With the recent Thrash Metal resurgence of the last couple years, many of its original bands have stepped up their game and released some of their most vital material. The latest Testament effort is proof of this. San Francisco’s Death Angel is no exception.
After releasing a respectable, if somewhat uneven comeback album, the veteran act recently came back hard with Killing Season. The album finds them cutting back their sound to a leaner, and ultimately, old-school approach. The band chose to work with A-list producer Nick Raskulinecz (Rush, Marilyn Manson) and the result is one of the band’s heaviest record to date.
With
Death Angel heading out on the “
In Thrash We Trust” tour along with God Forbid, Light This City, Soilent Green and Arsis, Ultimate-Guitar’s
Carlos Ramirez spoke with guitarist,
Rob Cavestany about the new album, their history and some of the guitarists who helped inform his dynamic style.
Ultimate-Guitar: The Art of Dying was a formidable comeback but this new album is another beast all together! You sound like a band reborn. What do you attribute the newer material’s invigorated sound to?
Rob Cavestany: Thanks! We are in a completely different mindset than we were when creating “TAOD”. At that time, we had recently reunited after 12 years so naturally we were getting re-introduced to each other, especially in the writing. After touring in 2004 for The Art of Dying we took time off to get grounded and evaluate our life situations outside of music. When we decided it was time to get back to the studio to create, we were rejuvenated and prepared to make some serious music and serious plans. We had a confidence unlike we’ve had since the Act III sessions.
Nick Raskulinecz seemed like a risky choice for producer as outside of the most recent Shadows Fall album, he’s mostly known for working with more straight forward acts. The pairing went over extremely well but were there any doubts before you started?
Hell no! The exact opposite, in fact! The chance to work with someone that had just produced Rush, Foo Fighters, Velvet Revolver was a dream for us! We are talking about a producer that knows what he is doing. The deal sealer was that Nick is actually a metal head! Not to mention a true Death Angel fan! He has had all our previous albums at the since they were released! We bonded from the first time we spoke. Recording with Nick was the best experience we’ve had in the studio, bar none.
In my review for the album on Ultimate-Guitar I mentioned that, “The band manages to look ahead while keeping a stylistic foot grounded in the essence of their past.” How in tune are you with what your hardcore fans expect from you and does it ever come into play during the writing process?
We are one with our hardcore fans! Absolutely comes to play when we write. We are inspired to make music that our fans are gonna get into as much as we do! The great thing is our hardcore fans expect that the style of metal we serve up is always going to have the variety of flavors that we dish out. We have the freedom of pushing the envelope because we always have from day one and our fans know it.
You definitely kept the thrash an element in the guitar tones and tempos of the songs but it somehow doesn’t sound dated. The funny thing is that there is a new wave of young thrash bands that totally emulate the Bay Area records from the late 80’s. Have you had a chance to check any of these bands out yet?
Yeah and it’s great because they are feeling the energy and vibe that is known as “thrash” just like we and all our peers did in its original heyday. I don’t blame them, hell I was one of them myself! We all were! In fact we are taking Light This City on tour with us this summer across the US. These fine young folks SHRED! They are from our hometown, San Francisco. Bay Area Thrash!
You tackle themes of tyranny, political duress and rebellion on songs like “When Worlds Collide” and “God Vs God.” Was the current social climate ripe for the picking this time out?
Like the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden it was impossible to decline. Certain subjects can hit home with anybody that doesn’t live in a cave and the lyrics were reflecting the angst of the music that we were writing.
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| "At times I play until my fingers literally bleed." |
The guitars on Killing Season are really thick and I know a lot of our readers are interested in hearing what your set-up/rig was in the studio. Which guitars did you track with?
I was truly like a kid in a candy store at Studio 606. I recorded with more gear and combinations of setups than ever before. Nick, Dave and the Foo Fighters own the studio. They basically opened their warehouse of gear to us. They had insane kick ass vintage gear which I LOVE! I brought my own main weapons of choice and we ended up combining mine and their equipment for a variety of tones.
I did most of the basic rhythm tracks with my Gibson Flying V. I’ve actually had this guitar the longest of all my guitars, got it new in 1982. Then it was mainly my 3 custom Jackson’s for the solos, I used all of them on various songs. Of course on all the vibrato bar parts! On other solos and additional guitar parts I used maybe 4 different Gibson Les Pauls, a couple SGs, Explorers, A modified Gibson RD which I’ve never even seen before, A Fender Tele, A Firebird shaped custom. I can’t even remember them all right now! For acoustics I was fortunate to record with a couple of Grohl’s Gibson 6 strings as well as a Taylor 12 string that played like butter. Of course I also put tracks down with my own Martin 6 string, thick and dark toned as it sounds.
