Death Angel Vocalist Mark Osegueda Talks ‘Thrashumentary DVD,’ ‘The Bay Calls for Blood,’ New Album + More

Death Angel's Mark Osegueda was a recent guest on Full Metal Jackie’s weekend radio show. In the interview, the vocalist talks all about the band’s 'a thrashumentary' DVD, 'The Bay Calls for Blood' live disc, a new album + more. Check out the interview below:

First, tell us how the summer was. I know you had some European touring.

It was absolutely incredible. Just got back about a week ago. We did about five and a half weeks all over Europe, only five days off over those five and a half weeks. So we were pretty constant every night. It's our first full-blown European summer tour in about two years, so it went better than expected, a lot of festivals and then some headliners in between. We supported Sepultura for a couple shows and supported Queensryche for a few shows as well. It went great.

Death Angel recently released a thrashumentary DVD, which is basically the story of Death Angel and also includes a live performance. Mark, what’s the most surreal thing about watching your history as a band?

The most surreal? Wow. It's got to be… I really do love watching the early footage, especially us live onstage and just watching us. I knew I loved it then but it just went by so fast so to re-watch it over and see the live footage, it's something else. It takes me back to that club, whether it be in Connecticut, or whether it be in Tilburg, Netherlands, and it reminds me of the shows and how absolutely incredible the times were and how quickly the time seem to fly by back then.

The Bay Area was home to a vibrant music scene that ultimately redefined heavy metal. How would that scene have been different if any of you were conscious of the impact your bands would have on metal?

You know, that's a good question. As far as how would it be different? To a certain degree, I don't even know how different it would be. It was just a no holds barred, us- against-the-world attitude that every band out here had. It was kind of like we wanted to take on everything and abolish what was happening at the time they in the big hair bands of the time.

We just felt like it was done on image and a turbo driven version, a New Wave of British Heavy Metal. We thought it was our personal clique here and then we realized it was something special that was felt worldwide for anyone who was blue collared, needed to get their aggressions out. Our fans were our age so I think all the bands had that attraction and that appeal to the younger generation because we were part of that younger generation.

What make The Bay Calls for Blood the definitive live Death Angel album, compared to Sonic German Beatdown or Fall From Grace?

Well, see the difference is, this one we actually we recorded live with the proper live unit and we mixed it down. We knew we were recording these shows for a live record, whereas Sonic German Beatdown was just basically the audio of that live DVD. We knew there was going to be a live DVD but we took the audio and kind of made it from that particular show that happened in Germany. We didn't go in there knowing it was going to be a live record, but we knew there was going to be a live DVD of the show.

Fall from Grace was literally just an unauthorized release at the time. It was recorded for a radio broadcast back in '88, the Frolic Through the Park tour in Amsterdam. It was maybe two microphones on stage, two microphones towards the crowd and it was great for a radio broadcast but nothing that we wanted to be officially released, where this one has the band's backing and the sound quality is much better; we're very proud of it and we did it in our hometown.

How has revisiting the history of the band affected your creative thought process for the next studio album?

It's nice because it makes me feel much more confident about the direction we've been going in for the last two records. That's pretty much getting much more in tune with our thrash roots, than say, some of the albums that came after The Ultra-Violence. The last two, we keep moving more towards the thrash roots and of course we've grown as musicians since Ultra-Violence and it's taking that excitement and enthusiasm of the whole thrash movement and putting it to what we're writing now. It also helps that we've been touring and we have all this live energy so it makes the songs much more urgent and exciting sounding. It's made us feel like we're on the right path. Looking back at the early stuff gives us that youthful, us-against-the-world-attitude still now.

Mark, much was made about just how young you guys were when Death Angel started. If you could, what would you tell yourself at that age?

Hey don't wear the outfit you wore on the back of Frolic Through the Park [laughs]. Other than that I would honestly say, I would tell myself to stick to my guns and don't pay attention to what naysayers say. Over the years I had people that didn't like my voice back that eventually, years later, now they do. You gotta take your punches if you want to stay around in the later rounds.

What can we expect for the rest of 2015 for Death Angel?

All we have now is writing a new record or in the process of it. We enter the studio Oct. 1 and we hope to be done by the beginning of December, turn that in and have a new product out in spring and start touring like mad... like mad.

You guys have a general idea of when the album should come out?

I'm thinking March, April. I'm thinking we'll probably do one or two shows and before the end of the year, West Coast shows. We don't like to keep our boots too clean for too long.

Many thanks to Mark Osegueda for the interview. Death Angel’s ‘a thrashumentary’ DVD is out now. Full Metal Jackie’s weekend show can be heard on radio stations around the country — for a full list of stations, go to fullmetaljackieradio.com.