At the age of, say, 12 or 15, when you’re playing in a band, it’s for fun, and not for the money. Probably dreaming of honour and glory, seeing yourself becoming the hero of the day on a big festival stage… but that’s about it most of the times. It turned out slightly different for the five young Philippine thrashers annex nephews of Death Angel as they got thrown from one adventure into another in the mid-eighties. They were facing huge success at a very young age, with the two strong albums “The Ultra Violence” and “Frolic Through The Park” behind them. Everything fell apart though after the fabulous album “Act III”. The band went through a lot of name changes, while in the end no one really knew what was going on anymore. The band leader Mark Osegueda tries to explain what happened.

“Yeah, those band name changes… When at the end of the eighties death-metal became very popular, our band name turned out to be a disadvantage more and more often. So we decided to rename the band to The Organization. In the end, it doesn’t really matter! When we started the band, we were all very young, and many beginning bands run into their misfortune because they don’t have enough experience to know the tricks and traps of the music industry: the legal aspects, the organisational aspects, and so on. And when you meet someone who has the experience that is required, it’s mostly too late and the damage is done. So there we were, very young and ignorant, but incredibly enthusiastic! That turned out to be a very dangerous combination. We were offered a contract in which, as the future would learn, were written things that we never should have accepted. We dragged them along during the whole career of the band, and eventually they caused the end of the band. At a certain point in time you start to make some money, and although it was never the main goal of the band, you still need it in order to survive, just like any other band. At some point we had to spend all our cash we gained on lawyers, lawsuits and procedures, and that was not exactly what we had in mind for it. During our participation in Death Angel, we were looking forward to each gig or the next rehearsal. On stage we played our asses off, and when we came off the stage we had to face the same shit over and over again. At a certain moment it starts to affect you, mainly mentally, and then the rest suffers from it as well. The thing that finally switched the balance to the negative side was a tour bus accident. That was the moment when we gave it up, for good. The rest of the band decided to continue under another name, The Organization, but I had become totally fed up with the music industry so I decided to quit the whole scene. I wished them all the best, but I got a huge burnout, I couldn’t find the energy to continue anymore.”

The final goodbye was released in the shape of a weak live album, “Fall From Grace”, with an – if I may say so – awfully bad sound!

“I agree, and that’s what really pisses me off! That album was recorded without any participation of us. We got no royalties either, because those are owned by another company, I think Enigma Records. So that was one of those lawsuits in which we had to spend our money. The original intention was to record a limited double live-album, together with Geffen. Everything was planned in detail: the budget was correct, the shows were booked, a mobile recording studio arranged. Enigma Records somehow found out about it, and one night in 1989 we played in Paradiso for a local radio station, which broadcasted live gigs. That was not a problem as such, but we only had 4 microphones, 2 for the stage and 2 for the audience. So we played our show, but the master tape was given to the above-mentioned company, although the radio station knew of our plans to release a live album by ourselves. Shortly after came the release of “Fall From Grace” and a courtroom became the arena. We even missed a part of the cash return of the album. One more setback, one more reason to put an end to the band.”

And what did you do after the split? Did you have enough of the life of a musician?

“I was so bitter at it that I wanted to leave it behind me for good. I moved to New York, lived for a year in Europe… But after some time the feeling came back. I just couldn’t live without music! Once you experienced what it means to play live on a stage, it is extremely difficult to keep your distance from it. So I had to do something related to music, without making the same mistakes of the past. Together with a couple of friends I met in New York, I started the band Silver Circus. We couldn’t find a bass player however; imagine that in a city like New York! We then decided to relocate our activities to San Francisco. We found the right guy for the bass guitar immediately there. It also put the balance even again: 2 guys from “The Big Apple” and 2 from “Frisco”. We made a demo and were managed by the guys who did Primus at that time. A number of proposals were denied, keeping in mind the experiences of the past, and we continued in our own way with our “art rock thing”. After a while I quit again, because it didn’t go the way I wanted it. Let’s just call it the nature of this beast. I have an outspoken opinion, am a social and in-your-face person. Especially on stage. My fellow band members had a more “Velvet Underground”-attitude there, while I just cannot pretend, it’s as simple as that. The reason for the split was not only those musical differences, but also a kind of social problems, if you want to put a name on it: drugs. It was once again a shot in the dark.”

How long was it since your last time in Europe?

“My last performance here was in 1990. Make no mistake, since the split of Death Angel I have been constantly involved in music, but always for pure fun. I didn’t want to leave my mark or go to the bottom of everything anymore. Consider the young age I had when the music virus bit me: you hear your first record, go to your first live gig, and see those guys perform! I said to myself: “That’s what I wanna be!” My life took a decisive turn at that time. I had a goal I wanted to reach. In the beginning everybody thought it was just a passing phase, but they were wrong. I started my own band, we scored a record deal, were excited like kids, and then comes reality all of a sudden and you hit the wall real hard. Over here they say: “Business gets them all”, and that’s the horrible truth. I was utterly disappointed, but I kept making music in spite of everything.

