Extinction Level Event (Dark Angel album)

Last updated

Extinction Level Event
Dark Angel - Extinction Level Event.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedSeptember 5, 2025
RecordedJuly 2024–February 2025
StudioArmoury Studios, Vancouver, British Columbia [1]
Label Reversed Records
Producer
Dark Angel chronology
Decade of Chaos
(1992)
Extinction Level Event
(2025)
Singles from Extinction Level Event
  1. "Extinction Level Event"
    Released: April 11, 2025 [2]
  2. "Circular Firing Squad"
    Released: June 6, 2025 [3]

Extinction Level Event is the upcoming fifth studio album by the American thrash metal band Dark Angel. Due for release on September 5, 2025 on Reversed Records, [4] it will be the band's first studio album since 1991's Time Does Not Heal , and their first since 1985's We Have Arrived not to be released on Relativity Records (or its subsidiary label Combat). [2] [5]

Contents

Extinction Level Event will also be Dark Angel's first release with guitarist (and drummer Gene Hoglan's wife) Laura Christine, following the death of Jim Durkin in 2023, to whom the album is dedicated to. [6] Durkin receives posthumous songwriting credits for some of the album's songs, including the title track, as they were written prior to his death. [7]

Background and production

The album's origins date to 1992, when Dark Angel began writing and recording demos for their fifth studio album under the title Atrocity Exhibition. However, the album was left unfinished and abandoned when the band broke up in September of that year. [8] [9] By the late 1990s, Dark Angel had received numerous offers to reunite, the most lucrative coming from a headlining European tour in 1999 with Ancient Rites that was scrapped for logistical reasons. [9] The band officially reformed in 2002 for a series of shows, one of which saw Dark Angel open for Kreator and Destruction; [10] the lineup for this reunion featured guitarists Eric Meyer and Jim Durkin, drummer Gene Hoglan, vocalist Ron Rinehart and bassist Danyael Williams. Plans were made to embark on the "Darkness Returns" tour during the summer of 2003, with a possible new album to follow, the former of which was cancelled due to Rinehart suffering a severe spinal injury in an accident. This resulted in the band's second disbandment. [9] [11]

Dark Angel announced their second reunion in October 2013, this time featuring the Leave Scars lineup. [12] In November of the following year, Hoglan revealed that he and Durkin were working on "super awesome and super aggressive" material for a new album. [13] In a February 2017 interview with KNAC.com , Hoglan confirmed that he had "five or six songs ready to go" and described the new material as "the youthful energy and aggression of Darkness Descends with a little bit of what we were doing with Time Does Not Heal and some cool-ass Leave Scars thrown in." [14]

Progress on new material from Dark Angel remained slow for over half a decade, due Hoglan's schedules with Testament, Death to All and other projects, as well as the band members living far apart from one another and wanting to take their time with perfecting the material. [15] [16] [17] [18] In a February 2019 interview with Agoraphobic News, Hoglan stated that Dark Angel had "5 or 6 songs on the go" and that their fifth album would be released "by the end of this year or by 2020." [19] More delays were encountered until January 2022, when Hoglan (who had recently left Testament) revealed that the band was "moving forward" with writing a new album and they were intending "to be in the studio before the end of this year." [20] Hoglan later stated the album would likely be released in 2023. [21] [22]

Durkin, who had been inactive since 2020 due to personal matters, died on March 8, 2023 at the age of 58. [23] The surviving members of Dark Angel decided that the band was going to continue in Durkin's memory, with Hoglan's wife Laura Christine replacing him, and announced that their upcoming fifth album would be released in 2023 or 2024 and also serve as a tribute to Durkin. [6] [24] [25] [26]

On July 25, 2024, Hoglan confirmed in a video message posted on social media that Dark Angel had begun recording their fifth studio album and he had "just finished the drums to" it. [27] They released a video teaser for the album via social media on March 19, 2025, confirming that it would be released later in the year on Reversed Records. [28] Two days later, the band debuted two new songs, "Circular Firing Squad" and the album's title track "Extinction Level Event", during a performance in Buenos Aires. [5] They performed the same tracks two days later in Santiago, Chile. [29] The band revealed the artwork for Extinction Level Event in April 2025. The album's title track was released as a single that same month, [2] followed in June by its second single "Circular Firing Squad". [3] The release date and track listing of the album were revealed on August 18, 2025. [4]

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."Extinction Level Event"4:16
2."Circular Firing Squad"4:30
3."Woke Up to Blood" 
4."Apex Predator" 
5."Sea of Heads" 
6."Atavistic" 
7."Scaler Weaponry" 
8."Scarface the Room" 
9."E Pluribus Nemo" 
10."Terror Construct" 
11."Extraction Tactics" 

