Bay Area thrash metal pioneers from San Francisco, Death Angel, have announced a special event for their tenth annual Christmas show. On December 18, 2025, the band will perform their seminal 1990 album Act III in its entirety at The Fillmore in San Francisco, celebrating the record’s 35th anniversary.
The band emphasized the exclusivity of the event, stating: “One night only and no livestream this year — grab your tickets early!” An artist presale is currently underway via Ticketmaster using the passcode “BRINGFIRE”.
Act III marked Death Angel‘s major label debut on Geffen Records and showcased a more melodic and structured approach compared to their earlier work, despite the band members still being notably young. This period, however, was cut short following a serious bus crash in 1991 that injured then-drummer Andy Galeon and led to the band’s dissolution before their later reformation.
In a 2020 interview with Now Hear This, Inc., guitarist Rob Cavestany and vocalist Mark Osegueda reflected on the intense process of creating Act III and the lessons learned. Cavestany recalled the demanding work ethic instilled by producer Max Norman (Ozzy Osbourne) and the label.
“When we did sign to the major label and we went in to write and record our record Act III, it was a major lesson,” Cavestany said. He explained how they were pushed to write far beyond their initial efforts: “Basically, we ended up writing 30 songs for that album. But, at the time, we were hating it… We couldn’t understand why we were being made to keep going back to the drawing board… Sure enough, at the end of the day, some of the better songs, I think, on that album, came in the fourth quarter of the writing.” He added, “I guess we realized that the people that were telling us to do this, they knew what they were talking about… We learned from it… From that point on… I never needed that kind of whip-cracking again.”
Mark Osegueda noted that Act III was effectively their first experience with formal pre-production, crediting Max Norman with refining their songwriting. “Max Norman flew up to San Francisco and started going through the songs with us… started dissecting those songs,” Osegueda explained. “Max is one of the first people that really kind of roped our excitement in from being musicians and roped it into being palatable… Sometimes, you’re a young musician… You want to flaunt that you’ve improved and that doesn’t necessarily make for a better song… When Max got involved for Act III, all of a sudden, our songwriting got a lot more structure and a lot more viable. It also left an impression on us… there is a science to this.”
The lessons from that era seemingly paid off, as Death Angel continues to thrive, having earned a Grammy nomination for the title track of their 2019 album Humanicide. The upcoming Act III performance offers fans a unique opportunity to experience a pivotal album from the band’s history live and in full.
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