Though they were immediately pegged as the runts of the Bay Area thrash metal scene for barely being old enough to drive,
Death Angel quickly silenced most critics with their ambitious first album,
The Ultra-Violence. Technically on par with many of their older peers, the album still showed a lot of room for growth, however -- especially in the songwriting department. "Evil Priest" and "Kill As One" thrash out convincingly enough, but "Mistress of Pain" and "Voracious Souls" are the only somewhat fully realized songs on the album. And at over ten minutes, the yawn-inducing multi-part title track is the best example of the group's desperate desire to impress with quantity, instead of quality. Thankfully, the band would continue to improve, and subsequent efforts saw them gradually fulfill their promise. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia