Dark Angel @ The Belasco 10-16-25
Articles by "Dark Angel"
Dark Angel’s Extinction Ceases to Exist with an Eventful End to a Tour with Countless Thrash Acts
Support for this tour comes from Sacred Reich, Vio-lence, Hirax, Midnight, and Interceptor. Having caught the tour on the final day of the run in Downtown Los Angeles, at The Belasco Theater, due to heavy traffic on the freeways and street, seeing red as far as possible, getting to the venue late was likely to happen and it did, arriving just in time to catch the third openers thrash titans Hirax!
Hirax have been celebrating their 40 years together, with the release of their newest album "Faster Than Death", they have been playing shows, including this tour for this past year. Tonight's performance may have lacked in a crowd but it did not disappoint. The crowd present still delivered that high angst energy, with so much momentum, everyone there embraced the "word" from the preacher that is Katon, main vocalist and sole original member since the very beginning! Having added some new line-up changes as of late, the new band members, kept the music flowing, nicely, making funny faces throughout. Vocal wise they were solid as always, with the vocalist doing his part interreacting with the fans, and giving his brief "preach" moments saying how this crowd was his and our metal families. If you're into fast and heavy thrash metal then Hirax is it.
HIRAX:
Following them would be Vio-lence, another thrash metal, who I had seen previously, but that performance was good, but tonight's was great! Much more enthusiasm given out. The crowd went insane, mosh pit being non-stop, crowd surfers going even crazier, with the band themselves, just giving it their all. So much energy it felt unreal at times, the performance felt that intense yet along so great. Truly another act to check out, to get that overflowing experience of good old thrash metal antics.
VIO-LENCE:
Wrapping up the evening would be the remaining acts next up Sacred Reich, another thrash metal band, whose energy was as intense or crazy, but more mellow yet fast thrash, if that makes any sense. The music was fast, it made everything work well together. You just felt more emotion when catching these guys live. The mosh pit felt like it was moving but not as intensely as previous acts. It felt more enjoyable or rather easy going, their thrash metal styling being edgy to say the least.
SACRED REICH:
Ending out the night would be Dark Angel, who I had never seen but heard of and after tonight, it was so worth it. Having waited so long for their newest album to release, let alone for them to tour again, this night would be one to remember.... Opening up with Slayer's "Reign in Blood", then an introduction of their own material, the rest broke out into new works, old classic working's, it felt never ending. The vocalist even got into the crowd quite a bit, joining in with the mosh pit, did some talks about our metal family, it was so much fun, and felt just goofy at times too. Like a never ending happiness energy that kept everything and everyone there intact. The band kept in check with one another, vocals sounded fierce, it just all pieced so well, it made it fun!
DARK ANGEL:
In the end, it was a thrash filled evening, with nothing but thrash metal acts, that kept that intensity and momentum going. If you weren't headbanging or dancing about, then you got engulfed with the music one way or another and it felt good.
Dark Angel Announce First North American Tour in Decades
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West Coast thrash metal legends Dark Angel will embark on "The Extinction Level Event" North American Tour this fall, their first domestic trek in over three decades.
Dark Angel’s first North American tour since the early 1990s celebrates their forthcoming comeback album, Extinction Level Event (Reversed Records), their first new album since 1991.
Formed in 1981 – the same year as Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Mercyful Fate, and Sodom – Dark Angel earned a devoted cult following as pioneers and architects of the burgeoning thrash metal sound. The genre-defining We Have Arrived (1985), Darkness Descends (1986), Leave Scars (1989), and Time Does Not Heal (1991) helped shape a musical movement alongside their peers.
Renowned for their ferocity and precision, the band’s signature blend of speed, technicality, and intensity made them beloved by headbangers around the world, as evidenced by the t-shirts and patches brandished by fans in the years since the band’s original run. The blistering “Circular Firing Squad” gave the thrash faithful another taste of the new album when it dropped last month. It followed April’s release of the title track, written by late co-founding guitarist Jim Durkin.
“Musically, lyrically, and vocally, I’m so stoked about this album,” says Gene Hoglan, the iconic drummer and “Atomic Clock” who powered classic albums and tours by Death, Testament, Strapping Young Lad, Fear Factory, Dethklok, and the all-star Death tribute, Death To All.
