SPEED SCARS Spike Steffenhagen 11 / 3 / 90 "Hey, what did one tampon say to the other?" The room is quieting down, people waiting for the answer. "What?" a brave soul asks. I pause for dramatic effect before answering. "Nothing, they were both stuck up cunts," I blurt out gleefully preparing a few high fives, bracing myself for the thundering laughter. You can hear a fucking pin drop. "That's sick, man", Ron Rinehart, Dark Angel's lead vocalist observes. "But--" I say attempting to defend my joke. "That's pretty funny coming from the guy who asked if there were any girls that burped sperm from a stage," observes drummer Gene Hoglan. That causes everyone in the room, including myself to laugh. The reference is to a show the previous night. The story is made even more amusing when Ron admits that his mother was in attendance. When I ask Ron what his mother thought of his onstage antics he shrugs and gives a grin that says she is probably quite used to his maniacal behavior. We are in a cement dressing room in Tijuana Mexico. Iguana's Bar and Grill to be precise. The only grills I've seen in the area are the ones the street vendors use top make those little tacos they sell four for a buck. But the bar usually does plenty of business. We go to a tidy van for the interview. Gene is accompanied by new Guitarist Brett Eriksen. I learn the van is not only tidy but non - smoking when I start to light a cigarette. My bad joke and my attempt to pollute their van is forgiven when Gene discovers I actually know something about the band. He's happy I won't be asking where the band formed or what his favorite color is. Not one member of the band is drinking Tequila. Come to think of it, they are all carrying bottles of water. That's not exactly what I expected from the band that was banned for inciting a riot a few years ago in San Diego. In 1986, they were the only Metal band playing a punk show. To make it even stranger, they were the headliners. The fad of audience members flipping the band off and spitting on them had pretty much gone from minor annoyance to really pissing Gene off. "I told Don Doty ( singer at the time) 'Be a dick to these people, get a rise out of them' ", Gene explains. "And it doesn't take much to turn don into a dick. People were getting onstage grabbing cymbal stands and swinging them around." Gene did his impression of a stagediver when one of the crew was attacked. "I went down to save the guy who was my roadie at the time. The crowd had pulled him off the stage and were beating on him. I started swinging and some guy kneed me in the balls. It hurt like hell but I didn't let him know that. I looked him in the eyes and he stared back at me with this 'please break my nose' look on his face. I obliged him." When a band deals with confrontation by standing up to it instead of hopping in a limo, problems are bound to arise. "It got to the point where clubs were calling our management and asking if the band could be booked without anyone going to the hospital." I haven't heard of any riots happening at Dark Angel shows lately. Gene agrees that riots are fun every once in a while, but that the band has found their fists may get them into more trouble than it's worth. "It's kind of neat, I like it. But now days we try not to end every argument with a fight." Probably a good idea given the fact that the band changes line - ups like most people change socks. When stability crept into the Dark Angel camp, guitarist Jim Durkin quit. This was one of the few amicable splits in the bands relatively short history. "Jim had been married nine months earlier," Gene explains. "Maybe he couldn't deal with the schedule. He's still a pal, but sometimes it gets hard. 'You quit the fucking band'. But we wouldn't be where we are without him." Former Viking guitarist Brett Eriksen was flown out in mid - tour to replace Durkin. This was one event on a chaotic tour that featured Dark Angel and Candlemass storming Europe and parts of America. This tour immediately followed a tour that saw Dark Angel opening an American thrash fest Headlined by Testament and Savatage. "We definitely learned what to do and what not to do in Europe." In Europe, many of the shows are played without security. In Tillburg, Holland for example between 50 and 100 people joined the band on-stage at once. They were told after the show that they couldn't be seen through the wall of bodies. This is a fairly rare occurrence, especially at a Dark Angel show. In Holland, the fans just wanted to be on-stage. In England, one fan wanted a souvenir. "Something screwed up and I only had six drumsticks for the entire 40 day tour. They're not the standard little twigs, I play with tree trunks." The England show was the first date of the tour. A fan got up on-stage and ran behind Gene's drum kit. "I was doing the count at the beginning of 'Merciless Death' and this kid tried to grab one of the sticks from my hand! I used the free stick to crack him upside the head with it. It was hilarious! The kid wouldn't let go!" In Germany, bassist Mike Gonzales was thrown in jail for car vandalism. Even after the guilty party came forward and said Gonz didn't do it, the police refused to release him. "We ended up paying something like 30 grand to have him released," Gene chuckles. "We tell him we bought ourselves a slave bassist." Given the adrenaline rush of a Dark Angel show and the almost psychotic loyalty of their fans, it may seem ironic that more problems don't stem from stage diving and other good old American pastimes. But given the band's history and the fact that their front man can probably bench press ten times his body weight, most people know their limits. "We give them the first three