DEATH ANGEL's MARK OSEGUEDA on heavy metal: “it's a genre that no one will understand that's not a part of it”
20-06-2025
In a new interview with Belgium’s Graspop Metal Meeting, singer Mark Osegueda of San Francisco Bay Area metal veterans DEATH ANGEL was asked what keeps him and his bandmates going more than four decades after their formation. He responded: “It’s the love of the music. It’s plain and simple. And you’re born into it, if you ask me. Music grabbed me at such a young age, and it’s what’s driven me my whole life. And as soon as I got a taste of it and realized that’s a way you can make a go at life, that’s what’s always driven me. And that’s it. And it’s the community. It’s a genre that no one will understand that’s not a part of it. It’s like no other. It’s very supportive. Sure, there’s friendly competition, but I think it breeds the best in all performers and all songwriters, this type of music. It’s great.”
ast month, DEATH ANGEL released its first new music in six years. In anticipation for the summer 2025 “Summer Of Wrath” European tour, the band dropped a brand new song called “Wrath (Bring Fire)” .
As previously reported, DEATH ANGEL will celebrate the 35th anniversary of its “Act III” album by performing it in its entirety at the band’s tenth annual Christmas show on December 18 at The Fillmore in San Francisco.
In March 2024, DEATH ANGEL guitarist Ted Aguilar told El Planeta Del Rock that there were “a bunch of songs, a lot of skeletons” for the band’s next album. “We spent the first three months of this year writing. We didn’t do any activity — just writing… There’s a bunch of skeletons, as we call it. There’s a lot of ideas that we’re waiting for singer Mark to put some vocals on.”
Osegueda is the featured singer on SLAYER guitarist Kerry King‘s debut solo album, “From Hell I Rise”, which arrived in May 2024 via Reigning Phoenix Music.
Regarding Osegueda‘s addition to the band, Kerry told Rolling Stone: “With Mark, he was on board early on. I just didn’t pull that trigger. I was like, ‘Let’s see what happens.’ Say for instance, (JUDAS PRIEST‘s) Rob Halford calls me and says, ‘Hey, I would love to be your singer,’ I’d have to go that way.”
King also confirmed that PANTERA‘s Philip Anselmo was “considered” as a possible singer for his new project. “My management, my promoter, my record label all wanted Phil,” Kerry said. “Phil‘s a good friend of mine, but I always thought he’s not the right guy. That has nothing to do with his ability; I just knew he wasn’t the right guy. When you hear Mark on this record, you know that’s the guy.
“I had to do due diligence, because at the end of the day, had Philip been the guy, we’d be in arenas immediately because we could play new stuff, we could play PANTERA, we could play SLAYER, and fans would’ve been happy. It ended when the PANTERA thing came up.
“I saw Mark a few years back singing covers of MINOR THREAT and cameo in THE WEDDING BAND with members of METALLICA,” King added. “It was different from what he does in DEATH ANGEL, and he sounded great. He’s super versatile. He took steps to make this different than DEATH ANGEL. I don’t touch on probably 50 percent of what he can do on the album.
“Mark knew how I expected the songs to be performed. On my demos, I sing with very good conviction, but I don’t have pipes; that’s why I don’t sing. With ‘Residue’, he sounded so good I had to ask him, ‘Is this sustainable? I don’t want you to blow your load on this record and then blow your voice out every third show.’ And he swore up and down he could do it. He went on to some of the harder ones and did the same thing on those, so I went, ‘Okay.'”
“From Hell I Rise” contains 13 tracks that were recorded with longtime LAMB OF GOD producer Josh Wilbur.
King told Rolling Stone that the title track, “From Hell I Rise”, is one of two songs — along with “Rage” — on the album that he has carried over from SLAYER‘s “Repentless” sessions. “It was finished, we recorded it,” he says. “I wasn’t happy with the performance part of it, so I was like, ‘All right, I’ll put this in my back pocket until the next SLAYER record.’ And that didn’t happen, so it’s now on my record.”
Asked why he decided to call his band KERRY KING, the guitarist said: “I didn’t. It was going to be KING’S REIGN for a long time, which is really cool. But even with that one, I went to the guys, like, ‘I’m not a vain dude. I don’t want my name to be a part of it.’ We talked about BLOOD REIGN for a while, but it didn’t work. Every time I came up with anything remotely cool, it was taken by some obscure band in Eastern Europe. It became KERRY KING because I love that logo.”
Regarding how he put together his solo band, Kerry said: “I knew Paul was going to be with me. My original intent was to have (SLAYER guitarist) Gary Holt but the farther I got away from SLAYER, the more I thought people would call this band “SLAYER Light” or “Baby SLAYER.” They’re going to say that anyway, so I didn’t need to fuel that fire. There was no falling out between me and Gary.
“Demmel came out with SLAYER at the end of 2018 to fill in for Gary for four shows,” he continued. “What he did for us, I don’t think I could do for any band on the planet. He had basically two days to watch (SLAYER) play so he could know where the pyro was and the tempo of our set. I couldn’t do that for JUDAS PRIEST, and I’m a giant PRIEST guy. With this, Bostaph said, ‘Hey, what about Demmel (for the new band)?’ I texted him. He’s like, ‘Yeah, I just got done with MACHINE HEAD the day before yesterday.’ I went, ‘Well, that’s kind of perfect.’
As for Osegueda‘s addition to the band, Kerry said: “With Mark, he was on board early on. I just didn’t pull that trigger. I was like, ‘Let’s see what happens.’ Say for instance, (JUDAS PRIEST‘s) Rob Halford calls me and says, ‘Hey, I would love to be your singer,’ I’d have to go that way.”
King also confirmed that PANTERA‘s Philip Anselmo was “considered” as a possible singer for his new project. “My management, my promoter, my record label all wanted Phil,” Kerry said. “Phil‘s a good friend of mine, but I always thought he’s not the right guy. That has nothing to do with his ability; I just knew he wasn’t the right guy. When you hear Mark on this record, you know that’s the guy.
“I had to do due diligence, because at the end of the day, had Philip been the guy, we’d be in arenas immediately because we could play new stuff, we could play PANTERA, we could play SLAYER, and fans would’ve been happy. It ended when the PANTERA thing came up.
“I saw Mark a few years back singing covers of MINOR THREAT and cameo in THE WEDDING BAND with members of METALLICA. It was different from what he does in DEATH ANGEL, and he sounded great. He’s super versatile. He took steps to make this different than DEATH ANGEL. I don’t touch on probably 50 percent of what he can do on the album.
“Mark knew how I expected the songs to be performed. On my demos, I sing with very good conviction, but I don’t have pipes; that’s why I don’t sing. With ‘Residue’, he sounded so good I had to ask him, ‘Is this sustainable? I don’t want you to blow your load on this record and then blow your voice out every third show.’ And he swore up and down he could do it. He went on to some of the harder ones and did the same thing on those, so I went, ‘Okay.'”
“From Hell I Rise” track listing:
01. Diablo
02. Where I Reign
03. Residue
04. Idle Hands
05. Trophies Of The Tyrant
06. Crucifixation
07. Tension
08. Everything I Hate About You
09. Toxic
10. Two Fists
11. Rage
12. Shrapnel
13. From Hell I Rise
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