As fan-filmed footage from Dark Angel‘s triumphant return to the stage on their first North American tour in over three decades emerges, the full, bittersweet story of their comeback album, Extinction Level Event, is coming into sharp focus. The record, and the tour supporting it, serve as a powerful and emotional tribute to the band’s late founding guitarist, Jim Durkin, whose musical spirit is “massively all over this new record,” according to drummer and main songwriter Gene Hoglan.
Full concert footage from the band’s performance last night, September 12, at the Vibes Event Center in San Antonio, Texas, has surfaced online, capturing the raw power of the thrash pioneers on their first major tour in over 30 years. The tour is in support of Extinction Level Event, their first new album in 34 years, which was released digitally on September 5. The album is a monumental achievement for the band, but it’s one tinged with sadness, as it’s the first to be released since the passing of Durkin in March 2023.
In a recent, deeply personal interview, Hoglan revealed that the entire creative process for the new album was a conscious tribute to his fallen friend, who he called his “original guitar hero.”
“My entire guitar style is based on your style because you are who I really learned how to play guitar from,” Hoglan recalled telling Durkin. This student-teacher dynamic became the guiding principle for the new songs. “When I write for the band, I’m thinking, ‘What would Jim do here?’ That’s why his presence is massively all over this new record. Every single song. I wanted to make it to where people are like, ‘Yeah, Jim wrote that riff. Oh, there’s another Jim riff’ because Jim wrote all the best riffs in the band, forever.”
The album’s title track was, in fact, written by Durkin himself a decade ago. The rest of the material was penned by Hoglan and the band’s new guitarist, Laura Christine (Hoglan‘s wife), who has officially taken over the spot previously held by her friend.
When approaching the monumental task of writing the first new Dark Angel album in over three decades, Hoglan was determined not to simply repeat the past. Instead, he asked himself a key question. “What if Dark Angel just kept putting out records throughout this entire 30-plus-year period. Where would the band be right now?” The result, he says, is an album that is “very, very Dark Angel” for the modern era, and one that has fans and the band themselves ecstatic. “I’m so stoked about this album,” he said. “Everyone who’s heard the new album is losing their minds.”
Dark Angel 2025 tour dates:
- Sept 13 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater#
- Sept 14 – Baton Rouge, LA – Chelsea’s Live#
- Sept 16 – Tampa, FL – The Orpheum#
- Sept 17 – Ft Lauderdale, FL – Revolution#
- Sept 19 – Richmond, VA – Canal Club#
- Sept 20 – Charlotte, NC – The Underground#
- Sept 23 – New York, NY – Gramercy Theatre#
- Sept 24 – Harrisburg, PA – Capital City Music Hall#
- Sept 25 – Baltimore, MD – Baltimore Soundstage#
- Sept 26 – Worcester, MA – The Palladium#
- Sept 27 – Montreal, QC – Club Soda#
- Sept 28 – Toronto, ON – Phoenix Concert Theatre
- Sept 30 – Norwalk, CT – District Music Hall%
- Oct 1 – Pittsburgh, PA – Spirit Hall%
- Oct 2 – Cleveland, OH – House of Blues%
- Oct 3 – Chicago, IL – Reggies%
- Oct 4 – Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theater%
- Oct 6 – Denver, CO – Oriental Theater^
- Oct 7 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Depot^
- Oct 8 – Boise, ID – Shrine Social Club^
- Oct 10 – Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theatre^
- Oct 11 – Portland, OR – Roseland Theater^
- Oct 12 – Seattle, WA – El Corazon^
- Oct 15 – Berkeley, CA – UC Theatre&
- Oct 16 – Los Angeles, CA – The Belasco&
# with Sacred Reich, Hirax, Void
% with Sacred Reich, Hirax, Interceptor
^ with Sacred Reich, Vio-Lence, Midnight, Interceptor
& with Sacred Reich, Vio-Lence, Hirax, Midnight, Interceptor
Video credit: montopolisTHRASHER
