The band received a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance for the song “Humanicide” (2019). Their most recent studio album is Humanicide (2019, Nuclear Blast).
