Death Angel, Sacred Reich and Angelus Apatrida: A Thrash Metal Lesson From Here to Eternity (2023)
Performers: Death Angel / Sacred Reich / Angelus Apatrida
Venue: Ljubljana / Cvetličarna / Slovenia
Date: Tuesday, November 7, 2023
At last, Slovenia has had another proper thrash metal day — following the June Testament and Voivod ritual — a day back to the very cradle of the genre! The cult Bay Area thrash metal act Death Angel returned to Ljubljana, in the company of the no-less-legendary Arizona thrash metal legends Sacred Reich. A decibel-powered ritual you absolutely cannot miss!
Funny enough, both bands last played here (on separate tours) in the same year. That was four years ago, specifically in 2019, when Death Angel stopped by Orto bar in mid-June, while Sacred Reich followed them to Orto bar in mid-November. This time the two bands joined forces on a shared tour dubbed “Night Of The Living Thrash”. Even though Death Angel — after 2000 and their reactivation — have become regular visitors to Slovenian stages (they’d played a combined eleven times in Tolmin and Ljubljana before this return to Cvetličarna), Sacred Reich first played Ljubljana back in early October 1990. Back then they stopped by Festivalna dvorana with Atrophy (the day before they played in Zagreb, the day before that in Belgrade)! Ironically enough, that same year Death Angel called it quits (they returned in 2004 with The Art Of Dying). The fact that this Cvetličarna visit was only Sacred Reich’s fourth show in Slovenia doesn’t stop them from feeling like a rare treat around here — let’s call it a very attractive kind of concert exclusive. In 2016 they played Tolmin and Metaldays for the first time. Staying with the stats and records of heavy metal’s concert history on Slovenian stages for a moment: the tour’s support act, the excellent Spanish quartet and new-wave-of-thrash-revival standard-bearers Angelus Apatrida, can almost match Death Angel in sheer number of shows played here — and with half the years of existence. We know all three bands very well, and on top of everything, 2019 feels like it was yesterday.
Angelus Apatrida have been incredibly busy in recent years. In 2021 and 2023 they put out Angelus Apatrida and their current eighth overall album, this year’s Aftermath. The band is remarkable — they’ve always operated with an unchanged lineup, led by the powerhouse tandem of brothers Guillermo (guitar, vocals) and José J. Izquierdo (bass), with drummer Victor Valera and guitarist David G. Álvarez rounding out the quartet. They made full use of every minute of their 40-minute slot, delivering a finely-tuned thrash metal grinding machine with a vivid walk in the footsteps of the genre’s most influential acts — the old-school tricks and phrases of Megadeth, Testament and Exodus kept coming to mind. Guillermo, who may have picked up a kilo or two over the years of club visits to Slovenia, maintains an incredibly sharp vocal form — genuinely convincing when he shakes out the rage and his voice goes raucous, venomous and savagely furious, and just as effective when he shifts into a cleaner, more musical mode. The sound was solid across the board — and we’re talking about an opening act here — and the band ignited a real opening fire with their storming set, sending the crowd — still filling in at the time — into a frenzy. They have no shortage of tightness and confidence, and it was precisely this performance dynamic — venom-laced riffs rolling with infectious aggression and razor-edge sharpness — that set the temperature and the atmosphere at Cvetličarna perfectly for Death Angel’s arrival.
One more reflection. Angelus Apatrida are considered one of the hardest-working bands in the thrash metal revival. They burst onto the scene around the same time as their generational peers Havok, Evile, Warbringer and (the ever-shifting) Striker, yet all of those bands managed to reach a wider audience in roughly the same period of activity. Perhaps the equally-talented Angelus Apatrida drew the short straw on that one simply for being Spanish.
Death Angel. Most of that evening’s crowd came to Cvetličarna first and foremost for Death Angel. The notable surge in numbers was down to visitors from the regions south of the Kolpa river, which meant only one thing: a surge of hot-blooded temperament and emotions to spare! And as the crowd collided with Death Angel’s blazing set, through some extraordinary chemistry, the little devil himself was summoned right up from the underground. Death Angel are known for the extraordinary magnetism they build up during a show. Once they’ve established that fierce stage energy, they become virtually unstoppable. Even after more than 40 years they remain untamed stage stallions — with guitarist Rob Cavestany and vocalist Mark Osegueda, the original members of today’s lineup, coming across as bona fide youngsters hungry to prove everything. The quintet has operated with the same lineup for years and fires on all cylinders, both in the studio and on stage. A run of top-tier old-school thrash metal albums (the latest, Humanicide, came out in 2019) and relentless touring keeps Death Angel in exceptional vital form. The crowd hadn’t forgotten the Orto bar show from 2019, and it was exactly that energy they’d come back for. Anyone who’s ever seen Death Angel live knows what that means — they’re simply one of the most convincing acts of their generation in thrash metal, always delivering their very best on stage. And this time was no different. The band charged relentlessly and lashed the hungry crowd without mercy. Through an hour and twenty minutes of a brilliant set they covered virtually every studio album in their catalog. They kicked things off at full force with Lord of Hate, taken from Killing Season (2008), bringing the track back to the live repertoire after ten years. From there, Death Angel expertly escalated their show with practiced ease — right after the opener they pressed on relentlessly, tightening the grip of acerbic, biting thrash metal blasphemy, and with Voracious Souls blasted the crowd straight back to their debut The Ultra-Violence (1987).
