Death Angel’s Broken Family Bonds

When Death Angel formed in 1981, the band consisted entirely of cousins who had grown up together as kids in the San Francisco Bay area. The original drummer, Andy Galeon, was only 9 years old at the time for the Filipino-American thrash band. Today, Rob Cavestany and Mark Osegueda are the only two original members that make up the five-piece band, but before a recent show at Slim's in San Francisco last week, lead guitarist Cavestany said that "everyone in the band is beyond happy" and that he's accepted his life in music and the crazy path that he is on.

"Unfortunately, we don't really talk these days," Cavestany says of his former bandmates and cousins. "The music was always the glue between us even as kids. Once that went out of the picture there was nothing left to talk about. It's so uncomfortable." He adds that "it really sucks for our kids because they should be hanging out together like we did when we were kids."

After a 10-year run, Death Angel originally broke up in 1991, but then reformed in 2001 and released 'The Art of Dying' on Nuclear Blast in 2004. 'Killing Season,' their fifth studio album, was recorded at Dave Grohl's Studio 606 in Northridge, Calif. It was just this year that Galeon quit the band, but Cavestany assures that Death Angel will never truly disband as long as he is a part of it.