Band:	Dark Angel
Album:	Time Does Not Heal
Style:	Bay Area thrash metal
Release date:	February 19, 1991
Guest review by:	K✞ulu

01. Time Does Not Heal
02. Pain's Invention, Madness
03. Act Of Contrition
04. The New Priesthood
05. Psychosexuality
06. An Ancient Inherited Shame
07. Trauma And Catharsis
08. Sensory Deprivation
09. A Subtle Induction
10. The Promise Of Agony [live] [2008 re-release bonus]
11. I Don't Care About You [live] [2008 re-release bonus]

Back in 1991, Time Does Not Heal might have come as a shock for Dark Angel fans. The band had already turned the melody knob of their music up on the previous album Leave Scars. But if the latter still had a lot of elements of the famous Darkness Descends - the vocals and a lion's share of music style - this piece of Thrash Metal headed in a different direction altogether. Ron Rinehert is not trying to set the new world record in pronouncing the greatest number of words a minute anymore, and...he can actually sing. On this record he really sings, sustaining some words for a few seconds, which sound not bad at all. This is something that really changes a lot in the sound of the band.

Another thing that pleases the ear is the step the band takes to diversify the song structures. Although most of them follow the typical Dark Angel "slow intro - fast rest of the song" composition, a lot of songs are now filled with numerous bridges, following the trend of the previous album and making the songs rather lengthy. The title track even has an acoustic intro; the kind of thing which had not been heard on any album since We Have Arrived. The band also does success in song writing in general showing a bunch of great riffs, which are said to amount to 246 on this one. Despite all this, some songs, like "New Priesthood" or "A Subtle Induction" are not inferior in rawness to the songs from the previous albums. Only the vocals and production let you know you are on a different territory. Yes, finally the production is truly satisfactory, and it is definitely the most crucial change in the sound. All the instruments are well-balanced and are clearly heard. Finally the guitars and the drums are recorded so as not to hurt each others' sounding.

Time Does Not Heal is Dark Angel's last album due to the band's break-up in 1992. Gene Hoglan once mentioned that his dream was "to put Dark Angel back together and sell out arenas." Well, with mature albums like this one and the growth rate that the band showed, I guess that still may be possible with enough desire to do that.