Death Angel don’t merely hit the stage, they attack it with an energy that, if bottled, would put Red Bull out of business. They are the ultimate overcaffeinated punk band, with the additional noteworthy asset of being able to play their instruments. With feeling and a whole hell of a lot of thrash-bashed attitude. If you haven’t seen them perform live as yet – and you’ll have plenty of opportunity this year to do your homework – the band’s new DVD Sonic German Beatdown offers a showcase of what you’ve been missing. It’s anything but a stopgap effort, however, with Death Angel still riding high supporting Killing Season anywhere and everywhere they can while gearing up to begin work on their next record. Guitarist Rob Cavestany will tell you there truly is no rest for the wicked, and he and his bandmates prefer it that way because no matter how well Killing Season has done up to this point there is always room for a bit more push and shove.

“I have to be honest with you, Killing Season hasn’t really exceeded my expectations because I definitely set high expectations for our workload at the start,” Cavestany says of his initial hopes for the album. “We anticipated doing a lot of work for this album and we’re doing just that. We’re sticking to the plan as much as possible. I think we’ve done almost 100 shows for the Killing Season up to this point, so that’s pretty good for a year, but we’re still going strong. We’re going back out this summer to support the album.”

With miles of touring already logged and more ahead of them, there’s a sense of Death Angel trying to make up for lost time given the gap between Killing Season and The Art Of Dying, not to mention the extended hiatus between Art and Act III.

“We’re trying to, yeah, because there’s definitely lost time in there as far as our music goes,” Cavestany agrees. “We’re definitely not getting any younger and time’s not going any slower, so we want to be out there doing this as much as possible.”

Killing Season was, quite naturally pegged as Death Angel’s best release of their career, as all new albums usually are. Having lived with the material for well over a year now, has the shine faded at all?

“That’s a good question. As far as how I think of the album and how much I like it, that’s still the same. If anything, I’m bummed that it’s a year later and we haven’t been able to push other individual songs off the album because I think Killing Season has a lot more life in it. There are a lot of other tracks that weren’t really highlighted that I was hoping we’d get to do another video for or release as a single, so maybe with this upcoming tour and the release of the DVD we might be able to push a little more from the album. As far as the attention span it gets from me, it’s starting to be pushed back into part of our history because I’m turning my attention to writing stuff for the next album.”

The fact that Death Angel has been able to stay out on the road for over a year in support of Killing Season is an indication of label support, but as Cavestany points out it’s rather odd they haven’t swiped another track off the album for official release. He’s philisophical about the seeming lack of motivation by the label rather than angry, however.

“I think it has to do with the state of the industry and the world in general. Budgets are tight and everyone is trying to survive. If there was an endless budget going on we’d be working it. From our point of view all we can do is stay out on the road as long as possible to push the album.”

And while Sonic German Beatdown can be seen as a means to this end, there is a far less business-oriented reason for putting it out.

“The main thing for us about putting the DVD out is to get it out there for the fans because in our entire career we don’t have one official live DVD or video cassette,” says Cavestany. “I think we’re the only band in the world that hadn’t put one out and we’ve been around since the days of VHS (laughs). It was way past due to have something documented and officially released. I know there are a lot of Death Angel fans around the world that have never seen us play live, so this is a chance for those people to get a look at the band in our full fury on stage.”

Therein lies the charm of Sonic German Beatdown. It’s big and natural, no bells or whistles or MTV audio-visual Botox to make it larger than life. Death Angel only need instruments and an audience to pull that off.

“We didn’t have a massive budget to work with to where we could have created a total audio-visual experience, recording multiple shows and editing in the best performances to have a perfect display of a concert situation. These shows were filmed and they were rockin’, so this has a raw, practically unedited what-you-see-is-what-you-get kinda vibe. The Rock Hard Festival show (2007), we definitely set up to film it with the idea of doing a DVD. That was one of those things where we flew in and out for that one show, so we only brought guitars. We didn’t have any of our normal backline and amps, no soundcheck, so we were a little bit limited in what we were able to do. The Killing Season tour set from Adelsheim (2008), that was one of those nights where the camera was rolling but we had no plans for the footage. It was filmed just so we’d have something. I forgot we were even filming that night. That show is more of a fly-on-the-wall perspective of us doing a club show. It’s raw because we’re not a band that’s so successful that we try to make a DVD that seems raw to try and get street cred or something. It’s raw because that’s the best we could do (laughs).”
“Production-wise the DVD was done within the budget we had to work with to give the fans as much value as possible for your money,” adds Cavestany. “I think from a fan’s point of view the DVD / CD package is really cool. From an artist’s point of view I think it’s cool, too – and not to discount it – but I’d really like to do something with a much bigger production in the future. Mind you, coming from us you’d like ours (laughs).”

Sadly, Sonic German Beatdown marks the end of founding bassist Dennis Pepa’s tour of duty. Pepa left amicably in October 2008 and has since been replaced by Sammy Diosdado, former bassist for The Sick. Asked how he and his bandmates are dealing with the change, Cavestany is candid with his feelings on the matter.

“It’s as good as it can be for something that’s definitely not all good as far as I’m concerned. I mean, we’re literally brothers from Day 1, so… it sucks, to be quite honest with you. If it was up to me it wouldn’t be this way but at the end of the day it’s as good as it can be. There are a lot of reasons for Dennis leaving, but just figure it out for yourself. We’re not getting any younger and there’s a lot of sacrifice going on to keep up the pace with this band and our plans for the next year. Not everybody is able to stay in the Boys Club forever.”
“It’s weird,” he continues, “but it’s something we just need to deal with, get over it, make the best of it, and eventually embrace it. I’m glad to say we’re at the embracing part of all that, so it’s killer. When you go through that change it’s definitely a shock, but at the same time Sammy kicks fucking ass. He slipped right in there and he’s got a really good style that’s not too far from Dennis. We definitely tried to pick somebody that would fill those shoes with a similar vibe. Sammy is a punk rock kinda guy and he’s got that real fucking raw and aggressive energy. He fits in great with the family and we’re excited to have him with us. Plus he’s got that New Guy youthful vigour, which is always good to have around.”

Prior to recording the last album, Cavestany released an acoustic album entitled Lines On The Road. In his last interview with BW&BK; he admitted that getting his acoustic demons out enabled him to focus on creating the band’s trademark thrash-happy mayhem for Killing Season. Is it a formula that will be used prior to recording the next record?

“Honestly I’d like to do that,” says Cavestany, “but there isn’t going to be enough time for it because we’re not resting between any of this. We’re touring and writing and touring, and as soon as we’re done with touring we’re going to be back in the studio doing our next album. All my writing attention is going to new Death Angel stuff, which is fine because I’m totally in Death Angel mode and excited about getting into new songs with Sammy. In a perfect world, yes, I would write another acoustic album. The funny thing about that is, when we got back from Australia our original guitarist Gus (Pepa) – he’s the guy I jam and write a lot the acoustic stuff with – gave me a call. I hadn’t seen him in about two years, so we talked and then he showed up at my house, and in about an hour we had our acoustic guitars on just jamming away.”