153 lines
8.5 KiB
Plaintext
153 lines
8.5 KiB
Plaintext
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DEATH ANGEL
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A fan who won a pair of tickets to Death Angel's December 1 show
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at Oakland's Omni called the club to confirm just prior to the show,
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and got a recording that told him that due to an accident, Death Angel
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would not be able to play. Death Angel not showing up for a hometown
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gig is absolutely unheard of; this had to be BAD...
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I visited guitarist Rob Cavestany in his San Francisco flat
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two weeks later, to learn the straight dope on this and other matters
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pertaining to the band. Although he remembers every detail of their
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accident and the hours after, and has been badly shaken by the ordeal,
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he's recovered enough to be able to whip out an acoustic guitar and
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sing me a rather beautiful song he wrote, inspired by a Christmas Ale
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called Winter Welcome.
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The band was on the last leg of a short tour of the Southwest,
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leaving a gig in Tucson and headed for one in Las Vegas in their RV.
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Cavestany recalls: "We were in the middle of absolute nowhere, in the
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desert, when at about 7:30 in the morning the driver lost control of
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the RV and we went off the road into a ditch. The RV flipped on its
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right side and slid for 175 feet. Andy [Galeon, the drummer] was
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sleeping in the back, and he landed on his head on the window, which
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shattered."
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"We were all groggy because we we'd just had about three hours
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sleep. We got up and were checking out that we were all ok. We
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started smelling gas and so we climbed out the window over our heads,
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because the RV was lying on its door. We wrapped Andy in some
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blankets and passed him up through the window then we sat by the road
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to wait for the paramedics to come."
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"It was so far out in the middle of nowhere that it took an hour
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for the paramedics to get there. They told us when they heard it was
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an RV wreck they figured there'd be bodies strewn everywhere - RVs
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tend to just go to pieces in a wreck. We'll never tour in one of
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those again!"
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"They took Andy in a helicopter to a hospital in Las Vegas. We
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took turns staying in the hospital with him, so he'd have company."
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Although Galeon had extensive injuries on his upper face and head, his
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sight and hearing were unaffected and he recovered rapidly and went
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home a week and a half after the wreck. His brain, always an
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important organ, was mercifully unchanged - when I called him a few
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days after he got home, he was talking and laughing exactly as he
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always has done. In fact, he couldn't wait to get back to playing and
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touring, and agrees with the rest of the band that the first order of
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business is to play the Bay Area dates that they had to miss because
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of the accident.
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"We were all set up to record a live album at the Omni show"
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Cavestany relates. "We'd been intending to do a live album for some
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time now, and we have to do it at a home date. We'll record the shows
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when we get a chance to play them. Who knows, maybe it just wasn't
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meant to happen then, maybe we would have played terribly or
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something." And put out a terrible live album, eh? "We already have
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a terrible live album." Huh? Cavestany looks at me and dives over
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the side of the couch to get a tape from the table. "You haven't
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heard about THIS? Look at this!"
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It's a Death Angel live tape, on Enigma. Brand new, titled "Fall
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From Grace", recorded live at the Paradisio, Amsterdam, 9 July 88,
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featuring songs from the band's two Enigma releases, "The Ultra-
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Violence" and "Frolic Through The Park". But Death Angel left Enigma
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more than a year ago in a flurry of lawsuits, and signed with Geffen,
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who put out their latest record, "Act III". So how can this be?
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"I don't know!" sputters Cavestany, gesturing wildly, "I have no
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idea how they thought they could do this. It's completely illegal!
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We always have input and final approval of every aspect of every
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record, from the playing and production right through to the album
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cover art. We didn't even hear about this until we saw it in the
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store! It sucks! The production is terrible, the vocals fade in and
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out, the thing starts out with us tuning up onstage! And that's a
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great title, too, huh - 'Fall From Grace'? What do you think they're
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implying by that? To top it off, we found that in a record store in
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Tucson, and later that night - BAM!"
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What a shitty day... Wierdest of all, the band had just hours
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before the crash been joking about how they would have to have a major
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calamity like a wreck to get any publicity for "Act III". "In all the
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years we've been touring, we've never talked about crashing, it's like
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a voodoo thing to bring up" says Cavestany.
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The other issue besides the accident that everyone wants to know
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about is why the new single and video, "Room With A View" has been
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released under the initials D.A. rather than the name Death Angel. "I
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can't believe there's so much controversy about that" Cavestany says,
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rubbing his head thoughtfully. "We didn't think people would pay that
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much attention to it. We've been calling ourselves D.A. for years
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now, anyway. And Death Angel is a name - you know, we started this
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band 8 and a half years ago, when we were in our early teens. It fit
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us then, but now it's so restricting."
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"The name Death Angel seems to imply hardcore thrash gloom-and-
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doom death metal, and we're not like that at all. If I were presented
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with 10 records, and one of them was by a band called Death Angel, and
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I'd never heard of them, I'd stick that one on the bottom! We keep
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the name for continuity's sake, but D.A. fits us better."
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So will the next album be released as Death Angel or D.A.? "I
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don't know. It's really hard to say anything right now. We had just
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been making all these plans for the future, ideas about where we
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wanted to go from here, and then we got in the accident and now - who
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knows? In a way, it made perfect sense to have a major accident right
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now, it really fit the story line. We've been pushing so hard for 8
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years and just not getting that far, and getting so frustrated with
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not being where we should be after so long, it was time for something
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climactic to happen! I don't know, maybe we just aren't a good band,
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is that it?" Huh! If Death Angel is a lousy band, I'd better quit my
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job as a reviewer, cause that would mean I have no taste... And what
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about the audiences who sell out their shows and go flat out belly-up
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apeshit whenever they play, even when the shows are barely announced,
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let alone publicized?
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Speaking of which, the fan who called the Omni on December 1 and
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heard that Death Angel didn't play wound up staying home. But over a
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thousand people filled the club that night for a hastily arranged
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benefit show for the band. Forbidden played a blistering set in honor
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of their friends and touring partners, and Kirk Hammett and Jason
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Newstead - with the readiness to lend a hand to bands they like that
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has always characterized Metallica - jammed on a bunch of Motorhead
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covers with members of Heathen and Tesla. Strips of butcher paper
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were tacked to the walls for friends and fans to scribble get well
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messages to Galeon - "Hey dude! Keep Rockin!" and so forth.
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No problem there - everyone in the band is itching to renew the
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attack on the consciousness of the world. After they get back onstage
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in the Bay Area and make the GOOD live album, they have a Japanese tour
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planned with Loudness in March, and then hopefully become
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international superstars by sometime in the Summer... If this is "Act
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III", you sure as hell can't say the play ain't been fraught with
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drama...
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- Sadie O.
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X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X
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Another file downloaded from: The NIRVANAnet(tm) Seven
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& the Temple of the Screaming Electron Taipan Enigma 510/935-5845
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Burn This Flag Zardoz 408/363-9766
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realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510/527-1662
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Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 801/278-2699
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The New Dork Sublime Biffnix 415/864-DORK
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The Shrine Rif Raf 206/794-6674
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Planet Mirth Simon Jester 510/786-6560
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"Raw Data for Raw Nerves"
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