In a recent interview with Nikki Blakk of San Francisco’s 107.7 The Bone radio station, vocalist Mark Osegueda of the thrash metal band DEATH ANGEL revealed why the band pulled out of their fall 2024 tour as the support act for the W.A.S.P. The band was replaced by ARMORED SAINT.
Mark said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): “Since this whole Kerry band happened, and still being a major part of DEATH ANGEL, there was some backlash from a lot of DEATH ANGEL fans, thinking that [my involvement with Kerry] might be the end of DEATH ANGEL or it’s taking away from DEATH ANGEL. And then there was a tour that DEATH ANGEL had a drop off of, and it was because there was conflicting dates with Kerry. But when that [W.A.S.P.] tour was offered to [DEATH ANGEL], I had put it out there to the powers that be that, ‘Okay, but I can’t guarantee I’ll be available for the whole tour. Just know this in advance. So if you take it, I will have to do shows with Kerry if they get booked, and it looks like they very well may.’ And still my words were taken and with enthusiasm, they just heard, to a certain degree people thought, ‘Well, let’s do it.’ I said, ‘Okay, let’s, but once again…’ I mean, every bit of communication we had, I would reiterate that.
“And we still went for it, throwing caution to the wind, and the wind blew back eventually, so to speak,” he continued. “And I said, ‘Hey, what we didn’t want to happen is happening. But we all knew this going in advance. So this is what we can do.’ And I actually, being someone — I do try to troubleshoot for DEATH ANGEL all the time because there’s been many years that DEATH ANGEL has been self-managed by me, Rob [Cavestany, DEATH ANGEL guitarist] and Ted [Aguilar, DEATH ANGEL guitarist], and we’ve also had management, but we always work with management very well. And so I tried to troubleshoot, and I said, ‘Look, I could think of a few [singers] that could fill in,’ and I gave some names and whatnot, just as an option. ‘Cause I didn’t want them to lose the tour. But the reality is what the reality was.
“So eventually, what came back when that was offered to the W.A.S.P. camp and booking agents, whatnot, they just basically said, ‘Well, we don’t want a fill-in for two particular times,’ ’cause I would have missed two batches of dates, and they didn’t want that to be the case… That’s pretty much the stance they took. So, then, from there on, push came to shove, and they got ARMORED SAINT, which I think it’s a great bill. I mean, who’s to say that W.A.S.P. and DEATH ANGEL wouldn’t have been a great bill? A lot of people were looking forward to it.”
“Prior to [DEATH ANGEL pulling out of the W.A.S.P. tour], there was not much negativity about me being in Kerry‘s band, but when that hit, then the floodgates opened,” Mark added. “And that’s when a lot of people started saying negative things about me and my character and how it was affecting the band they love. Unbeknownst to them, believe it or not, I love that band more than they do.”
Osegueda further justified his decision to keep his involvement in Kerry King‘s solo project secret from his DEATH ANGEL bandmates until its official announcement last February.
“I couldn’t really tell the guys ’cause of NDAs [non-disclosure agreements I signed] and whatnot,” he said. “And I know people will say, ‘Well, that’s your blood. Those are your bros.’ But it’s an NDA. It’s a legal, binding contract that I signed and I respect that. And wording in NDAs are kind of daunting.
“The metal community is a hen house. It really is. And just, bap, bap, bap, bap, and word just gets out, and it’s just like rapid fire. And Blabbermouth or not, it just takes someone from one crew, one band, and they find out and it just goes around. And we had to go out of our way to keep this basically the biggest secret there was. Because everyone kind of had an idea of who was in [Kerry‘s] band, but for the most part, no one knew who the singer was. They all assumed it was Phil [Anselmo]. And it was just kind of quite a big secret to keep down. So that was hard. And I understand that. And I explained that to the guys when I did tell them. And there you go.”
When DEATH ANGEL‘s withdrawal from the W.A.S.P. tour was announced in August, the cancellation was attributed solely to “unforeseen circumstances,” with no additional details provided. Later, drummer Will Carroll offered more insight into the reasons behind the band’s decision to step away from the tour.
He wrote on Facebook at the time: “Now that the tour’s been cancelled I have a bunch of time freed up for the remainder of the year. Instead of falling deeper into depression (which really doesn’t suit me) I plan on staying busy with the drumming. [DEATH ANGEL guitarist] Rob Cavestany and I are continuing work on the new music. NOBODY can put the kibosh on that. But in addition to that I’d like to put the word out that I’m interested in working on other projects. I love recording and I’m pretty efficient at it. Gigs and touring are possibilities as well. So if you’re interested in working together hit me up on DM or if you have my number then contact me directly.”
“Please don’t ask me why we’re not on the WASP tour in the comments below,” he added. “I think it’s pretty f**king obvious…”
After former EXODUS guitarist Rick Hunolt replied in below Will‘s post, ” This f**kin sucks!!! I’m so sorry Will“, the drummer responded, writing, “It really does. The word BETRAYAL comes to mind.” He added: “We knew there would be problems at some point but not so immediately.”
Will then added: “I notice people are slagging WASP here. As much as I’d like to I made a promise I would not go into details about why we are no longer doing the WASP tour….on social media. But to be clear it has absolutely nothing to do with WASP.”
Although Carroll did not directly say so, many of his Facebook friends and followers are speculating that DEATH ANGEL‘s decision to withdraw from the W.A.S.P. tour is at least partly connected to the touring commitments of SLAYER guitarist Kerry King‘s solo band, which features DEATH ANGEL vocalist Mark Osegueda.
Not long after DEATH ANGEL‘s tour dates with W.A.S.P. were announced, King‘s social media revealed that Kerry’s band would play two shows in Mexico in early November — one concert in Mexico City as the support act for AMON AMARTH on November 6, and another gig as the support act for SLIPKNOT in Guadalajara on November 8 — in direct conflict with the W.A.S.P. tour, which was scheduled to launch in late October and conclude in mid-December.
Reeder, the visionary behind Metal Addicts, has transformed his lifelong passion for metal into a thriving online community for metal aficionados. As a fervent devotee of black metal, Reeder is captivated by its dark, atmospheric, and often unorthodox soundscapes.