Dark Angel

Dark Angel

Time Does Not Heal (1991)

Combat Records

Rating: 3 1/2 out of 4 Pentagrams 

Reviewed by: Jeff Deth

Dark Angel is one of those bands that appear very mysterious to me. There’s not much press on them. All their albums are hard to find or over-priced. I don’t know if the records went out of print or what. I’ve never seen an official video or interview footage. I recently found some concert clips on You Tube for the 1^st time just to see what they looked like playing together. For as good of a band as Dark Angel was, they kept a level of intrigue around them that most other bands haven’t.

Taking a look at the cover of this record the logo is one of the absolute best of its kind. It clearly depicts the dark and sinister nature of extreme metal. It’s overbearing in its evilness. It basically says everything you need to know about the band from their sound to their content. With such a powerful mark, the level of expectation was high.

If you were to pick up an earlier album like Darkness Descends you would get nothing short of an ear bleeding pummeling of record-setting speed and ferocity. Time Does Not Heal is the final Dark Angel record and it documents the band expanding its thrashing assault into more progressive territory. There’s plenty of brutality and adrenaline being kicked up to be sure but there’s also a level of musicianship and technicality that is apparent as well. The song structures here allow for a tempo in which you can really appreciate the dynamics of the guitar work. This album also stands out due to vocalist Ron Rinehart’s more classical approach as opposed to the low-pitched growl that became the standard delivery. Rinehart adds a lot of emotion and character to the songs, becoming an instrument himself.

The mood never varies from being totally ominous and bleak. Gene Hoglan, aside from being a blindingly fast drummer penned almost all the lyrics. There’s not a moment of upliftment in songs like “Trauma and Catharsis” or “Pains Invention, Madness.” This album locks you down into a scene reflective of the dark and menacing ally photo on the album cover. Pain and deceit is everywhere and you have only yourself to count on. There are the songs that speak out against religion but there’s also a song against rape. A look at the lyric sheet will show a thinking man’s approach to metal, long expansive forays into deep subject matter.

So while there’s little known about individual members of the band, quite a bit can be gleamed about their beliefs from their music alone. This is a serious thrash band that plays over the heads of the cursory listener. But it’s their heaviness that puts them on the same playing field as any one of the “Big Four” of the classic thrash-era.