For amps we used different combinations for different parts. Main rhythm tracks were done with a combo of my Marshall TSL 100 with either a 1971 Orange or 1970 Hiwatt amp running through Marshall cabinets. Then we busted out combining a Laney Klipp and a Rivera with the Marshall for some lead stuff. I used my old 1970 Marshall Super Lead that I bought and had modified by Dave Ray in San Rafael, CA in 1987 through a Budda cabinet on the intro to “Lord of Hate”. I used a few Marshall and Vox vintage combo amps.
Did you come into the sessions with solos already sketched out or were they largely improvised?
For some solos I had ideas of what I was going to do from our pre productions sessions. On the album, a few runs are improvised but for the most part I worked out all the solos at Studio 606. We basically had access to the entire complex and it is badass! While they would be tracking drums or vocals downstairs I would be upstairs recording solo ideas on a pro tools rig I brought from home. I just set up in one little spot and get to jamming while staring out the window at Los Angeles.
When you aren’t on tour or in writing mode, how often do you pick up your guitar? Do you still practice in the traditional sense with scales and exercises?
I go through phases with guitars! At times I play only acoustic for months. At times I don’t play at all. At times I play until my fingers literally bleed. I don’t think of it as practicing now… I just play the guitar. I really should practice more scales and exercises, and perhaps I will. For now that we’re on the road again and will be for a long time you get to spend more hours with your gear.
What pieces of equipment are essential to you on tour? Are you going to play the acoustic material from Act III?
I must have my guitars, amp, rack and pedal board. Right now I’m doing this interview from Europe on tour en route from our show last night in Rome to our gig in London and for this leg I brought 3 Jackson Guitars and my Marshall TSL 100 along with my pedal board and rack. I’m playing out of Marshall cabinets provided out here. I’m also using another European Marshall DSL 100 that is slaved out of my amp to run one amp per cabinet. In the states I’ll slave my Marshall TSL into a Randall V2 amp and be using Randall cabinets with 100 watt Celestion Speakers in them.
You started gigging and recording fairly young. What mistakes do you think you made early on as a player?
Hmm… not practicing enough? If I did spend more time learning more technical theory I might have been another Yngwie! Just kidding! I don’t know if I would call it mistakes as a player because the way I developed my playing and style worked for me. At some point I would always get bored of “studying” stuff so I mostly played be ear and feeling. I spent a lot of time “vibing out” with music and my approach to playing / creating. I just went at it as best as I could and enjoyed the ride. I still do.
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| "The style of metal we serve up is always going to have the variety of flavors that we dish out." |
Which guitarists help shape your style when you first picked up the instrument? Were your parents supportive?
The reason I learned to play the guitar was Randy Rhoads. He was and always will be my main inspiration for playing rock guitar. Of course there are many others that are right there with him that I discovered worship to this day such as Uli Roth, Michael Schenker, Stevie Ray, Jimi, Santana, EVH…the list goes on. My parents couldn’t have been more supportive! They bought my first, second and third guitars! My first Marshall stack too! I couldn’t afford this gear at that age, I barely began high school and Death Angel was starting to gig in the Bay Area clubs! My dad was my first roadie!
We started in Andy’s parents’ garage in Daly City. We honed our chops in that garage for years! We would jam in Den’s parent’s garage sometimes to give Andy’s neighbors a break! If it wasn’t for our families support we would never even have had a life in music.
Are they any bands out there or specific musicians that are doing something interesting to you guitar wise?
Besides all the legendary guitar players I mentioned earlier, there are so many great bands and musicians out there that I listen to and it all does a little something to me guitar wise. I can get inspired for a run in a solo by a vocal melody that Bjork sang. At the same time I can be quite interested in what my 4 year old son does on his drum kit or on his guitar.
Before I let you go, I know you have been working on solo material and playing out locally. Can you take a second and tell the readers a little about that?
It’s mainly acoustic based but not entirely, in fact I ended up using more electric guitars than originally planned for it. What I’m talking about is my first “solo” album called “Lines on the Road” that I finally got around to recording last year. I’ve been writing these kinds of songs for a long time, at least for 20 years now. I’ve got boxes of demo tapes of the stuff and it’s songs that do not fit the Death Angel mold whatsoever so I just write em and play em for a different musical expression.
Anyway the CD has 10 songs on it and features Andy Galeon on drums and Gus Pepa on second guitar. I play guitars, bass and do all the vocals on the disc. The lyrics are inspired by situations that deal with the need to rise above yourself and overcome the obstacles of life. Good stuff to start your morning or end your day with, chill vibe. Put it on and go for a nice drive! Haven’t had time to seek distribution yet but for now it can be ordered through my MySpace page.
Interview by Carlos Ramirez
Ultimate-Guitar.Com © 2008
However there were a few too many exclamation marks...IMO.