Kill as One

I swear I'll never understand why Kill As One wasn't heralded as one of the more legendary demos in 80s thrash metal. Sure, there doesn't seem to be much here, with only 3 tracks. However, in retrospect, this release includes three of the more impressive cuts from Death Angel's iconic debut, and still manages to produce a fairly bulky 24 minute runtime. But does the quality of the songs hold up with restricted production and a younger, less experience band? I'd say so, and the fact that Andy Galeon and Mark Osegueda were both 12 and 15 years old respectively while recording this, the performance is devastating. The guitars are razor-sharp and even tighter than on the full-length album at points, and the drums are ridiculously precise. But, the part of this demo that really is mind-blowing is the vocals, with inhuman screeches especially obvious during the title track.

There doesn't really need to be any introduction for these three songs and the way that they're written. They are all hugely developed, showing levels of maturity that are staggering for a band this young, and there are massive middle sections that show off the ability of the guitarists as well as how well-written the tracks in general are, with consistently punishing riffs that are all memorable and intense as all hell for something that was recorded in 1984. The Ultra-Violence is probably the most evident of this, as a colossal 11-minute instrumental that boasts all of the qualities of the band and pushes them to the absolute limit with a brilliant sense of melody and articulation, showing more diverse variations with softer sections, but mainly revolving around one seriously thrashy riff. This demo was a sign of things to come, and if anything it only supports how tight and effective Death Angel were as a band at the time.