An interview with Death Angel
For Army of Pit Soldiers Presents and Your Music Magazine
By Benji Womack 12/17/04 @ Tommy T's in Concord, CA.

Introduction
Growing up as a child, one of my favorite bands was Death Angel. Finally at the age where I could go see shows I was waiting my chance to see them live in concert. Though it seems every time the chance came up, something happen where I missed my chance or they had to cancel at the last minute. Then moving to Cali, right next door to the legendry musicians themselves Death Angel. Breaking out into the scene once again with there new album THE ART OF DIEING, I finally got my chance to see them, and to top it off I got to interview Ted Aguilar, new guitarist of Death Angel, and this is how it went.

Benji Womack
Ok guys first question, for those who know nothing about or have not heard of Death Angel, please inform the world of who Death Angel is and their sick ass line-up.

Ted Aguilar
Death Angel is a bay area thrash band from San Francisco. The line up consists of Mark Osegueda on vocals, Rob Cavestany on lead guitar, Dennis Pepa on Bass guitar, Andy Galeon on drums, and myself, Ted Aguilar on rhythm guitar.

Benji Womack
. How many albums has Death Angel released now and tell us a little about each album.

Ted Aguilar
Death Angel has four studio albums out. They released the "Ultra Violence" I believe in 1987, great thrash album; I mean, the first three albums I wasn't a part of, but I can tell you about 'em. "Ultra Violence", great thrash album, you know, came out at its time very brutal, and I think in 88' or 89'--88'. Uh, "Frolic Through The Park" was more of a experimental album, you know, they're trying to experiment, you know, they added a few elements, a little tad bit of funk, and some groove into it, and "Act III" was, uh, the Death Angles third album, where its just, it solidified their style, that's when they added a lot of you know, acoustics, and which is great, and a lot of melodies, and it still kept the Death Angles sound and heaviness; and the fourth album, " The Art of Dying", is like a combination of all three of the previous albums, and, ah man, it's great, it's a great album.

Benji Womack
. How is the new album doing?

Ted Aguilar
Uh, so far so good. I mean, I don't even have the numbers of what its selling, but um, when we did European tours and Japan, and Mexico, people have the album, so I'm assuming its doing really well. From the reviews and all the shows we've played, so hopefully we should have the final counts by the end of the new--year.

Benji Womack
Okay, explain thrash metal to me, and do you still feel as comfortable on stage now as you did in the 80's?

Ted Aguilar
That's a question to ask the other guys, but I'll answer that. Thrash metal its, I got into thrash metal in the early 80's, right when, uh, all the, uh, Bay Area, uh, bands started to come out, I mean, and, its ah, its a great feeling man. I mean, thrash metal, its ah, great music to release all this energy, you know, I mean, people go out, hear this fast and heavy music and they just take out their energy in the pit, in a positive way; you know, its just, everyone went to shows to enjoy the music and to release, and, uh, that was an escape for a lota people who are into metal. Fuckin dig it.

Benji Womack
. Which album was the funniest to create?

Ted Aguilar
Let's see, "The Art of Dying, The Art of Dying was great, we recorded that in San Francisco, and um, I mean we wrote this album pretty quick, I mean, we, right when we got signed in Nuclear Blast, we, we didn't even have a single song written, pretty much, and we just stated writing and writing, and we star-- we were writing on the road, so when we came back we where still writing, and we went into the studio with you know all these songs and we still had songs that ha-- still needed to be finished, while we went into the studio, so the whole experience of writing "The Art Of Dying" was, was just incredible, we could jus hear it in the, the energy in that record.

Benji Womack
tell me the best show you can remember playing?

Ted Aguilar
Japan, Tokyo. This last one we did 2004 we went out there with Overkill and Flotsam and Jetsom and Tokyo was just, the whole vibe of, of Japan I mean, the energy that the crowd gave, the respect, everything from the crew down to the hospitality, down to the shaft, down to everyone in the bands vibe that night it was just incredible It was probably the best show I've played so far with this band.

Benji Womack
Um, the worst show ever.

