review: Archangel AD

Archangel A.D.

Eventide

23 September 2019

There are so many bands with the name Archangel that it is necessary to put the letters A.D. on this Texas group in order to distinguish it from all the other ones. That’s alright. Make it a competition of the Archangels: Which one will outlast the other ones? Which one is strong enough to survive the thankless hard labor of making music that will bring fulfillment and fun for the musicians involved and will most likely achieve for them no net profit financial gain and a very minuscule amount of fame by way of likes and thumbs up online. It’s a long way to top if you want to rock and roll, indeed. Which Archangel has the guts to withstand the burns, bruises, beatings, tears, arguments, fights, depression, bad food, dirty motels, friends’ couches, the mud and the dirt of being a metal band? No private helicopters, no private jets, no fleet of boats. Only more work for little material reward. Only the strong survive this boot camp of underground metal music!

This Texas thrash action tag team has been kicking up dust since about 2015. In 2016 they lassoed a demo at the ok corral, and they rode to town on an EP in 2018. Now they have this single (an album is on the way?!).

This is one song only. This song is traditional American Bay Area-style thrash. They have the shredding guitars. What is the verdict? The referee declares victory for the shred guitars of thrash! The sound quality is another win for the Texans. The vocals are totally comprehensible and also rock. It’s not punk yelling, although it’s not power metal virtuosity, either. Good, solid thrash vocals. Very promising, and it’s already better than the vocals on the 2018 recording. The song itself is a declaration of mosh pit intentions. Good stuff.

One problem is that the band could not resist trying to be funny like stand-up comedians. At the end of the song they repeat a line with the typical thrash gang shouting. At the end, they say, “You get the f# picture!” They have done this type of joke stuff before and they seem addicted to drunk alcoholics telling them that they’re funny. They have to decide if they want to be “funny” like Jack Black singing Dio songs or whether they want be like Kreator and be a great metal band. Be Gabriel Iglesias the fluffy morbidly obese comedian** or aim to be legendary thrash band? Both are good, but only one of those is metal music.

**(or lame metal music reviewers who try to be funny, like this reviewer right here)

Their audience is already tiny. No need to make it even tinier by being known as a joke band (or as the butt of a joke band). Remember: cursing like a sailor and joking and obscene pranks will make people who are already fans laugh, but it is limiting and keeping away more potential metal and thrash fans. Thrash and metal fans in general want good metal, and they know that for comedy they can turn to the "edgy" potty-mouth stand-up comedians on television.

Keep the thrash going! Now, when exactly are we getting that full-length album? If thrash fans have not heard this band, be sure to check out their six-song 2018 recording. It's a headbanging moshing guarantee of good times. Whatathrash!

archangelad.bandcamp.com/releases

facebook.com/ArchangelA.D/