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Bay Area legends Death Angel were just kids when they started out, but their extreme talent made them the band to look out for. After releasing The Ultra-Violence in 1987 things looked extremely bright for the band. The next year they dropped Frolic Through the Park but it didn't live up to the hype of their debut album. The bands third album Act III showed another side of the band and the album became quite popular in more mainstream circles. The musical landscape were changing and at the same time the band crashed their tour bus, which injured drummer Andy Galeon so much that he needed a year to recover.

Their record company Geffen dumped the band when they didn't want to recruit a new drummer. The band decided to fold and some members started the band The Organization. Death Angel reunited for the Thrash of the Titans concert in 2001 as a one-off show, but the band decided to keep going. Since then Death Angel have re-established themselves as one of the most popular thrash bands of today with albums like: The Art of Dying, Killing Season, Relentless Retribution, The Dream Calls For Blood and The Evil Divide. This is the biography of Death Angel:

THE BEGINNING (1982-1985)

Death Angel formed in San Francisco Bay Area, California, in 1982 by cousins Rob Cavestany (lead guitar), Dennis Pepa (vocals and bass), Gus Pepa (rhythm guitar) and Andy Galeon (drums). All of Filipino descent. When they formed the band they were just kids and drummer Gus Pepa was only ten years old at the time of the bands formation. In 1983 Death Angel recorded their first demo Heavy Metal insanity with some help from producer Matt Wallace. Their first demo was more of a heavy metal demo inspired by bands like Tygers of Pan Tang and Iron Maiden. In 1984 Mark Osegueda joined the band (also a cousin).

His first gig with the band was when Death Angel opened for Megadeth in 1984. During the following years the band practiced, played live and started writing more songs. In 1985 Death Angel recorded their second demo titled Kill As one, with Kirk Hammett of Metallica as their producer, they've met Kirk at a record store signing and he lived in the area. The three track from the demo would later end up on the bands debut album. The Kill as one demo was a success and it led to gigs in Los Angeles and New York even before the band had an album out.

THE ULTRA-VIOLENCE (1986-1987)

After the success with the Kill as one demo the band got in contact with Enigma Records. The band signed a deal and their debut album The Ultra-Violence was recorded in two days during the summer of '86 and released on the 23rd of April in 1987. Guitarist Rob Cavestany was the bands main songwriter and he wrote all the songs on the album with some help from the others. The album was recorded when all members of the band still were teenagers and drummer Andy Galeon was only fourteen years old when the band recorded the album. The Ultra-Violence was a huge success and Death Angel established themselves as one of the leading bands of the second wave of thrash that blew in over San Francisco in around 1987-1988, Alongside Testament, Heathen, Forbidden, Vio-Lence and Defiance.

The title of the album was taken from Stanley Kubrick's 1971 movie A Clockwork Orange. Death Angel recorded a music video for the song Voracious Souls, The lyrics in the video was too offensive for MTV so they decided not to play the video. The album was produced by Davy Vain whom also produced the bands next album Frolic through the Park.

FROLIC THROUGH THE PARK (1988-1989)

The band continued on and recorded the follow-up Frolic Through the Park in March of 1988 and the album was released in July the same year. The bands second album showed a more diverse side of Death Angel and perhaps a more mature side to, but the new album lacked some of the wild intensity of their debut album so it scored some mixed reviews even if Loudwire Magazine has hailed it as one of the better thrash albums from the eighties. The band used the same producer Davy Vain for this record. The band recorded a video for the song Bored, which got some airtime on MTV. The song was also used in the horror movie Leatherface: The Chainsaw Massacre III. The album also included a Kiss cover; Cold Gin. After the release of the album, Death Angel went on their first worldwide tour to promote it.

THE THIRD ACT (1989-1991)

In 1989 Geffen Records bought out Death Angel from their contract. Death Angel eventually became label mates with Nirvana. That would go on and change the face of rock music. On Act III Death Angel had a bigger budget and Max Norman was hired to do the production. Max had previously worked with Ozzy Osbourne, Megadeth and Savatage to name a few. Act III was recorded in late 1989 and released on the 10th of April in 1990. Act III showed up an even more diverse side of the band than Frolic through the park.