Osegueda once again proved himself one of the most infectious frontmen in thrash metal. Not only did his massive voice work monstrously well, but he was back to showing off some athletic acrobatics, constantly reaching out to fans in the front rows — and with his between-song addresses he kept stoking the crowd until they were eating out of his hand. Despite Mark talking more than usual between songs, the show moved with extraordinary momentum. The band didn’t let us breathe. The sound was great! Mark was a little harder to hear in the front rows, but further back the sonic picture was more optimally balanced. Add to that drummer Will Carroll’s striking new performance, underpinned by the rock-steady bass lines of Damien Sisson, and that rounds it out perfectly. And the razor-sharp, tightly synchronized riff machine-gunning of the Cavestany/Aguilar guitar partnership remains a story unto itself. This time Death Angel tacked a The Art Of Dying classic onto the closing number from The Ultra-Violence — the prickly, utterly contemptuous and lethal Thrown to the Wolves — and delivered their final uppercut.
When you catch Death Angel live — a band with over 40 years on the clock — you know thrash metal hasn’t aged one bit and that the beast is still hungry and thirsty for blood. The band feels eternally young. At the end, Osegueda promised that Death Angel would be back — and with a new album in tow. At the same time, with the crowd’s extraordinary response, the band could barely bring themselves to say goodbye. Well, at least that’s the feeling they gave off.
Sacred Reich took the stage third. Another outfit of biblical proportions when it comes to thrash metal. The quartet today features two original members: bassist and vocalist Phil Rind and lead guitarist Wiley Arnett (well — if Dr. House and Ian Anderson had a son together, his name would almost certainly be Wiley Arnett), with the lineup rounded out by seasoned and highly-regarded drum master Dave McClain (known for his work with Machine Head) and young (primarily rhythm) guitarist Joey Radziwill. Sacred Reich also took a break between 2000 and 2006, then reactivated and maintained at least a live touring presence for years — until we finally got their fifth studio album Awakening in 2019 (Rockline review). By the time Sacred Reich took the stage, the crowd had thinned a little — clearly some people had come first and foremost for Death Angel — though Cvetličarna was still enviably full. That’s not surprising. Even though they’re contemporaries, both bands are very much their own, quite distinct musical beasts. And at least it was a little easier to breathe. The mosh pits kept coming throughout — just as during Death Angel, there was even an unsuccessful stage dive attempt (with a rather hard landing). Sacred Reich packed an hour and fifteen minutes with material from their remaining five albums — excluding Heal (1996) — plus, of course, the obligatory Surf Nicaragua EP. Rind, who suffered a serious respiratory infection in March 2022, had clearly found excellent vocal form again. His clean, authoritative voice still shakes and grabs you when he digs into his unrelenting delivery. McClain, set up with about half as many toms as Carroll had before him, delivered extraordinary accuracy and precision throughout — and didn’t neglect the twin kicks. Arnett in his role as lead guitarist remains reliably solid in performance, while the bristling young Joey fit in excellently, bringing the most kinetic energy to the frontline during the set. Naturally, material from 1988 to 1993 dominated in abundance, with Sacred Reich weaving in three tracks from their latest album Awakening.
Dead serious and full throttle. Even though Rind, as bassist, is largely anchored to the microphone stand, the classics Love…Hate, One Nation, Ignorance, Free, Independant…. had the crowd completely under their spell. When Sacred Reich launched into The American Way (which the vocal crowd had been demanding repeatedly throughout the set), then followed it with the Black Sabbath cover War Pigs — which stoked the already overheated crowd even further — they signed off with the big closing detonator, the iron-clad setlist classic Surf Nicaragua, putting the finishing touch on a more-than-excellent performance.
“Night Of The Living Thrash” then! Nothing more, nothing less. Exactly what the tour name commands. Pure, primal old-school thrash metal energy — a manifestation and an execution that makes you want to do it all over again immediately! Or put it another way: anyone who wasn’t at Ljubljana’s Cvetličarna that evening definitely must have gotten themselves seriously lost somewhere!
Written by: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Photography: Aleš Podbrežnik & Edita Klemen
Angelus Apatrida:
1. Bleed the Crown
2. Snob
3. Indoctrinate
4. Cold
5. Give ‘Em War
6. Sharpen the Guillotine
7. You Are Next
Death Angel:
1. Lord of Hate
2. Voracious Souls
3. Seemingly Endless Time
4. Buried Alive
5. 3rd Floor
6. I Came for Blood
7. Disturbing the Peace
8. The Dream Calls for Blood
9. The Moth
10. Humanicide
11. Relentless Revolution
12. Truce Play Video
13. The Ultra-Violence / Thrown to the Wolves
Sacred Reich:
1. Divide & Conquer
2. Love…Hate
3. One Nation
4. Ignorance
5. Manifest Reality
6. Free
7. Salvation
8. Who’s to Blame
9. Independent
10. The American Way
11. Death Squad
12. War Pigs (orig. Black Sabbath)
13. Surf Nicaragua
