Glacially Musical: Concert Review and Photos: Death Angel at The Pageant in St. Louis September 22, 2016

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Concert Review and Photos: Death Angel at The Pageant in St. Louis September 22, 2016

Death Angel's Rob Cavestany

With the evening's lineup featuring three champions of thrash metal; Death Angel, Anthrax and Slayer, the Pageant was sold out. Befitting their place among the heavyweights of the genre, the venue was nearly at capacity in time for the first notes of the opening act.

Death Angel were treated like conquering heroes by an audience who does not get to hear this band nearly often enough. The set list was blistering, furious and intense, but tragically only six songs long.

Death Angel took the stage with an abbreviated version of "The Ultra-Violence" from their debut album of the same name. This segued into a pummeling rendition of "Evil Priest", also off the first album.

Vocalist Mark Osegueda

Bassist Damien Sisson

The next three songs, "Claws In So Deep", "Thrown to the Wolves", and "Left For Dead", were culled from albums released after the band's 2004 reformation. The band fed off the energy of the crowd and was firing on all cylinders. Mosh pits of various sizes formed during each song. The way they owned the stage it was easy to forget these were the openers for the two legendary bands to follow.

Guitarist Ted Aguilar

It was noteworthy the band closed their set not with one of their many classic tunes, but rather with "The Moth" off their new album The Evil Divide released in 2016. This showcased how Death Angel's new material is every bit as relevant as their early output.

Hopefully Death Angel was impressed enough by the enthusiastic crowd to return for a headlining set.

*Check back in a few days to see my review and pictures of the Anthrax set.