It took the arrival of drummer
Gene Hoglan to elevate
Dark Angel above the uncultivated noise fests captured on their amateurish first album,
We Have Arrived; and in many ways, their follow-up 1986 release,
Darkness Descends, represents the group's true debut. From the very first crushing riff of the title track, it becomes obvious that the production values and technical discipline which had eluded the band the first time around would be brought screaming into focus on this album -- still considered a minor thrash metal classic. To be fair,
Dark Angel only had a few tricks at their disposal, but they execute them extremely well. The results are a number of largely one-dimensional, but surprisingly memorable headbanging classics, including "Merciless Death," "Death Is Certain, Life Is Not," and the vicious "Perish in Flames." Over eight minutes in length, "Black Prophecies" at times sounds like a forced experiment, but it's actually the group's first stab at the progressive thrash style which would characterize subsequent releases. Under
Hoglan's supervision,
Dark Angel would spend the next two years refining their sound to achieve just that, but for many purists,
Darkness Descends remains the band's definitive thrash statement. [Reissued by Century Media in 1998 with two bonus live tracks and much improved sound quality,
Darkness Descends is a worthy discovery for committed thrashers.]