Dark Angel’s modern line-up features classic era members Hoglan and guitarist Eric Meyer; bassist Mike Gonzalez, vocalist Ron Rinehart, and the latest addition, Laura Christine, who first performed with them in 2022. “I’m really excited about Dark Angel right now,” Hoglan says. “And everyone who’s heard the new album is losing their minds.”
Support acts for The Extinction Level Event North American Tour vary by date, boasting a diverse blend of metal styles: Sacred Reich, Hirax, Vio-Lence, Midnight, Void, and Interceptor.
The forthcoming Extinction Level Event was produced and engineered by Rob Shallcross and mixed by Mike Fraser (AC/DC, Metallica, Rush) at The Armoury Studios in Vancouver, BC.
TOUR DATES (Support varies – see key below):
Sept 5 – San Diego, CA – House of Blues#
Sept 6 – Ventura, CA – Ventura Theater#
Sept 7 – Mesa, AZ – The Nile Theater#
Sept 11 – Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall#
Sept 12 – San Antonio, TX – Vibes Event Center#
Sept 13 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater#
Sept 14 – Baton Rouge, LA – Chelsea’s Live#
Sept 16 – Tampa, FL – The Orpheum#
Sept 17 – Ft Lauderdale, FL – Revolution#
Sept 19 – Richmond, VA – Canal Club#
Sept 20 – Charlotte, NC – The Underground#
Sept 23 – New York, NY – Gramercy Theatre#
Sept 24 – Harrisburg, PA – Capital City Music Hall#
Sept 25 – Baltimore, MD – Baltimore Soundstage#
Sept 26 – Worcester, MA – The Palladium#
Sept 27 – Montreal, QC – Club Soda#
Sept 28 – Toronto, ON – Phoenix Concert Theatre
Sept 30 – Norwalk, CT – District Music Hall%
Oct 1 – Pittsburgh, PA – Spirit Hall%
Oct 2 – Cleveland, OH – House of Blues%
Oct 3 – Chicago, IL – Reggies%
Oct 4 – Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theater%
Oct 6 – Denver, CO – Oriental Theater^
Oct 7 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Depot^
Oct 8 – Boise, ID – Shrine Social Club^
Oct 10 – Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theatre^
Oct 11 – Portland, OR – Roseland Theater^
Oct 12 – Seattle, WA – El Corazon^
Oct 15 – Berkeley, CA – UC Theatre&
Oct 16 – Los Angeles, CA – The Belasco&
# with Sacred Reich, Hirax, Void
% with Sacred Reich, Hirax, Interceptor
^ with Sacred Reich, Vio-Lence, Midnight, Interceptor
& with Sacred Reich, Vio-Lence, Hirax, Midnight, Interceptor
DARK ANGEL Returns - Debuts New Track
Dark Angel have returned with the spine-shattering Extinction Level Event, their first album of original material since 1991’s colossal Time Does Not Heal.
“Musically, lyrically, and vocally, I’m so stoked about this album,” says Gene Hoglan, the iconic drummer-of-all-trades and timeclock behind almost too many influential metal groups to count – Testament, Dethklok, Strapping Young Lad, Fear Factory, and Death graduate tribute band, Death To All. “I’m really excited about Dark Angel right now, and everyone who’s heard the new album is losing their minds.
The single "Extinction Level Event" will debut on Liquid Metal with Jose Mangin April 10 and is scheduled for release April 11, 2025 via REVERSEDRECORDS.COM as well as all digital online platforms.
The title track “Extinction Level Event” was written by guitarist Jim Durkin a decade ago, long before he suffered from severe liver disease, and, to the surprise of everyone, passed away in 2023. “Jim Durkin left us with this badass tune,” Hoglan says. “It is so Dark Angel and I'm just so excited about it. We made it the lead-off song on the record, not as a tribute to Jim or because of sentimental reasons – like, here is the song that Jim left us – but because it’s just a totally killer song. He wrote it ten years ago, and by today’s standards it’s still ball-crushing.”
Fast and aggressive, “Extinction Level Event” is as fierce and infectious as Dark Angel’s best songs and features the band’s heralded bombastic riffs and vocal structure.
