Death Angel "Act III": [Bleeding Priest's Bay Area Metal Spotlight #8]

Bleeding Priest
Apr 29
4 min read

What’s up, metalheads, and welcome to a very special edition of Bleeding Priest's Bay Area Metal Spotlight. Why is it special, you might ask? Well, I’m going to tell you.

Today I’m discussing my favorite Death Angel album. And it may not be the one you’d expect — because it’s not one of the albums I played on. Act III is my favorite Death Angel album.

That always surprises the hell out of people when I tell them. Usually, folks expect me to pick one of the albums I played on, or The Ultra-Violence, which is most people’s go-to when they name a favorite Death Angel record. And yeah, I love that one too — but Act III is special in so many ways.

Let’s start with the production. It’s the best production Death Angel has ever had. Max Norman produced it. I challenge you to name a poorly produced album by Max Norman — it doesn’t exist. Even if he produced a record for a band whose songs weren’t great, it still sounded killer. The guy’s got the Midas touch. Everything he works on just sounds like gold.

And Act III? This album sounds like a million bucks. I don’t know what the actual budget was, but it sounds like a lot of money and time went into it. It’s just a marvelous-sounding record — especially the drums.

Let’s talk about those drums. I think this is Andy’s best performance on any Death Angel album. He really stepped up for this one. There was a lot of rehearsing, rewriting, scrapping songs, going back to the drawing board — and it shows, especially in the drumming. The fills all make sense, and everything is so well thought-out. The snare sounds killer, and the drum tones overall are just awesome.

Compare that to Frolic Through the Park. I’m not saying the playing is bad on that one, but the drum sound is kind of cheap in comparison. Act III is a huge step up in production and execution. I love it.

And it’s not just the drums. Mark sounds awesome on this album — definitely a step up from the first two records. Maybe he took some vocal lessons, I don’t know for sure, but it sounds like he did. His voice is much stronger here. And Rob’s songwriting is absolutely next level.

Everything about this record just hits. Even the album cover is cool. And here’s something you never see anymore: original back cover artwork. These days, most albums just blow up a portion of the front cover for the back — like the corner of the painting or something. But not Act III. It’s a completely separate piece of art, and I wish more bands still did that. But I get it — it costs money. This album came out when labels were still throwing money at bands. It was released on Geffen Records, for Christ’s sake. That was as big as it got in 1989 or 1990.

I saw this tour at The Warfield, with Forbidden opening. They were touring for Twisted into Form. Amazing show — first time I ever stage-dived!

I’m really excited that we’ll be playing Act III in its entirety at our Christmas show this December 18, 2025 at The Fillmore. I’ve already played most of this album live, but I think there are three songs I haven’t done yet: “Discontinued,” “Stagnant,” and “Room with a View.”

“Room with a View” is going to be a challenge — a full-on ballad. I’ve only done a ballad like that with one other band, Scarecrow, and I’m not even sure we played that one live. There are three-part vocal harmonies on “Room with a View,” and I might be singing on it too. I’d like to give it a shot. It’ll be a real challenge, but I’m looking forward to it.

Death Angel in 1990, when Act III was released.

One funny thing about Act III — it’s got some funk thrash moments. And look, a few weeks ago on my Mordred spotlight, I said I wasn’t into thrash bands mixing in funk. And honestly, I wasn’t a fan of the funk elements on Act III when it first came out. But this album is just so damn good, so strong and so near-perfect, that I overlooked it. It’s not like there are full-on funk songs, just moments — a slap bass line here or there. I can live with that.