Personnel

Dark Angel

Additional personnel

References

  1. 1 2 "DARK ANGEL Bassist Brushes Off Criticism Of Comeback Song: 'I'm Proud Of What We've Done'". Blabbermouth.net. April 14, 2025. Retrieved April 14, 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 "DARK ANGEL Reveals Cover Artwork Of New Album, 'Extinction Level Event'". Blabbermouth.net. April 1, 2025. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  3. 1 2 "DARK ANGEL Releases Second New Single, 'Circular Firing Squad'". Blabbermouth.net. June 6, 2025. Retrieved June 6, 2025.
  4. 1 2 "DARK ANGEL's First New Album In 34 Years, 'Extinction Level Event', Gets Official Release Date". Blabbermouth.net. August 18, 2025. Retrieved August 18, 2025.
  5. 1 2 "Watch: DARK ANGEL Performs Two New Songs During Buenos Aires Concert". Blabbermouth.net. March 22, 2025. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  6. 1 2 "DARK ANGEL's GENE HOGLAN On Late Guitarist JIM DURKIN: 'He Is An Absolute Godfather Of Thrash Metal'". Blabbermouth.net. September 21, 2023. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  7. "DARK ANGEL's New Single 'Extinction Level Event' Was Written By Late Guitarist JIM DURKIN: 'It's Just A Totally Killer Song'". Blabbermouth.net. April 10, 2025. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  8. "DARK ANGEL Announce September 2019 Australian Tour". Metal Rules . June 17, 2019. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  9. 1 2 3 "Voices From The Darkside". voicesfromthedarkside.de. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  10. "Partial DARK ANGEL Reunion Occurs!". Metal Rules . October 20, 2002. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  11. "The Metal Crypt - Dark Angel Interview". metalcrypt.com. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  12. "DARK ANGEL: Video Footage Of Last Week's Rehearsal Posted Online". Blabbermouth.net. October 20, 2013. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  13. "Reunited DARK ANGEL Is Working On 'Super Awesome' And 'Super Aggressive' New Material". Blabbermouth.net. November 1, 2014. Retrieved April 14, 2025.
  14. "KNAC.COM - Features - Exclusive Interview: Drum Legend GENE HOGLAN". Blabbermouth.net. February 6, 2017. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  15. "DARK ANGEL Is Still Writing Material For Long-Awaited Comeback Album". Blabbermouth.net. November 30, 2017. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  16. "DARK ANGEL Has 'A Lot Of Great Ideas And Awesome Riffs' For Long-Awaited Comeback Album". Blabbermouth.net. October 18, 2018. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  17. "DARK ANGEL Is Still 'Attempting' To Write Long-Awaited Comeback Album". Blabbermouth.net . August 31, 2020. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  18. "Dark Angel - New Album Update". Metal Storm. September 4, 2021. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  19. "Interview with Gene Hoglan of Dark Angel/Testament: We've got 5-6 serious formations of new Testament songs!". AgoraphobicNews.com. February 23, 2019. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  20. "Dark Angel - New Music In Working Progress". Metal Storm. January 20, 2022. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  21. "Dark Angel - To Enter Studio Before End Of 2022". Metal Storm. February 1, 2022. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  22. "DARK ANGEL Hopes To Release New Studio Album By Mid-2023". Blabbermouth.net . August 28, 2022. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  23. "DARK ANGEL Guitarist JIM DURKIN Dies At 58". Blabbermouth.net . March 10, 2023. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  24. "Dark Angel Announce They're Continuing as a Band in Jim Durkin's Memory". Ultimate Guitar. March 30, 2023. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  25. "DARK ANGEL Will Continue To Perform And Record In JIM DURKIN's Memory". Blabbermouth.net. March 30, 2023. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  26. "DARK ANGEL Pay Tribute To Founding Guitarist JIM DURKIN, Ad Perpetuam Rei Memoriam; Band Announce LA, NY Darkness Descends Shows Performing Album In Full". Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles. March 30, 2023. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  27. "DARK ANGEL Begins Recording First New Album In More Than Three Decades". Blabbermouth.net. July 25, 2024. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  28. "DARK ANGEL Shares Teaser For First New Music In 34 Years". Blabbermouth.net. April 10, 2025. Retrieved March 19, 2025.
  29. "Watch: DARK ANGEL Performs Two New Songs, 'Extinction-Level Event' And 'Circular Firing Squad', At Chile's METAL BEER Festival". Blabbermouth.net. March 24, 2025. Retrieved April 10, 2025.