or four feet of the stage. Do your thing then get the fuck off." Hoglan says by way of explaining crowd management. " Stage diving is fine, but don't try to audition for the band." Security actually poses more problems than unruly crowds. If someone throws something on stage, Gene tells them if he sees them he will personally kick their ass. If security gets out of hand, the band stops the show rather than let it go on. The last time I saw Dark Angel I punched a security guard in the face for pulling my hair. "The security^Òs job is to protect the crowd", Brett states flatly. "Some of them see the job as protecting themselves. Most of them are hard to work with. But if you treat them like humans before the show and explain what the crowd will do and how you want the security to react, things turn out a lot better." Another side of Dark Angel has come to the fore recently. Their intelligence and lyrical ability is starting to become as legendary as their live shows. The new record is due out in February and is entitled "Time Does Not Heal". The title refers to the emotional and mental scars of child abuse. This seems like a continuation of 'Leave Scars'. I mention this to Gene. "The concepts on this album are...strange. On 'Leave Scars' the concepts weren't that original. On the new album I tried to come up with concepts that were wholly original. 'An Ancient Inherited Shame' is about rape from a woman's point of view. I don't know anyone else that's done that." Other titles include "Pains Invention Madness", Psycho Sexuality", "Trauma And Catharsis", and "Acts Of Contrition". They sound like the titles of hard- boiled crime novels by the likes of Raymond Chandler. But then again, given Hoglan's lyrical bent, perhaps Andrew Vachss would put the titles to better use. The controversial author / lawyer is an acknowledged influence of Hoglan's. In fact I checked out a few of his novels after Gene mentioned him in an interview. I can't help but see the similarities. It's not that Gene is simply putting Vachss' words to music, though they do tackle much of the same subject matter. The similarities lay more in the overall feel and method of attack. Both seem to say ; "This is what happens in the real world. These are the results of your actions. I will show you this ugly subject under the guise of entertainment, and you will find it much harder to be comfortable in your denial. You will have to think." In a world where a teacher can get caught molesting a student, move to another city and run a day care, thinking is a precious commodity. According to the law, if you fuck the kid next store, you are a monster and go to prison. If you fuck your own child, you are sick and you need counseling. Hoglan's lyrics reflect the facts that most people sweep under the carpet because they might be upsetting. He writes them alone before turning them over to Rinehart. "Once the lyrics are done I'll give Ron free reign over them. He'll add his 'Ronisms' to them. I meant change a word or two, but sometimes Ron ends up changing whole lines. It tends to make the concept more confusing, but it works out in the end." Brett and Gene wrote the 255 riffs that comprise the music on the new album. They found it very easy to work off of each other, with Gene riffing on an acoustic guitar and Brett programming beats into a drum machine. "It's funny," Gene says. "I will write stuff that the guitarists sometimes have trouble playing. And Brett will write some of the most fucked up drum lines ever. He'll turn on the machine and put on the fastest double bass, some snare, intermittent beats, some tom things and some hi-hat things all in one beat. Then he'll give it to me and say 'Learn that'. I've seen a mischievous smile on Brett's face a few times and I've had to learn it. It's definitely a challenge." The method of riff writing is similar. "I write all the stuff on acoustic," Gene explains. "You can't disguise anything with distortion. If it sounds heavy on acoustic and you can pull off all the picks and strums, then it will sound great when you play it on electric." "After I have the basic lines", Brett picks up, "I always look for a way to attack the riff. A way of bringing the feeling behind it out." "It's not as if this is a Brett and Gene project", Gene continues. "It's just that nobody else really writes much and that's the way everyone likes it." "It's still a band. Performance is just as important as writing." agrees Brett. We leave the van and walk around the club for a bit. It's going to be a small crowd tonight. Gene asks me where all the people are, as if I would know. Sadly, I do have an explanation. "Jane's Addiction is playing tonight," I tell him. Even though he's wearing shades, I sense he is rolling his eyes. "They aren't us!" He proclaims. I laugh and agree with him. I tell him I was offered free tickets too the sold out Jane's Addiction show but I chose to come here and see a real band instead. Hoglan chuckles. No one is chuckling when the sound of double bass drums fill the club a few hours later. The spot goes on and Gene is holding his middle fingers up as his feet go a million miles an hour. Over the course of the next 90 minutes, we are assaulted with Dark Angel old and new. Brett sounds right at home with vintage material such as 'Merciless Death', 'Darkness Descends' and 'Death Is Certain'. But it's the new material that really stands out. "New Priesthood" is an exercise in the caffeine Metal that has become Dark Angel's signature. "Time Does Not Heal" is also a breakneck exercise in thrash stamina. The melodies are at once haunting and crushing. Brutality with finesse. The next logical step for a band that has separated themselves from the pack.