California thrash metal pioneers DARK ANGEL will release “Extinction Level Event”, their first new album in 34 years, later in 2025 via Reversed Records. The LP’s first single, the “Extinction Level Event” title track, can be streamed below. It was recorded and mixed at the Armoury Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, executive produced by DARK ANGEL drummer Gene Hoglan, produced and engineered by Rob Shallcross and mixed by Mike Fraser.
“Musically, lyrically, and vocally, I’m so stoked about this album,” says Hoglan. “I’m really excited about DARK ANGEL right now, and everyone who’s heard the new album is losing their minds.
The “Extinction Level Event” title track was written by DARK ANGEL guitarist Jim Durkin a decade ago, long before he suffered from severe liver disease, and, to the surprise of everyone, passed away in 2023.
“Jim Durkin left us with this badass tune,” Hoglan says. “It is so DARK ANGEL and I’m just so excited about it. We made it the lead-off song on the record, not as a tribute to Jim or because of sentimental reasons — like, ‘Here is the song that Jim left us’ — but because it’s just a totally killer song. He wrote it ten years ago, and by today’s standards it’s still ball-crushing.”
The “Extinction Level Event” artwork and layout was designed by Cain Gillis, with concepts by Hoglan.
Earlier this month, Hoglan told the “Everblack” podcast about “Extinction Level Event”: “It’s a pretty ferocious record. I’m stoked with it. It took long enough for it to come out, but now that we’re getting closer to the release, things are starting to get closer to finalized with it. So, everybody keep your eyes open. We just released the album cover and when we have some actual, actual, like ‘here is the drop date for it’, we’ll be able to share that with everybody. Pay attention to the DARK ANGEL socials and all that, and there will be a release date. We’re teasing it as 2025, so, hey, before December 31st, we are getting a DARK ANGEL record.”
DARK ANGEL was originally scheduled to play new music for the first time since 1991 during its January 29 concert at the Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood, California. However, that show ended up getting postponed due to the wildfires in the state.
In July 2024, DARK ANGEL officially entered the studio to begin recording its new LP. Two months earlier, Hoglan told Rocking With Jam Man that he had “been working diligently for the last couple of years on some projects that are gonna make DARK ANGEL fans really happy, I think. So, everybody, just sit tight,” he said.
Asked what it has been like making new DARK ANGEL music more than 30 years after the release of the band’s last album, 1991’s “Time Does Not Heal”, Gene responded: “Well, that’s one thing. It’s like we had a choice. I had an entire DARK ANGEL album written that was ready to start getting recorded after the ‘Time Does Not Heal’ record, and circumstances occurred where the band just had to dissolve. So, I had a bunch of material written. And when Jim Durkin and myself — Jim is no longer with us, but when we put DARK ANGEL back together and we started talking about, like, ‘What do we wanna do for the future? Do we wanna write some new material?’ And ‘I’ve got some ideas, Gene, and you probably have some ideas.’ And I have a number of songs that I sent to Jim. And when Jim heard that — I sent it to him on a CD — he freaked out and he was, like, ‘My God, here’s our new album. This is gonna be our next record. Hell yeah.’ And he got really excited about that material. But I was, like, ‘Hey, Jim, tell you what. I feel really strongly about my writing chops, and the songs I’m hearing from you right now are crushing. So how about we just write new stuff, get together and start writing new material?’ And so we kind of went that route.”
He continued: “For my elements of what I wanted DARK ANGEL to sound like, Jim Durkin is a huge influence on my writing style. So I wanted this to have a lot of the Jim Durkin influence on it. In terms of riffs, there’s not as many from Jim as we were hoping for, but Jim‘s entire presence is all over the new DARK ANGEL material that I’ve been working on. And he’s a huge guitar influence on me, as well as a lot of people. So, there’s definitely gonna be a pretty hardy Jim Durkin influence. And I just wanna write a kick-ass metal album. So what I’ve tried to do is not go back 35 years or 37 years or whatever, ‘Darkness Descends’ or even ‘We Have Arrived’, those early albums, or ‘Leave Scars’ or ‘Time Does Not Heal’, I’ve not tried to duplicate anything from any of those albums, but I tried to put myself in the mindset of what if DARK ANGEL just kept writing albums for the last 30-whatever years, 32, 33 years, where would we be at now? And so that has been my approach on the new DARK ANGEL material.”
Durkin died on March 8, 2023 at the age of 58. An original member of DARK ANGEL, Durkin played on the band’s first three albums — 1985’s “We Have Arrived”, 1986’s “Darkness Descends” and 1989’s “Leave Scars” — before departing the group in 1989. He was part of DARK ANGEL‘s lineup when the band reformed in 2013, and had been playing with them, on and off, ever since.
Prior to his death, Durkin had been sitting out some of DARK ANGEL‘s gigs. He was replaced at the shows by Hoglan‘s wife Laura Christine, who has since joined DARK ANGEL as a permanent member.
DARK ANGEL released two albums with Don Doty on vocals — the aforementioned “We Have Arrived” and “Darkness Descends” — before he exited the group and was replaced by Ron Rinehart (after a brief stint with Jim Drabos in 1987). The band issued two more studio LPs — “Leave Scars” and “Time Does Not Heal” — before calling it quits in 1992.
Hoglan previously talked about DARK ANGEL‘s upcoming LP in May 2023 in an interview with Friday 13th. He said at the time: “Jim and I, we had gotten together a number of times to write some new material for DARK ANGEL. And we weren’t able to get it down on tape too much. If DARK ANGELhas any new material, there’s a song that he’s got on there that is pretty darn DARK ANGEL-esque.
“In tribute to Jim, DARK ANGEL‘s new material will have a ton of his spirit all over it — his feel. Whether he actually wrote stuff on the new stuff or not, his spirit is very there. His imprint is felt throughout thrash metal, I feel. Even before I was in DARK ANGEL, I’d see Jim‘s influence on bands. Absolutely. So his legacy will live forevermore in the realm of extreme metal. His style will always be a part of DARK ANGEL, absolutely, big time.”
Asked how the next DARK ANGEL album will compare to the band’s previous efforts, Hoglan said: “Well, I can’t really even comment on the fact that there might or might not be an album yet. But put it this way — if I were to have any new DARK ANGEL material, I would want it to be an extension of where the band is at now and where I’m at now. And I would probably approach the writing of it in a way as if DARK ANGEL never disappeared for a decade, two decades, three decades, or whatever it’s been. It’s just like we just kept doing what we do, and this would be where we’re at right now. Which I would want to be putting out the most savage, heaviest material that DARK ANGEL could. And I’m no slouch with writing psychotic, heavy material. So I would be very, very excited with where DARK ANGEL‘s new material would be.”
Photo by Alex Solca
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