[ Typed in and submitted by Mike Gray ]

An interview of Dark Angel from Metal Maniacs Vol 35, No 10, October 1991,
written by Borivoj Krgin.


                       Dark Angel . . . those lyrics . . .

"Our problem in the past has always been that we'd be faster than hell, but a
lot of times, the riffs would just kind of go right over your head," says Dark
Angel drummer Gene Hoglan of the sizeable musical leap the group have taken on
their latest opus, Time Does Not Heal.  "We didn't want the same thing to
happen on this album, so when Brett and I started working out all the songs,
we decided that we were gonna try to clip back a little bit of the speed and
maybe bring out some other intensities of Dark Angel . . . the power."
	Talking to Hoglan, it's clear that the skin-pounder is very much excited
about the material that makes up the fourth full-length release form these Los
Angeles-based thrashers.  As the follow up to the severely under-produced
Leave Scars, Time . . . is a crucial step in the quintet's quest to rebuild
the momentum that was created through the 1986 release of Dark Angel's most
critically-acclaimed LP to date, Darkness Descends.
	While Gene admits that Leave . . . didn't do the band many favors in the
production department, he points out that "our fans loved it anyway.  It was
such an unpopular album with the critics, it got really bad rewiews
everywhere, but the Dark Angel fans went out and bought it regardless."
	Unlike Leave . . ., which was self-produced, Time . . . marks the first time
the band have worked with the Seattle-based Terry Date, the man at the knobs
for a number of other acclaimed metal recordings, including those by Overkill
and Metal Church.  "Terry is God," says Hoglan of Date's contributions to the
making of Time . . .  "He brought out a brand new dimension in us that a lot
of other producers couldn't; not that they were bad producers, but Terry knew
exactly what we were looking for, and we clicked with him better than we had
with anybody else.  I personally hope we use him on every album we do from now
on."
	Acknowledging that he finds the confines of thrash metal to be "a little
limiting" in the way of musical diversity, Gene nevertheless claims that "it's
never really bothered me before, and it didn't really bother me this time
either.  We just tried improving ourselves; maybe not write things a million
miles an hour."
	Although Hoglan refers to the musical change between the last two records as
a "natural progression," he does admit to having had to give it "a little
concentrated effort to just not be as fast" as on the previous albums.  "I
still think the album (Time . . .) has loads of energy, but it's not as
mindlessly fast as the way a lot of Leave . . . came out, and a lot of
Darkness . . . did."  Luckily, the initial reactions from the fans suggest
that Hoglan's sentiments are shared by most of the record-buying public.  "A
lot of people realize, 'OK, they've got the singer singing, but Christ, the
tunes are heavier than hell,' and I think that's what has maintained our die-
hard fans' interest," philosophizes Eugene.
	Undoubtedly Dark Angel's most mature work to date, Time Does Not Heal is
particularly impressive considering that it comes less than two years
following the departure of founding member, guitarist Jim Durkin, who by
Gene's admission, was very much "the guy that kept all the glue togither.".
Having left the group in the middle of a headlining US tour due to "personal
problems," Jim was promptly replaced by ex-Viking man Brett Eriksen, who
decided to join the band permanently after the completion of the tour.
	While Eugene was still responsible for the bulk of the music writing on the
new album, Brett was "pretty darn instrumental" in the way the material turned
out, says the drummer.  "He brought in a new attitude, a different approach.
Jim never cared about how fast the songs were going, and Brett, he would be my
time-keeper; when I was getting a little too out-of -pocket during all the
rehearsals and pre-production, Brett would always be there saying, 'slow
down,' and I think that was a big improvement for us."
	Adjusting to Brett's songwriting style didn't require much effort, Gene
claims.  "No, I loved it.  It was so much easier writing with Brett.  It was
just kind of a very fertile stage, having a new guy, new blood, and the
fertility is still there.  I've written seven songs for the next album already
and Brett and I haven't even started collaborating yet."
	Since the album's release in February, much has been made of the sheer length
of the songs as well as that of the record itself - all sixty-seven minutes of
it.  Was there a concious effort to make a record this long?
	"No, we never really concentrated on how long the songs were," insists the
skinbasher.  "We've always had long songs, and it's never been our intent to
write them that way.  A lot of the arrangements are, kind of, fundamental
arrangements, you know, two verses-chorus-two verses-chorus-middle bridge-
lead-last verse-chorus, except that we've always had long introductions.
	"We actually had to drop a song, 'cause we had ten songs, which would have
made it seventy-one, seventy-two minutes, and that just would have made it too
silly."
	In addition to being looked upon as one of the most extreme thrash metal (not
death metal) bands around, Dark Angel is generally credited with having some
of the most mature and involved lyrics within this or any other musical genre.
Gene, who is genuinely modest about his writing abilities, admits that putting
full sets of lyrics together "does not come easy - I wish it did.  A lot of
the songs come from short stories that I write.  The more detailed songs
usually take longer to write, like 'The Death Of Innocence" off Leave Scars -
that took about five years to write."
	A perfectionist, Hoglan often rewrites songs a number of times before he
arrives at a version that he presents to the rest of the band.  "I try not to
take the easy route in lyrics," explains Hoglan, "Like rhyming 'death' with
'breath,' or 'hell' with 'bell,' or whatever.  That's a little too simple for
me.  The songs are musically challenging, so I'd like them to be lyrically
challenging as well.  I try to come up with concepts these days that aren't
written about a lot, or at least approach a topic in a different way."
	Despite the immense amount of time and effort that goes into writing these
lyrics, Eugene insists that "it doesn't bother me if some people are perfectly
content just listening to the music and ignoring the words.  I just figure
that these lyrics are there for the people that like lyrics - if they don't
care for lyrics, fine, I fust figure they're missing out on something.  It's
like cutting the entire song by one half if you're not into lyrics.  But if
some kids just prefer to listen to the music, I would like to think that our
songs can stand on their own in musical terms."
	Generalizing, Hoglan says that most of the lyrical ideas on Time Does Not
Heal deal with "human sexual behavior, the darker aspects of modern sexuality.
I'm always fascinated by children - in fact, I have songs about children on
the next album already, I've got the concepts worked out that are really
weird."
	Professing to basing most of his ideas on "the things I see," he does admit
to being heavily inspired by the work of a certain Andrew Vachsf, "a New York-
based lawyer who specializes in child molestation cases (he is vehemently
against child molestation).  His books (about five in all) have had a major
impact on the way I view the subject," says the multi-talented skinsman.
	Whatever Dark Angel's expectations are for Time Does Not Heal, it appears
that Gene is not perticularly concerned with the thought of falling behind
other thrash groups who've seemingly surged to the top of the metal heap while
D.A.'s popularity has remained at a virtual standstill.  "I'm the type of
person that feels that, if Dark Angel is not getting enough recognition, then
it's because of Dark Angel - we've done something wrong, we've put out an
album that people didn't like, or something like that," explains Gene.  "I try
not to blame anyone else but ourselves.  If Sepultura, for example, has
surpassed us in terms of popularity, then, great, they've done something
right, they've put out an album that people liked.  All we can do is do what
we feel is right, and hope that people will like it.  And if not, then maybe
they'll like the next one.  If I thought any other way, I'd be going out of
mind with worry."