Metallica’s Kirk Hammett has always been a good friend of mine. I lived together with him for 4 years, and every time we started a party with for example other bands who had been on tour with us, we began to jam in his studio for nights on end! And every time I got the urge again to put together a real band. At those times I called Rob. As a rule, I only saw the other guys with Christmas and New Year’s Eve, but the mutual understanding was still very good. I got to the point right away, telling him I wanted to make music again, that I had written the best songs with him. It was the best thing that could happen to us, and should it still go wrong we would be able to sit and laugh about it when we were old and wise. Strange enough, Rob suggested to let Death Angel rise from the ashes, so we decided to call the other guys. We got together, had a drink, and decided we were entitled to a re-examination. Except for Gus, who wasn’t in for it apparently, we started rehearsing. Everything went rather well, but yet it was not the same as before. The mood, the vibe, the playfulness of the early days was missing. Not everybody seemed to be heading in the same direction, and the reunion apparently came a little early. At that time Dennis and Andrew played in another band. Meanwhile Rob and I had written some new songs, and after a while Andrew joined us, while Dennis had an acoustic project going on with Michael Isaiah, now the bass player of Swarm. After some time Swarm started to move on. We wrote more songs all the time, did some loose gigs, recorded a first demo and started to bloom in the San Francisco scene. Then all of a sudden we met Jerry Cantrell, the singer/guitar player of Alice In Chains, but at that time already playing solo. He was about to go on tour. We decided to join him across the States, but released our EP before that.”

And then the ball must have started rolling…?

“Indeed! Unfortunately two less pleasant events pushed us into the right direction. Chuck Chuldiner’s (RIP) tumour and Chuck Billy’s cancer were two awful medical facts, leaving the doctors pretty powerless at that time. As you probably know, a benefit festival was organised with a lot of successful Bay Area bands of the eighties performing live. It was in fact Bob Rock who contacted us, asking if we were positive towards a Death Angel reunion show. Of course we agreed immediately and that was the start of a new era. A lot of Bay Area bands had not been performing in years, but nearly all of them accepted the offer without thinking. The mutual solidarity was huge too. We just ended a long tour with Swarm and we had no more than 2 days to practice our set list. I must admit that I was the only one who was suspicious about this thing coming to a good end. I didn’t have a lot of faith in it. But once we hit the stage everything changed completely. The atmosphere was like magic, something I had never felt before! It was as if we were standing before a huge, locked gate, which was thrown, open suddenly, after which we gave it all we could facing this enormous crowd. And when the show was finished, we knew that Death Angel had risen from the ashes! Most of the songs we played were of “The Ultra-Violence” album and the crowd went insane! So then we were making plans for the future, and when we got the offer to play at Dynamo, we planned two warm-up gigs in Sacramento and in San Francisco, both in California. Both were sold out immediately, and we got a tremendous response, unforgettable! Tonight’s show here in “De Effenaar” should have a similar impact as well. We’ll do the best we can. It is the first time, though, that we get to play a double set in one night: first Swarm, then Death Angel. It’s a unique experience for us as well. Fortunately, we found an excellent replacement for Gus in Ted. It’s a remarkable thing that the person was replaced, but the instrument remained the same: Ted bought Gus’ guitar when the first stopped playing. So we will use the same instruments as before. We get the respect now that we didn’t get in the past. If you consider the age differences of the audience tonight! Our crowd unites different generations who passed our music onto the next. Absolutely great! We split up in the middle of a tour, so now we have the opportunity to make up largely for that to the people who missed us back then. This party show will be as “ultra violent” as we are!”

And after this, will you deactivate everything again or will you keep the two bands going?

“Hard to tell right now. The public demand will tell us what to do. Death Angel was always our priority and it will stay that way. Of course we spent a lot of energy in our other projects. Swarm uses Death Angel a bit like a springboard, to force a breakthrough, and we will see where it will bring us. I want to tell that I’m proud of Death Angel’s music, honestly. There was a time when I reacted too bitterly to everything that has happened in the past. I had serious doubts about our reunion, but now the satisfaction is very big. We rediscovered the enthusiasm of the early days, and that’s not only due to the reunion or the shows. It also has to do with the way of playing, the sound and the presence. Altogether it makes us feel really great. It’s better than ever. We walked separate roads for years, but now we’re reunited and stronger than ever!”

Should Death Angel release a new album, how would it sound? I mean if you look at the early Testament and you compare it to the band of today… Thrash metal has many faces!

“There’s no way I can give you an answer to that, for the simple reason that I lost track of the developments in the thrash scene. Don’t ask me to compare the new Testament to the old, because I quite simply haven’t heard the new yet! Furthermore everything went so fast. After the end of our tour and the two rehearsal days, we went on to Holland where we are now, standing before you. After all this touring you’re just longing to get home again. We didn’t even talk about such things. We’ll see, for now we just enjoy these wonderful moments.”

How different is the way of composing between Death Angel and Swarm?

“Completely. The first Death Angel record was written mainly by Rob and Andy. We just recorded and released the material we had at that time. After that we all started writing like hell, ending up with 30 songs between which we could chose. We caused a big vibe in the underground, so we had a good feeling about it. The problems that caused us to split were of another nature. In Swarm we write the songs during rehearsals and jam sessions. There is no predefined scheme or composer. It’s very open, not too technical and above all free.”

Majors don’t really care about metal. Will you release possible future work through Geffen or more likely through a small independent label?

“The size of the label doesn’t matter. Geffen is probably not an option. In fact it doesn’t even matter which music you play. But keep your eyes wide open! Try to find out what they have in mind with you. As positive as it goes on stage, as negative it goes when you’re off stage. When the stage performance starts to suck and look shitty, it’s time you pull the plug. Make sure you excel on all fronts, and they will fear and respect you. Then the label you’re under is irrelevant. I want to play, not plead!”

As a conclusion, may we assume that we will see you again soon?

“Sure as hell! Music and performing live is what I like to do most. We’ll see under which formula, only Death Angel or with Swarm as well. That will depend on our contract, the promotion, the sales and the feedback of the audience. We even have plans to re-release our old albums! To conclude, I just want to thank you for the years of support in good and bad times, and for the easy comeback we could make. Don’t get fooled by our aggressive name, we love our fans! You respect us and we know that! And the respect is mutual, and what better place to prove that than on stage? God bless each and every one of you! Thanks for everything and see you later.”