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If you are a thrash metal lover, you have probably been longing for a new Dark Angel, for longer than you can remember, and it seems such a long wait might come to a happy ending soon. In a recent video message from the studio, drummer Gene Hoglan shared an exciting update: “Hey, everybody. It’s your big buddy Gene here, and I just wanna let you know that I just finished the drums to the new Dark Angel record. It’s coming.”
How long has Dark Angel been working on new music?
Back in May, Hoglan revealed in an interview with Rocking With Jam Man that he had been diligently working on projects that he believed would greatly please Dark Angel fans. Hoglan emphasized the importance of not announcing anything prematurely and ensuring they could stick to a solid release date. “So, everybody, just sit tight,” he said. “I just don’t wanna nebulously announce something and then have circumstances beyond my control come along and make things delayed. I just wanna be able to be able to say, ‘Yes, this is gonna be a solid date that we can announce for people, and we’re gonna be able to stick to that date.’ That’s what I’m all about. So, keep your eyes and ears peeled, everybody.”
When asked about creating new music for Dark Angel after more than three decades since the release of their revered last album, Time Does Not Heal (1991), Hoglan reflected on the journey. He mentioned that an entire album had been written and ready for recording after Time Does Not Heal, but the band dissolved due to unforeseen circumstances: “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.”
Revisiting the idea of new material with late guitarist Jim Durkin led to an exciting collaboration: “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.”
Hoglan acknowledged Durkin’s significant influence on his writing style. Despite not having many riffs from Durkin, his influence remains a crucial element in the new work: “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 are 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.”
What will new Dark Angel sound like?
Hoglan‘s added that he aims to craft a kick-ass metal album, drawing inspiration from the mindset of Dark Angel continuously evolving over the past three decades: “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.”
Jim Durkin passed away at 58 years old in March of last year. He played in Dark Angel between 1983 and 1989 and was in the band once again between 2013 and present day. Durkin performed on Dark Angel‘s albums We Have Arrived in 1985, Darkness Descends in 1986, and Leave Scars in 1989.
