Review by Greg on June 23, 2025.

So, as every self-respecting thrasher should know by now, 2025 is officially unfolding to be the year of Dark Angel's comeback. Part of me wonders why it apparently needed to happen only after Jim Durkin's passing (R.I.P.), but that's another story. What's more worrying, for the time being, are the two singles released in anticipation of the forthcoming album, the band's first studio material in 34(!) years. My compatriot KamikazeFlight has already covered the previous single 'Extinction Level Event' with a spot-on assessment and, sadly, a decent part of it could be applied to this new Circular Firing Squad as well.

Luckily, this one is also an improvement in several areas. The artwork is a bit less tailor-made for the wallpaper of a teenager's phone in 2008, and the song itself isn't bad, to the point it's even longer than 'Extinction Level Event' but it honestly doesn't feel like it. It's a speeder with way more momentum, mercifully, and a fucking brilliant riff set in the prechorus-chorus section. Granted, you still get that ubiquitous modern Exodus guitar tone, if you were wondering, but I'm still traumatized from Leave Scars in this regard, so I won't fuss over it too much (I would literally kill to listen to it with a decent production at least once please help me). Gene Hoglan doesn't exactly shine, and you'd need to remind yourself that he really is the one playing drums, but it's more of a 'he could do more' matter than a real complaint. As usual, the vocals are bound to be the obvious point of discussion. Rinehart is Rinehart, as always. Don Doty was mainly a one-trick pony that could only be on Darkness Descends, but he did fit like a glove there. Rinehart, on the other hand, wasn't a particularly loved frontman, both then and now – and, while back then he could at least find a correct spot to place himself atop the music most of the time, now he sounds like he has no idea what to do with his voice. Scream? Sing? Growl? He's all over the place, really. Emphasis on the growls, to be found in the song refrain, which are frankly misplaced, not to mention executed horribly. As if that were not enough, there are background clean 'aahs' appearing at random times that are similarly puzzling and useless, completing the picture of a subpar vocal department that knocked off a handful of points off the overall rating.

Echoing what was said by many others, with just a pinch of heartbreaking sadness: if the songs issued so far bore a different band name, it's unlikely they would garner so much attention. I foresee lots of reviews around the 50% mark for this very reason. Here's hoping they're saving some really marvelous stuff for the full-length, but one should be an incurable optimist in order to do that. Hey, at least this one makes it easier to do so... and at least Dark Angel (still?) didn't royally screw things up like many bands their age.

Rating: 6 out of 10