Ted Aguilar
Milton Keys in England. I mean it was a good show, we played great, but it was just funny because everyone stood there and looked at you. And, and the you know when your so, when your playing this type of music and your playing and your so used to people getting so into it thrashing, slam dancing, stage diving, you just feed off the crowds energy, but this show at Milton Keys, I forgot what venue, we went up there and just played and they just looked at us, like, well... they where into it, you could, they cheered after but they just stood there and it was like wow. I think, you know, it was fun, yeah it was a work but we still had a good time.

Benji Womack
Okay, what message if any, is Death Angel trying to send?

Ted Aguilar
Um, positive vibe actually, just you know, our whole trip is just you know we're writing music to have a good time, and to just send out a positive vibe and jus', you know when you come out to a show jus basically have a good and that's it, I mean, that's our whole trip. We're not into, you know, Black Metal you know, all this crazy you know devil music and all that, we just write to write you know and jus listen to it and try to relate an' when you come out have a good time, than-- it's about having a good vibe.

Benji Womack
. How long has Death Angel been together now, and has there been any line up changes?

Ted Aguilar
Actually, Death Angel started in 1982, they broke up in 91', and they were gone they broke up that whole time, and they reformed in 2001 for Thrash of the Titans benefit, I don' know if you've heard about that with Chuck Billy. There's been one line up change and that's uh, me. I actually uh replaced Gus Pepa, the original guitar player who's no longer involved in music, so and uh, with this new line up it's been together for three years.

Benji Womack
Uh next question was about that, Thrash of the Titans show. How was The Thrash of the Titans show after coming back?

Ted Aguilar
Aw, man uh I mean it was incredible, I mean that whole night, the whole benefit for Chuck I mean when I was asked to fill in, in Death Angel I was like so excited, 'cause I was, you know, I grew up listening to Death Angel, but we were actually the last band to confirm, because, you know, everyone's really like, umm, im not really sure if we want to do it, and we went up there and we just had a fuckin great time, man, it was just like woooow, man, its just like the energy that we had and the energy that we got from the crowd, it was just intense, its just fun, you know, we owe it all to Chuck. He was the reason the band reformed actually.

Benji Womack
. In your opinion, what is wrong with the Nor Cal scene, or does it go a lot further than just Nor Cal?

Ted Aguilar
Umm, I think the scene in Nor Cal its, its starting to pick up, I mean, in, during the 90's it was, it was pretty dead, I mean, I guess, I wouldn't blame it on the music, I just, you know, blame it on clubs closing down, there aint no place to play so people just stopped coming out, you mean, and I guess its, I don't know, its starting to pick up but it could be better, but they're starting some, there some good bands coming out, so hopefully you know with all these good bands coming out it, it'll start to get you know, everyone excited in Nor Cal to come out more, instead of just sit at home and do nothing, plus, everyone's older, so , they have family and they got responsibilities so I figured, you know, that's, you know, its not as fresh as it was in the 80's. "Defiantly need more all ages venues" ***(Chimed in Benji)***, its, its really hard I mean, playing 21 and over, 21 and over places, because there's a lotta, I mean, the new generation of music now is kids and a lotta kids, you know, they need, like, you know, high school kids who are into heavy music, need a, need check out some shows and need a, uh uh a place to let off some energy and fun and, and there's only like a few places that's like all ages, and it's really hard so we need a lotto all ages venues.

Benji Womack
. What CD is in your CD player right now?

Ted Aguilar
Cud's in my CD player actually my CD players actually Fear Factories Archetype album, the new one, Fuckin awesome album man. "Just saw them a couple of weeks ago" (Chimed in Benji...again) Yea, fuckin awesome man. Just love that record, so, that's what I've been playing right now.


Benji Womack
Where's your favorite place to play?

Ted Aguilar
Holland, anywhere in Holland, and Japan. Out of all of the places, those are the two, its just like, awe man, so far, we haven't gotten to South America or Australia yet, but, but those two places, Holland's just, its just the vibe there's killer, its just they're really accepting, you know, where ever we, we played in Holland and we were just so into it and just so you know, like, open arms and open ears. Same with Japan, and when you have a crowd like that, I mean, it just makes you go off and it just makes you feel good. So, I mean, personally, those are my two favorite places to play.

Benji Womack
Worst place?

