Dark Angel at Buenos Aires: darkness descended to Uniclub

Last Friday, March 21, Dark Angel made its debut in Buenos Aires. They have been one of the greatest and more aggressive Thrash Metal bands back in the late 80’s and part of the 90’s. Their influence on the genre is undeniable, even Metallica’s Lars Ulrich admitted to composing the “One” breakdown being “a little” inspired by the “Darkness Descends” intro… maybe, more than just a little 
40 years later, Argentina were blessed to be part of their tour.

Uniclub, a well-known venue for this kind of show, plugged in the distortioned guitars early in the afternoon, because there were a bunch of amazing local bands to watch perform before the Angel arrives.
The first band was supposed to start at 18.30, but everything in the schedule suffered a delay. 30 minutes later, Zarkas, a young Thrash Metal band, hit the stage. With a classic 80’s Metal sound, they showed us some of their skills in their fast songs.

I recently found out that the son of Jorge Moreno (guitar player and founding member of Serpentor, a legendary Argentinian Thrash Metal band) plays in Zarkas.
Because of that delay at the beginning, every band had to cut off 1 or 2 songs from their setlist.
The next band was Frantic, which seemed to play better with each passing show. They’ve been earning a lot of fans, you could easily see people singing their songs around you, and the first big mosh pits appeared on their set.

The following band, Manifiesto, is another well-known band in the Metal scene. They’ve been playing for over 25 years.
Their set was pure violence and velocity, and they left the stage proud to announce that their next gig will be at Teatro Flores being the supporting act for Kerry King from Slayer.

The last local act came from Tungsteno, and everyone in the crowd sang their songs and opened up circle pits. They are easily one of the bigger names in the local scene nowadays, and their performance was just amazing and sounded so tight.

It was time for Dark Angel, the crowd was already on fire from the last 2 hours of local acts. But everyone seemed to regain energy as the curtain opened up and we got to see Gene Hoglan on the drums making an inverted cross with their sticks and just playing double strokes as fast as hell while the other guys appeared onstage.

The first song was “Time Does Not Heal”, Ron Rinehart was on fire on vocals. The sound was at a high volume, but it was easy to recognize each instrument. 

“Never to Rise Again” and “No One Answers” came to the set, both from the iconic album “Leave Scars”, followed by “The Burning of Sodom” from “Darkness Descends”. 
It is true that the band suffered a departure in the 90s and reunited just a decade ago. There was no new material since the departure. So, almost the whole set focused on their iconic 4 albums “Darkness Descends”, “Leave Scars” and some of “Time Does Not Heal” and “We Have Arrived”.
But surprisingly, Ron announced a new song, that was just making its debut in Buenos Aires, haven’t been played before.

We all got very hyped and anxious about what was about to come. The new song was titled “Extinction-Level Event”, and it has the same quality as their stuff from the golden era. People rapidly got caught by the tune and started the first mosh pit for that song. Dark Angel will remember this live debut as a glorious one.

Going back to the iconic records, the following songs were “Merciless Death”, “The Death of Innocence” and “Death Is Certain (Life Is Not)”. And… another new song? Yes, it is! The track titled “Circular Fire Strikes” appeared on the setlist. It looks like we’re close to getting to listen to a new record from Dark Angel after more than 30 years.
Eric Meyer, guitar player, and founding member, was every time giving picks to the crowd and clashing fists with the ones in the front row. He looked like he was having a really good time. 

More than once throughout the set, Ron took the time to remember their fallen brother Jim Durkin, the other founding member and guitar player, who passed away 2 years ago. Ron said that they keep it as a band to honor his legacy.
Now Laura Christine is in Jimmy’s place onstage, she’s Gene Hoglan’s wife.

I guess he’s happy to have his wife by his side at least with one of his bands, he’s outside the home a big part of the year touring with his other bands haha. 
Jokes aside, Laura’s an amazing guitar player, and Gene’s in his real band, the one that he wrote riffs and lyrics for. He can play in a lot of bands as a session musician. But Dark Angel will always be HIS band.
The next songs were total classics: “Hunger of The Undead” and, of course, “Darkness Descends”.
After that, the band was supposed to leave the stage for the encore. But Ron said, “It’s our first time in Argentina, we won’t make you scream for us to come back, we’re staying here and playing the last 2 songs for you”. And that’s where “We Have Arrived” and “Perish in Flames” were played to finish this amazing setlist on top.

Photos by Damian Muñoz

Review by Agustin Lopez

Produced by Icarus Music

Press Marcela Scorca