The band mixed acoustic numbers with fast thrashers and the band even decided to include elements of funk. Act III became the bands first and only release on a major label, the band recorded videos for the songs Seemingly Endless Time and A Room With a View. The album scored mixed reviews, some claim it to be the bands best work and others thought of it as a sellout album. In the summer of 1990 Enigma Records released the live album Fall from the Grace without the bands input. Due to the label changes the bands logo was stripped from the album cover.

In 1991 the band went on a worldwide tour to support their new album and the band played sold out shows at the Warfield in San Francisco, The Ritz in New York and Hammersmith Odeon in England. Death Angel was also booked to be part of the "Clash of the Titans" tour with Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax. But while driving to Las Vegas for a gig the band were in a terrible bus crash and drummer Andy Galeon was seriously injured. Andy needed more than a year to fully recover but Geffen Records couldn't wait for his recovery and they pressured the band to hire another drummer and immediately go back to work.

Death Angel performed a few shows in Japan with drummer Chris Kontos but in the end they decided that they wouldn't go on without Andy Galeon. So Geffen dropped the band from their contract. Then Mark Osegueda decided to leave the band and move to New York and now the band stood without a drummer, vocalist and a label so the remaining guys decided to fold the band after playing a few acoustic gigs around the area of San Francisco. So the Clash of the Titans tour was cancelled for Death Angel and Alice in Chains took their spot and gained a worldwide recognition, which became the start for the grunge takeover in the 90's.

POST BREAK-UP (1992-2000)

Andy Galeon fully recovered and the remaining Death Angel members minus Mark Osegueda reformed under the name The Organization (Name taken from a track on their third album). Rob Cavestany took over the vocals. The Organization was not really a thrash metal band, instead they were more of an alternative rock band with funk influences. The band toured the States and Europe, opening for Rob Halford and Motörhead. The Organization released two albums; The Organization in 1993 and Savor the Flavour in 1995. The albums were distributed by Metal Blade Records. The albums didn't sell and Dennis Pepa decided to leave the band and The Organization folded.

In the late nineties Mark Osegueda, Rob Cavestany and Andy Galeon joined forces in a band called Swarm, they released two EPs at the time. But Swarm came and went rather unnoticed.

THE RETURN (2001-2004)

In 2001 the benefit show for Chuck Billy was held and bands like Vio-Lence, Exodus, Forbidden, The Legacy and a bunch of others took part. Which led to a comeback from many of the old bands from around the area of San Francisco's Bay Area. The band agree to reunite for the benefit concert but Gus Pepa couldn't be a part of the reunion so the bands longtime friend Ted Aguilar filled in on the guitars. The benefit concert was a huge success for Death Angel and the band decided to to a few more gigs around the area and the ball went rolling and in 2004 Death Angel played Wacken Open Air in Germany.

In 2004 the band signed a deal with Nuclear Blast and their comeback album The Art of Dying was released in May of 2004.

RE-ESTABLISHING THE BAND (2005-2017)

In 2007 Death Angel recorded Killing Season in Dave Grohl's studio and it was released in February of 2008. They recorded a video for the track Dethroned. Later in 2008 founding member Dennis Pepa announced that he would leave the band and in early 2009 the bands friend Sammy Diosdado joined.

In early 2009 another founding member left the band, this time it was Andy Galeon and he was replaced by Will Carroll (Vicious Rumours & Scarecrow). Newcomer Sammy Disodado was replaced a few months later with Damien Sisson.

In the autumn of 2010 Death Angel went to Florida to record Relentless Retribution. The album was released in September and it was the bands first album without Andy Galeon, Gus and Dennis Pepa.

In 2013 the band released This Dream Calls For Blood. The album landed at #72 on the Billboard list. They also reissued their debut album The Ultra-Violence.

In October of 2015, Death Angel entered the studio once again. In May of 2016 Death Angel released their eight studio album titled The Evil Divide.

HUMANICIDE (2018-2022)

In 2019 The band released their Humanicide album but due to covid the band had to cancel a lot of their shows.