Ted Aguilar
Worst place...Milton Keys in England. (Followed by laughter) That's the worst-- nothing against them, I mean, there's some fans there, but it was jus' you have to get into it more.

Benji Womack
What label are you guys signed to now, and how are they treating you?


Ted Aguilar
Nuclear Blast, um, they're treating us really well, I mean, not only, you know, are they fans of the band, uh, fans of Death Angel, but they're fans of heavy music, and, you know, they're just so into the metal, which they know how to promote it, you know, opposed to if you go with a label that their metal roster is so small you know what I mean? Nuclear Blast, like, man, the job they did for us was great, so we're really happy with them.

Benji Womack
How many endorsements does Death Angel have? And who are they?

Ted Aguilar
As in equipment endorsements and all. Um we are endorsed by ESP guitars, Jackson guitars, Spector guitars, and Mesaboogie, Amplification, and Dunl-- Dunlop Corporation, and Dean Markley strings. For the drums uh Vick Forth, HiC symbols, G-Amigo drums, all the nice equipment. "You guys going down to Namn this year?" (Asked Benji )Yes, actually we are, were actually doing a signing at the EMG booth that Saturday, that Saturday at the EMG booth at one o'clock.

Benji Womack
Describe the feeling you have deep inside of your soul when you are playing on that stage in front of your fans. Relive the emotion.

Ted Aguilar
Aw man, it's, it's the greatest high I think in the world I mean, to go up there and share the music that you love to write and to share it to people who want to listen to it there just so into it just man it's hard to turn away from just music, playing music man, so I think it's just the greatest high in the world, beats any drug personally if you ask me, ya know.

Benji Womack
Will you guys be playing "A Room with a View", or "Veil of Deception" tonight off of "ACT III"

Ted Aguilar
We are playing "Veil of Deception", "A Room With a View" it's um, we do that every now and then, it's, it's really hard cause with the new album out we want to try to cram as much of the new album in as much as possible but every now and then we'll bust out "A Room With a View" you know, we the last time we did it was in Europe, and it goes well, it's a great song, I wish we play it more often, but with the new album and all this music it's hard to awe.. We need to pick this, we need to do that, so you know, we're not doing it tonight but we're doing uh, "Veil of Deception".

Benji Womack
What are Death Angels plans for the holidays?


Ted Aguilar
Everyone well--, um, I'll spend it with family, you know, we're just going to take a break for the holidays, and do our own thing with family and re-group in the New Year, just start writing for the next record. Get ahead of the game.

Benji Womack
What's the next project you will be working on as a band?

Ted Aguilar
Writing the next record, I mean uh, there's talks, there's talks about us doing the Kreator Tour in April with Vader so in the mean time, during that down time were gonna write and write a whole bunch of stuff, and when we go on the road we're gonna still keep writing 'cause when the touring over it's good to have all this material and just, you know, just start weeding through 'em, an pickin out the best ones and moving and going straight to the studio and get an album out as soon as possible.


Benji Womack
Any advice to the new bands out there that are struggling so bad in today's metal world?

Ted Aguilar
Keep going, you know, keep jamming, keep writing songs I mean, it takes a while you know you jus got to go out there, play to as many people as you can, promote, go out there and flyer, I mean flyer, most bands don't go out there and flyer, you got to go out there and flyer ya know what I mean, regardless? Meet people, go to people's shows, talk to them, send out CD's to all the radio stations, Fanzines call them, you know, that's the only way to do it. And, doing that's half the fun, you know what I mean, I mean you can have all this great music but if your not doing nothing' with it than you know, there's a lot of bands who get frustrated with, because Oh we're Jamming', an there aint no one coming' out, well you gotta go out there and work, you know, there's more to it than jus writing' an going' up on stage and playing' you gotta' do, you know, the other end and actually doing' all the promoting' and stuff is actually a lot of fun, you know, if your really into it, and if your really into your band there's a lot of fun. Sigh.

Right on man I appreciate this interview - Benji
Thanks man - Ted
See you all tomorrow night too!- Benji
Right on, Right on, are you on the list!- Ted
www.deathangel.com


By Benji Womack
Your Music Magazine
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Army Of Pit Soldiers
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