There are documentaries about thrash metal, but there are not many about a single thrash metal band. Bay Area (San Francisco, California, USA, Earth) legends Death Angel got one in 2015. While the cover art is simply aversive and bland, and there's not much going on with the booklet either, except for some cool b/w live photography, this tale is way more interesting.

They were about the youngest fellas back in the day with a record out (1987's classic outburst 'The Ultra-Violence'), some 15-18 year old. By 1990 they had a major record deal in their pockets. Tour for 'Act III' basically destroyed the band, even though the drummer Andy Galeon didn't suffer Cliff Burton's (Metallica) tragic fate. There are loads of pictures, some bad-sounding live snippets and not that many interviews from those times. Maybe there was not that much left of old video interviews, or then they were copyrighted or something, but I certainly wanted to see more.

There are some legends from the Bay Area scene, including Chuck Billy of Testament Gary Holt of Exodus, and also couple of Anthrax guys from the East Coast (can you believe, it's Scott Ian on a metal documentary?!?!), throwing some stories. Faces like Jeff Walker (Carcass) and Michael Amott (Arch Enemy) appear only promptly. In all, interviewing outsiders is a bit lacking.

The documentary centers quite heavily on the 2010-2015 period (old times history takes about 1 hour out of 2½ hours). The first run of the band was 1983-1991, so it's kind of understandable, but still it feels that this wants to sell the new stuff. There's a lot of studio work material, a.k.a. Suecof-madness (album producer Jason Suecof), taken from two earlier making of documentaries. There's some good quality live stuff, unsurprisingly.

How is the rewatch value? Basically there's no such thing. The documentary certainly is not bad, but it's far from stellar, too. It could have included all of the band's music videos, for example, but the only extra is 'Mistress of Pain' live video. As it is now, it's only for Death Angel fans, basically.

Talking about live... The +45-minute live CD included as extra does sound absolutely pristine (no 'Fall from Grace' fiasco here - that is the band's 1st live album, recorded in 1988 - but this also kicks 2009's 'Sonic German Beatdown - Live in Germany' out of town). There's some crowd sounds between the songs and reverbing vocals and drums, but the sharp guitars and booming bass sound better than many a studio album (generally meaning). The line-up is simply fucking tight! The songs selection is mainly from 2013 album 'The Dream Calls for Blood' - just like the title 'The Bay Calls for Blood - Live in San Francisco' suggests. I was surprised to find that the live CD was sold also by itself, but why not since it's this good... And if you're not interested in the documentary, then you can grab the live alone.

(The score below is for the documentary alone!)

Rating: 6 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
09/07/2021 13:38