Death Angel: Relentless Retribution (2010)

After being blown away by some of the recent Death Angel releases after their reformation, in particular their 2019 album Humanicide, I decided to dig a little bit deeper into their music.  I targeted this one first because it was the first of the "Wolf Trilogy" and the only one I had not previously owned.  It made it a necessary pick-up.

I am probably going to repeat myself quite a bit in my praise of this album.  A lot of the things that make this album great are also present on Humanicide.  And let me be clear, these albums are indeed great.  Death Angel is one of the few thrash metal bands from the 1980's to reform and actually be BETTER than they were previously.  The band has always been noteworthy for having a terrific vocalist and an exceptional lead guitarist and, if anything, their respective skills have improved significantly, which is really saying something. 

There are some oddities here.  There is an acoustic guitar interlude performed by the famous flamenco guitarists Rodrigo y Gabriela.  And "Volcanic" is a rare ballad for the band.  Death Angel did these a little more often in their first incarnation, but have moved away for the most part, preferring relentless aggression (see "Death of the Meek"), though they remain capable of softer moments.  It is just rare for them to stretch it into an entire song any more.

I really think there is an argument to be made for this album being Death Angel's best.  The heavy tracks are truly monstrous and the lighter tracks are extremely powerful.  This is as consistently amazing as this band has ever been.  For a long time, they were kind of afterthoughts in the Bay Area thrash metal scene, but they have had a truly impressive second career that has catapulted them into the conversation with Exodus as the best the Bay Area has to offer.  And yes, they are better than Metallica now, that's just plain obvious.