As for the Rinehart-era albums, I'm pretty indifferent.
Leave Scars is solid but I never listened to the album much, opting to get my Rinehart exposure from
Ultimate Revenge 2 or the
3-Way Thrash video. At least I can remember some of the music, which is more than I can say for
Time Does Not Heal. I don't hate the Rinehart stuff, but I'm squarely in the Doty camp.
My favorite Dark Angel album is actually
We Have Arrived (pleasingly, a sentiment that's not as unheard of as I would have expected). Aside from the obvious connection of both bands having early releases on Azra/Metal Storm, stylistically I'm reminded quite a bit of the first Overkill album; both albums can be roughly divided into thrash-based and speed metal-based songs, and both exude quite a USPM aura at times (Overkill perhaps more so). So I applaud Mr. Richards for his fine musical taste and talent seeking abilities. His obsession with shaped picture discs, not so much. Anyway, when the whole Don Doty fiasco happened and it became clear he wasn't going to be involved in an official Dark Angel reunion, I actually found myself fervently hoping that Rob Yahn or Jack Schwartz would resurface to play with Doty.
So, my impressions after seeing footage of both recent Dark Angel and Eliminate:
Dark Angel
Musically, fine. Initially after seeing some of the Sweden Rock Fest vids I thought Rinehart had lost his high range, but he does pretty well during the 2014 Finland and Chile shows. He seems to be somewhere inbetween for the 2016 Japan shows. My main complaint is that all sorts of aggroisms are steadily creeping into the vocals now--Ron often slips into barking vox, tough talk, and Hetfield-esque growls. Unfortunately, the band look rather lame nowadays. Rinehart is the biggest offender--his work shirts and wallet chain bring to mind many terrible non-metal Roadrunner Records acts.
Much better than I expected, and though it may not look it based on the band's appearance, the old songs are treated with appropriate respect overall. Hopefully they'll stick to playing as a live act and stay out of the studio, as I would not trust this lineup to write any new material that is worthwhile musically--SwinE, Hunger, Oil, and even Dreams of Damnation don't exactly inspire confidence. I think it's been years since Gene has drummed on anything I would find remotely interesting.
**
Eliminate
First was that teaser clip that didn't have any vocals. Then came that weird, super-hoarse karaoke version of "Darkness Descends." Then finally, actual live vids of Don singing. From the limited footage available, it seems like his high range is totally shot. He sounded hoarse and raspy, which is to be expected, but I would argue his vox are better suited to thrash than some of the aggro silliness Rinehart tends to belt out at times. The cadence of the vocals was pretty spot-on and his performance came off pretty well overall. No issues with the rest of the band. Like Dark Angel, much better than I was expecting. In fact, my biggest complaint is Don's babbling stage banter (unfortunately nothing fun like the old intros to "Perish in Flames"). Case in point, "The Burning of Sodom," which has kinda awkward banter summarizing the biblical story of Lot--"I'd like to welcome you to Sodom" from '86 will do quite nicely, thank you.
The short Eliminate instrumental clip circulating sounds okay and doesn't seem to suffer from any modern pitfalls, but isn't mind-blowing either. For now, I'm skeptical about any future release. However, I think the prospect of something decent coming from veteran Devastation and Hirax axemen is far better than for DA.
So there you have it. Time does not heal, indeed.
***
* To summarize, I ultimately picked it over a Coroner CD at the record store. I'd love to be smug and say that Priest was right, You Don't Have to Be Old to Be Wise and all that, but it really comes down to a fundamental metal fiscal concept--when funds are severely limited, allocate them to the album with the coolest band logo and/or cover.
** Possible exception: I have not heard the new Viking album from last year, but will give it a fair shot.
***I love the hyperbole of the ad, don't get me wrong, but for the record, Seven Churches over Darkness any day.
