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Got a little bit of time on your hands? Well put the kettle on fire, get your personal business out of the way, and get ready to listen to some good ol' fashioned sucky fucking music. I am at a loss for words because although I am no die hard fan of Death Angel, given the monolithic comebacks from virtually all the thrash kings of the eighties, I had very high hopes for this one as well. And let me assure you that the poor rating above is not a representation of simply a disappointment as a result of high expectations; it merely represents the fact that this album stinks worse than a hairy armpit.

I can honestly state that I have never struggled so much and prolonged a review for so long as this one. I just can't seem to find the words to describe it. On the one hand, this is a bad album but on the other, it is not utterly horrible. I will not even call it a decent record because there is far too much whining on here that will piss the fuck out of you. These guys really need to grow some testicles and get angrier if they want to do a comeback special.

You read correctly above, this is not thrash metal. The vocals particularly are great contributors to the nuisance. They are a little too high and slow. SLOW!!! The band seems to be under the conviction that they can write good melodies for some reason. All in all, it ends up sounding something like a Smashing Pumpkins record. Ok, maybe not to that extent, but quite frankly, the vocals are very reminding of that bald guy from Smashing Pumpkins.

Now for some decent parts to it: If you go in expecting a solid thrash album (or any thrash album for that matter) you will be severely disappointed. However, on a much lower level, if you treat this as just another piece of shit release, then this is a pretty good piece of shit. Some parts to it do stick but they will require an enormous time investment. In any case, I would not recommend "The Art Of Dying" to anybody. Particularly not to casual fans who wanted to check out 'the next big' comeback. I haven't given up on Death Angel yet. I will still get their next record if they make one because this album simply suffered from two major flaws (1) Hype (2) The Suck. I can see 'the Suck' factor can be eliminated if the band took a little more time and figured out just exactly what they are pissed off about and channeled that rage with fast, thunderous music like they did in the past. The talent is still visible on this record, just that it sounds extremely forced in order to make the release.

Stand out tracks, and I use this loosely, include "The Evil Incarnate", "No" and well…hmmm…. fuck man I don't know…A half-assed review for a half-assed album.