Death Angel – “The Bay Calls for Blood – Live in San Francisco” [Album Review]

It seems that live albums are getting better and better as time goes on. Their general production, while still retaining the feeling of a truly live performance, has advanced so much since the early days of live metal albums. The Bay Calls for Blood is a perfect example of this. When I first turned it on I was pleasantly blown away by how fucking well it was produced. You could swear you were listening to a new full-length album, if it wasn’t for the ecstatic crowd in the mix. Death Angel have innovated a whole new approach to what live albums should be!

As said, The Bay Calls for Blood‘s production strong, alas the set-list felt lacking in certain areas. A lot of it consisted of newer material excluding the track “Bored” which is from the 1988 album Frolic Through the Park. Other than that it was mainly newer material taken from The Dream Calls For Blood (2013), Relentless Retribution (2010) and Killing Season (2008). Not that the later albums aren’t greatly appreciated, but classics such as “Disturbing the Peace” off Act III (1990) were excluded and probably shouldn’t have been.

Besides (in my opinion) the lack of back-catalogue, The Bay Calls For Blood is all muscle and steel. Death Angel are one of the most hard-hitting classic thrash bands around and deserve a ton of respect for being able to rage as hard as they do. This release retains the live experience’s energy and atmosphere and when Mark Osegueda screams “SAN FRANCISCO” you can’t help but yell back.

Track Listing:

01. Left For Dead
02. Fallen
03. Buried Alive
04. The Dream Calls For Blood
05. Execution / Don’t Save Me
06. Truce
07. Detonate
08. Bored
09. Caster of Shame
10. Territorial Instinct / Bloodlust

Run Time: 47:58
Release Date: July 24, 2015

Check out the track “Fallen” here.