10th Annual Another Death Angel Xmas Shows 2025
- Hectic
- 6 days ago
- 5 min read
Performing Act III in its entirety
December 18 & 19, 2025
The Fillmore
San Francisco, CA
Two sold out nights at the legendary Fillmore in San Francisco just before the holidays, wow. This annual tradition, now in its 10th year, is a Bay Area Thrash Metal community can’t miss event.
I was a little bummed at first that the Xmas shows were changed from 2 nights at the Great American Music Hall, its traditional location (at least since Slim’s closed in 2020). Love the GAMH. But one night at the much larger Fillmore seemed like a good trade, then that sold out quickly, and a second night was added, and that sold out too.
The band talked about what a dream of theirs it was to headline the Fillmore (they had played it before as a supporting act), so that made it pretty special too. Plus when the Fillmore sells out a show, they hand out free posters of the show to everyone on the way out after the show. That is a very cool tradition that I’m not aware of any other clubs copying, and something I very much appreciate as a fan!
So even though the Fillmore pretty much never has metal shows these days (I think the 2 Death Angel shows were their only metal shows in 2025), it is a cool and historic venue, and the huge metal crowd made me feel comfortable alongside all the Jerry Garcia and Janis Joplin posters. 🙂
Ok enough about the venue – I went to both nights. This year the sets were the same except for the encores, due to it being the last 2 nights of a 4 week tour in which Death Angel played Act III in its entirety, celebrating the 35th anniversary of their third album.
Death Angel Setlist
December 18-19, 2025
Both nights:
Act III in its entirety!
Seemingly Endless Time
Stop
Veil of Deception
The Organization
Discontinued
A Room with a View
Stagnant
EX-TC
Disturbing the Peace
Falling Asleep
Humanicide
Cult Of The Used
The Moth
Lost
Territorial Instinct/Bloodlust
Encore for night 1:
Christmas With The Devil (Spinal Tap)
All My Loving (The Beatles)
Electric Funeral (Black Sabbath)
Thrown To The Wolves
Encore for night 2:
Christmas With The Devil (Spinal Tap)
We Can Work It Out (Beatles)
Electric Funeral (Black Sabbath)
Cold Gin (KISS)
Bored
Kill As One
The first night I went with the wife and another couple, so we missed the openers having cocktails in the Boom Boom Room across the street from the venue. And we had to spend some time back in the Fillmore’s giant poster room, getting some drinks and catching up with friends.
Death Angel’s set was electric, they are always amazing live but seeing them at the end of a tour is even better, they are so on their game. And during a hometown headlining show, especially the Xmas shows, we are also treated to frontman Mark Osegueda’s “ted talks” between songs on how Death Angel waves the Bay Area Thrash Metal flag worldwide, and how thankful he is to be part of the Bay Area scene. 🙂
I'm not super familiar with Act III (I know, sacrilege) having only seen Death Angel (and The Organization!) a couple times prior to their 2010 rebirth with Will on the drums. But Act III was great live, a bit more groove / funk / quirky than recent Death Angel albums, which are more straight ahead fast thrash metal.
There was even an acoustic ballad that reminded me of Extreme’s "More than Words" from the same time period. Ha ha. Don’t shoot the messenger, I had a few drinks in me.
After the band played Act III straight through, an impressive feat with quite a few varied songs, the backdrop changed from the Act III cover to a black and white Death Angel logo, and they played 5 more recent favorites, including the single that came out last month, “Cult of the Used.”
Finally the encore, the fun and more relaxed extended kind unique to Death Angel Xmas shows, the band in Santa hats. In addition to backup singers Santa and his two helpers coming on to do Spinal Tap’s “Christmas with the Devil”, the band did their usual Beatles cover, a reference / tribute to the two Christmas shows being inspired by a tradition the Beatles had in their hometown of Liverpool, England. I thought “All My Loving” worked better than “We Can Work it Out”, which is kind of an odd song, but any Beatles song played by a thrash band is something to witness indeed.
From that they went into a Black Sabbath song to pay tribute to Ozzy, and finished it all up with their own "Thrown to the Wolves.” Wow, what a night.
The second show I went with some of my Raiders / Mission District drinking crew, so it is a bit more of a blur (thanks for the setlist, Will). I did catch the openers, who were unfortunately not the bands who had just done the tour with Death Angel – Vio-Lence, Lions at the Gate, and Misfire. That would have been amazing, and preferable IMO, as the openers were an odd match for Death Angel.
I only caught the last couple songs of Damnage’s set. They seemed punk inspired heaviness, though I didn’t see enough to get a good sense of them, other than thinking their cover of the Circle Jerk’s “Wild in the Streets” was kinda boring.
And after a couple of songs by Dümsürf it was up to the poster room for more alcohol. I guess as the name said, they were doom surf, which… I dunno. They were good, would have been a better fit supporting the Melvins in a small club maybe.
Death Angel’s set was once again fantastic, even though much of it was the same unlike some previous 2 night Xmas shows. And the encore stretched a bit longer with Kiss’ “Cold Gin” added to the mix. What a fantastic couple of nights and great holiday tradition Death Angel has going. Amazing.
–Hectic
