I grew up a thrash obsessed teenager. I lived in the early 2000s like it was 1986. Metallica led to Megadeth, who led to Slayer, who led to Possessed. Then Testament and Exodus, and across the ocean to Kreator, Destruction, and Sodom in Germany, down to Brazil with Sepultura and Sarcofago, and east into Japan with the mighty Sabbat. Each band seemed faster and crazier than the last. Riffs and speed became like a drug, and I needed more. Soon, I came upon the fastest one of them all, the L.A. Caffeine Machine, Dark Angel, who I still consider the speed kings of eighties thrash metal. A band that once clocked in 246 riffs on a single album, more than most bands conjure up in their entire career. Whose drummer, the Gene "the atomic clock" Hoglan, did the impossible task of playing faster than Slayer's Dave Lombardo, and made it sound easy. Dark Angel's landmark 1986 album Darkness Descends changed the game with what could be accomplished in terms of musical speed ...