San Francisco Bay Area metal veterans Death Angel will release their new album, "Relentless Retribution", on September 3 in Europe and September 14 in the U.S. via Nuclear Blast Records. The CD was recorded at Audiohammer Studios in Sanford, Florida with producer Jason Suecof (Trivium, August Burns Red, The Black Dahlia Murder, All That Remains, Whitechapel, Devildriver). The cover artwork was created by Brent Elliot White (Job For A Cowboy, Carnifex, Whitechapel) and can be viewed here.
"Relentless Retribution" track listing:
01. Relentless Revolution
02. Claws In So Deep
03. Truce
04. Into The Arms Of Righteous Anger
05. River Of Rapture
06. Absence Of Light
07. This Hate
08. Death Of The Meek
09. Opponents At Sides
10. I Chose The Sky
11. Volcanic
12. Where They Lay
The song "Claws In So Deep" features an appearance by the popular acoustic guitar duo Rodrigo Y Gabriela while "Truce" contains a guest guitar solo by Suecof.
Death Angel debuted two brand new songs — "River Of Rapture" and "Into The Arms Of Righteous Anger" — during its appearance at last year's Speedfest, which was held November 28, 2009 in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. The concert marked the group's first appearance with bassist Damien Sisson (Scarecrow, Potential Threat) following the departure of Sammy Diosdado (The Sick, All Time Highs).
Death Angel's longtime drummer and original member Andrew Galeon left the band in April 2009 and has since been replaced by Will Carroll, formerly of Scarecrow, Old Grandad and Vicious Rumors.
Fan-filmed video footage of Death Angel performing the new song "River Of Rapture" on April 6, 2010 at Rio's in Leeds, England can be viewed here (courtesy of Dave Ingham a.k.a. YouTube user "triptykon").
Regarding the "Relentless Retribution" artwork, Death Angel vocalist Mark Osegueda previously stated: "I haven't been as excited about the cover artwork on any other Death Angel album as I am for this one! It fits the whole theme of the album! Angry and aggressive! I think what excites me most is that Brent did the artwork based on our lyrics! It wasn't an already finished product.
"When we first saw Brent's work, we were floored by the mixture of fantasy meets reality and we knew we wanted him to do the artwork for this album! In the end he surpassed our expectations with the fiercest Death Angel album cover to date!"
Added Brent Elliot White: "Originally the theme of this album was betrayal by those close to you and revenge against the deceitful. After a pretty spirited conversation with Rob [Cavestany, guitar] and e-mails back and forth, the saying 'wolf in sheep's clothing' kept coming up. Basically, we danced around that metaphor 'till it became pretty clear that a direct interpretation was the way to go.
"Illustrating betrayal and revenge in a single piece proved to be a challenge, but as I received the lyrics to the songs, things quickly fell into place."
Osegueda previously stated about the band's decision to work with Suecof, "The new material is the most aggressive and technical music we have written in years. So we needed a producer that was capable of unleashing the tones that match and complement the overall vibe of the songs. With Jason's experience in producing some of the most brutal contemporary metal artists and albums of today, I know we made the right choice!"
Thanks for the report to Blabbermouth.net.
