Celebrating almost 40 years of Darkness Descends as well as the life of Jim Durkin, who passed away earlier this year, Dark Angel has returned to Manchester for the first time since 1989. The band celebrated a lifetime of groundbreaking thrash and the life of a deeply talented man who left behind an amazing legacy and a legion of adoring family, friends and fans. Schizophrenia also joined the celebrations as support.
The show started with Schizophrenia who played with Cannibal Corpse in Manchester just a few months earlier. Many people still have that short set of death/thrash in their minds, but the rest of the audience gets a vicious introduction.
Schizophrenia are a Belgian band with a clear global influence of thrash and death metal. You can hear pieces of early Sepultura with the cavernous growls, wild erratic flailing guitar solos and pummeling intensity. There’s a bit of black metal thrown in for good measure as ‘Onwards to Fire’ invokes the likes of Triptykon and Celtic Frost with its cold harmonised guitar work. There’s some fantastic guitar work on stage as the first song, ‘Souls of Retribution,’ makes use of some gigantic sweep-picking shapes in between wildly erratic tremolo-picked riffs. The audience was treated with a choice between a Slayer cover and a Morbid Angel cover, naturally, Slayer won because it’s a thrash show and I was pleasantly surprised to hear them play ‘Necrophiliac,’ a deeper cut from my favourite Slayer album Hell Awaits.
The set ended with a track from my favourite band, Morbid Angel. ‘Maze of Torment’ is one of Morbid Angel’s best tracks and Schizophrenia plays it with such intensity that it could rival the original studio version. With any luck, these Belgian boys will be back again soon, perhaps with a headline tour and new music…
After a bit of a break, Dark Angel made it to the stage and you could tell something insane was about to happen as drummer Gene Hoglan began to hit his kick pedals like he was revving up some sort of infernal machine. The set opened with ‘Time Does Not Heal’ and it was made abundantly clear through the madcap speed from Gene Hoglan and the frenzied guitar work of new member Laura Christine and the frenetic energy of frontman Ron Rinehart that Dark Angel still very much retained the heart of thrash metal and the youthful energy that comes with it. “You want it faster?” says Rinehart as the band gets straight into ‘No One Answers,’ a song that inspires the biggest pits, according to Rinehart as he jumps almost headfirst into the pit to help stir up as much chaos as he possibly can.
The set continued with tracks from the latest album, Extinction Level Event, which continues to establish itself as a blockbuster album with all the hype in the world in its buildup. Extinction Level Event and Circular Firing Squad represent some of the last pieces of music with Jim Durkin’s involvement and you can really feel the love and respect for him in the band as Rinehart continues to wax nostalgic throughout the show. “It’s bittersweet that this song is here and Jimmy isn’t” is a brutally honest statement that hits home in a lot of ways.
The beginning of the set was full of amazing thrash but it’s only when Darkness Descends that the true monsters come out. This tour was not only a celebration of Jim Durkin but also a celebration of one of his greatest achievements as a musician, Darkness Descends, an album which has stood the test of time and carved its name amongst the giants of the genre. The legendary trills of ‘Darkness Descends’ are enough to destroy even the sturdiest of necks.
From the very start of the album with the title track, the audience started to wake up and pits started to open as anthems like ‘Hunger of the Undead’ and ‘Death is Certain’ began an unstoppable flurry of insanity and violence that only a Thrash Metal titan could unleash. Rinehart even managed to throw in some gritty death growls into these songs in between the unhinged guitar work and flawless drumming from The Atomic Clock himself, Gene Hoglan.
The bass riff from ‘Merciless Death’ is one of the most iconic intros in thrash history and Mike Gonzalez continues to be one of the unsung heroes of the genre. The rhythm section is truly what holds Dark Angel together, it would be so easy for a band playing at these speeds to completely fall apart but the calm and collected partnership of Gonzalez and Hoglan works miracles.
The set ended with the gigantic ‘Black Prophecies’ and a loud declaration of “everything we do, we do for Jim Durkin”. It’s a bittersweet experience being able to witness a band still playing to the best of their abilities with an audience of young and old paying tribute to a man who did a great deal for a genre we’ve all come to love. With any luck Extinction Level Event will get a release date soon and Jim Durkin will be able to have one last moment in the sun as we continue to celebrate his memory through music.
