Jim Durkin (musician)

Despite never achieving mainstream success, the band is often credited as one of the leaders of the second wave of the 1980s thrash metal movement, and as one of the progenitors of the "progressive/technical thrash metal" sound.

Their music has also been cited as a strong influence to the death metal genre.

Dark Angel is an American thrash metal band from Downey, California, formed in 1981.

The band's current lineup includes drummer Gene Hoglan, guitarists Eric Meyer and Laura Christine, frontman Ron Rinehart and bassist Mike Gonzalez.

In its history, they have gone through many lineup changes, and as of guitarist Jim Durkin's death in March 8, 2023, there are no original members left in the current lineup of Dark Angel, although Meyer (who joined the band in 1984) is the only member to appear on all of their studio albums.

Dark Angel's over-the-top style (extremely fast, heavy and lengthy songs with many tempo changes, lyrics, and extended instrumental parts) earned them the nickname "The L.A. Caffeine Machine".

Dark Angel formed in 1981 under the name Shellshock in Downey, California, right around the time when the Bay Area thrash movement was beginning to take place.

They were forced to change their name to Dark Angel in 1983 due to another band using the name.

They played in local bars and clubs, acquiring a cult following in the metal underground.

The band was often compared to Slayer.

To date, Dark Angel has released four studio albums: We Have Arrived (1985), Darkness Descends (1986), Leave Scars (1989) and Time Does Not Heal (1991).

The band began recording and releasing several demos before releasing their debut studio album We Have Arrived in March 1985.

Dark Angel promoted We Have Arrived with its first ever tour, opening for bands like Slayer, Megadeth, Venom, Savage Grace, Corrosion of Conformity, Possessed, D.R.I., Exodus and Agent Steel.

In November 1986, Dark Angel released their second studio album, Darkness Descends, which is widely considered to be their seminal release.

Around the same time, several other thrash metal bands such as Metallica also released seminal albums and started to gain more popularity.

Although Darkness Descends did not initially reach the Billboard 200 charts or become a commercial success, Dark Angel spent most of 1986 and 1987 touring heavily behind the album, with bands like Motörhead, Megadeth, Possessed, Slayer, Overkill, Sacred Reich, Whiplash, Cryptic Slaughter and the Crumbsuckers.

After the Darkness Descends tour ended in August 1987, vocalist Don Doty left Dark Angel in order to start a family and was replaced by Ron Rinehart, who would stay with the band until their breakup in 1992 and rejoin for their subsequent reunions.

Dark Angel performed their first show with Rinehart at the Fender's Ballroom in Long Beach, California on January 29, 1988.

Around this time, Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine asked Eric Meyer to join Megadeth, but he declined in order to stay with Dark Angel.

According to an interview in Voices from the Dark Side, Eric Meyer claims he did not feel comfortable with the situation.

In January 1989, Dark Angel released their third studio album Leave Scars, which was their first release with Rinehart on vocals and Mike Gonzalez on bass, and their last with guitarist Jim Durkin, who left the band before the tour and was replaced by former Viking guitarist Brett Eriksen, leaving the band with no remaining original members.

It was also Dark Angel's only album to reach the Billboard 200 charts, peaking at number 159.

Leave Scars received positive reviews from music critics, and saw the band garner media attention and publicity, with coverage from Kerrang! and RIP Magazine.

In support of the album, they toured throughout 1989 and 1990 with several bands, including Death, Nuclear Assault, Acid Reign, Candlemass and Overkill.

A live album, recorded at the Country Club in Reseda on April 22, 1989, was released in 1990 as Live Scars.

He achieved greater attention during the mid-1990s playing with Death, at the same time that bandleader Chuck Schuldiner was taking that group into a more progressive style.

Subsequently, he recorded one album with the thrash metal band Testament, and made the acquaintance of Canadian multi-instrumentalist Devin Townsend, forging a lasting friendship.

He had since recorded several albums with Townsend, both as part of the speed/industrial/death metal band Strapping Young Lad and under Devin Townsend's name.

Dark Angel released their fourth studio album, Time Does Not Heal, in February 1991.

Time Does Not Heal showed increasingly progressive song structures (famously advertising its "246 riffs"), and Hoglan's lyrics dealing with social issues, including politics, apathy, psychological issues and trauma.

To promote Time Does Not Heal, Dark Angel embarked on the "Years of Pain" world tour, supported by such bands as Exhorder, Mordred and Re-Animator.

Following their first split in 1992, and a short-lived reunion from 2002 to 2005, the band reunited once again in 2013.

They are currently working on new material for their fifth studio album.

Rinehart's departure from the band, as well as aborted attempts to work on a fifth album, resulted in Dark Angel's first breakup in September 1992.

Rinehart formed the band Oil in 1997 after converting to Christianity.

Tentative plans for a Dark Angel reunion tour in 1999 were scrapped, due to personal and artistic differences between its members.

However, the band officially reformed in 2002 with a new lineup featuring Ron Rinehart on vocals, Eric Meyer on guitar, Danyael Williams on bass and Gene Hoglan on drums.

During the reunion, Dark Angel performed the Metallica song "Creeping Death" which appeared on the 2004 Metallica tribute album Metallic Attack: Metallica - The Ultimate Tribute.

Hoglan has indicated this was an amicable split, telling Heavy magazine in 2019 that, "We've always been close and tight. We never went our separate ways out of animosity by any means. It was just time to make a move back in '92 when we kind of dissolved Dark Angel, I guess."

Hoglan went on to collaborate on a number of musical projects.