413. Death Angel / Frolic Through The Park. 1988. 3/5

Death Angel, pretty much all minors when they recorded and released their first album “The Ultra-Violence", as is recorded for posterity on an episode in Season 3 of this podcast, had enjoyed an enormous and swift rise to the top of the thrash metal tree in regards to fame and popularity. The band had gone on tours supporting bands such as Exodus and Voivod and the exposure brought them greater and more widespread attention than they had ever had before.
The band returned to the studio in March 1988 to record their follow up sophomore album. What has been interesting in retrospect is the band’s thoughts on what they produced, and its part of the band’s legacy. Most of the members of the band, but especially Mark Osegueda and Rob Cavestany have been highly critical of the album, with their problems generally stemming from the sound and production. In the band's documentary A Thrashumentuary, Cavestany referred to Frolic Through the Park as both their "bastard album" and an "odd album". This perhaps explains somewhat why the band has rarely performed the majority of the album's songs live since their initial disbandment in 1991. There is no doubt that it had to have been a rushed 12 months that preceded the writing and recording of the album, especially for a new band on the rise. But these were the days when an album a year was expected by record companies, so the fact that it has been suggested that the album was not properly produced in the studio isn’t that irregular. What also came from these sessions was a tinkering with the sound of the songs from the first album. Whereas that album can be classified as thrash metal from start to finish, that is not generally the case here on “Frolic Through the Park”, where the songs do have a distinct difference throughout, and with other influences coming into their style, there are a couple of surprises to be found.

Released barely a year after their debut, “Frolic Through the Park” is an album that polarises Death Angel fans. To be fair most fans still enjoy it even if the band themselves are less than excited. I’m not sure that the band believes this to be a bad album, but it does have a feeling of being rushed. And yet, despite this, it also shows a great deal of development and maturity in the songs, incorporating elements of funk that would flow through to their next album as well.
“3rd Floor” opens with an interesting sound bite, but then the band arrives with all guitars blazing, and we kick off in great style. So far, so good. From the very beginning, despite the band’s future protestations, the better production is evident from the start compared to their debut album, and with it a few more risks in the music also being taken. “Road Mutants” is powered by a satisfying bass rumble from Denis Pepa and “Why You Do This” continues that theme, though it does feel like it is heading in several directions at once.
Guitarists Rob Cavestany and Gus Pepa cited U2’s The Edge as a major influence when recording this album and you can definitely hear shades of his playing. It’s an interesting decision really for a couple of thrash metal guitarists to suggest this influence on what they were writing and playing for the album, and changing it up, even if ever so slightly, so soon into their recording career is a brave move. ‘Bored’ amps up the funk, a song that was released as a single and had the video that got heavy rotation on MTV’s “Headbangers Ball” at the time, but it seems a strange one to have put out. For me, it is one of the less interesting songs on the album. "Devil’s Metal” is a CD only bonus track that is slotted onto what was the first side of the album on vinyl, but it does finds the doing what they do best and sets them back on course.
"Confused” is a whole different brand of metal altogether, almost devolving into death metal rather than thrash, with a brooding piece of music that is a full on genre swap (not a gender swap). Even today it is a difficult song to tie in as a Death Angel song. It soaks up seven and a half minutes while barely getting into second gear before the back end of the song. “Guilty of Innocence" returns us somewhat to a more normal standard of transmission, while “Open Up” in places sounds like 1970’s Black Sabbath, but in other still utilises that guitar sound the band was looking for on this album. “Shores of Sin” has definite elements of the next album, a progressive feel that I like even though it was unusual for the band at the time.
The cover of Kiss’s classic “Cold Gin” just feels like filler material. It’s not a bad cover, but it again is a changing up of the style of music on the album. It plays like a B-side which it would have been perfect for, not a main track on the album. It is more or less a carbon copy of the original, with the band failing to put any of their own mark on the song, which would have made it a much better option. The futility of this is proven by the next track “Mind Rape” where the energy and heaviness returns to overshadow what came before it. At least this closes the album is a better style than would have been the case.

I initially came into Death Angel on their third album “Act III”, so it wasn’t until after I had digested that album that I went back and discovered their first two albums. And it would be fair to say that while I loved “The Ultra-Violence", there was a fair amount of disappointment that went into my thoughts on “Frolic Through the Park”. And I don’t know the full reason why that is. Perhaps I expected too much of it, on the back of the brilliance of “Act II” and the sheer unadulterated thrash joy of “The Ultra-Violence". Perhaps I am unable to reconcile the fact that this is a next stepping stone in the band’s development, and that I am missing something here that others find obvious to them. Whatever the reason is, for me the flow of the album is all wrong, that the songs don’t interconnect as well as they do on those other two albums, and indeed on albums going forward in the next century on the band’s rebirth. It was never something that I could nail down to an absolute reason, it was just the way I felt. The fact that, in retrospect, the band aren’t particularly joyous about the album, or that of the people I have discussed this band with over the years, THEIR opinion of the album has been mixed, does give me thought that perhaps I am just sitting in the majority when it comes to “Frolic Through the Park”.
Having spent the past couple of weeks listening to the album once again, and read over my initial review of this album on my blog from almost 20 years ago, nothing much has changed in my mind. I don’t hate this album, but I don’t have the same animated joy that I have when listening to their debut album, or third follow up album to this, or the albums on their comeback in the 2000’s. Like Black Sabbath’s “Seventh Star”, this is an album by a band that seems to be out of alignment with their other releases, and garners a wide ranging opinion with a gap the size of the Grand Canyon separating them.