In a new interview with 'Rocking With Jam Man', Dark Angel drummer Gene Hoglan offered an update on the band's long-awaited follow-up to 1991's Time Does Not Heal, which will likely not be released before 2025. Hoglan revealed the record will serve as a tribute to the band's late guitarist Jim Durkin, who passed away in March of last year, and it will also see the band utilize some unreleased work from Durkin.

When asked if the rumours that new album would be out this year were true, Hoglan said: "I am, unfortunately, not at liberty to say what is actually happening with Dark Angel, but I know that at some time very, very soon, when I have some solid schedule, some solid dates to be able to announce some really fun news for the Dark Angel fans, we're gonna be able to announce some stuff. And so that's gonna be super awesome. I've been working diligently for the last couple of years on some projects that are gonna make Dark Angel fans really happy, I think. So, everybody, just sit tight. I just don't wanna nebulously announce something and then have circumstances beyond my control come along and make things delayed. I just wanna be able to be able to say, 'Yes, this is gonna be a solid date that we can announce for people, and we're gonna be able to stick to that date.' That's what I'm all about. So, keep your eyes and ears peeled, everybody."

He also talked about what it has been like writing new music as Dark Angel again: "Well, that's one thing. It's like we had a choice. I had an entire Dark Angel album written that was ready to start getting recorded after the Time Does Not Heal record, and circumstances occurred where the band just had to dissolve. So, I had a bunch of material written. And when Jim Durkin and myself — Jim is no longer with us, but when we put Dark Angel back together and we started talking about, like, 'What do we wanna do for the future? Do we wanna write some new material?' And 'I've got some ideas, Gene, and you probably have some ideas.' And I have a number of songs that I sent to Jim. And when Jim heard that — I sent it to him on a CD — he freaked out and he was, like, 'My God, here's our new album. This is gonna be our next record. Hell yeah.' And he got really excited about that material. But I was, like, 'Hey, Jim, tell you what. I feel really strongly about my writing chops, and the songs I'm hearing from you right now are crushing. So how about we just write new stuff, get together and start writing new material?' And so we kind of went that route. For my elements of what I wanted Dark Angel to sound like, Jim Durkin is a huge influence on my writing style. So I wanted this to have a lot of the Jim Durkin influence on it. In terms of riffs, there's not as many from Jim as we were hoping for, but Jim's entire presence is all over the new Dark Angel material that I've been working on. And he's a huge guitar influence on me, as well as a lot of people. So, there's definitely gonna be a pretty hardy Jim Durkin influence. And I just wanna write a kick-ass metal album. So what I've tried to do is not go back 35 years or 37 years or whatever, Darkness Descends or even We Have Arrived, those early albums, or Leave Scars or Time Does Not Heal, I've not tried to duplicate anything from any of those albums, but I tried to put myself in the mindset of what if Dark Angel just kept writing albums for the last 30-whatever years, 32, 33 years, where would we be at now? And so that has been my approach on the new Dark Angel material."

Source:	youtube.com
Band profile:	Dark Angel