Death Angel was one of many thrash metal bands to emerge from the Bay Area of USA in the early 80's and by most considered to be one of the better ones. The band was formed in 1982 by five cousins, guitarists Rob Cavestany and Gus Pepa, bassist Dennis Pepa, drummer Andy Galeon, and vocalist Mark Osegueda, who stayed together all the way through the first era of the band's history. Around 1989 they toured with Motörhead and signed a record deal with Geffen Records. During the promotion tour for their last album "Act III" their tour bus crashed in the middle of the desert between Phoenix and Las Vegas. Andy Galeon, was hurt bad and it took him more than a year to fully recover. In 1992 Mark Osegueda left the band. The rest of the members continued but changed the band's name to The Organization. The band reunited (with guitarist Ted Aguilar replacing the departed Gus Pepa, who had moved to the Philippines and no longer plays music) for the Thrash Of The Titans benefit concert for Testament vocalist Chuck Billy on August 11th, 2001, at San Francisco's Maritime Hall and that one off show made them realize that they should get back together for real. In October 2003 the band signed a new deal with the German label Nuclear Blast.