In a new interview with the That Metal Interview podcast, DARK ANGEL drummer Gene Hoglan once again discussed the supposed influence the title track of DARK ANGEL‘s 1986 album, “Darkness Descends”, had on the METALLICA song “One”, which was released two years later. Reflecting on when he first heard the METALLICA cut, Gene said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): ”This was pre-YouTube, pre-streaming. If the album [wasn’t] out yet, you had to listen to the radio to hear it. And at that time, KNAC in Los Angeles, they were the rock radio station across the U.S., arguably. And so that new [METALLICA] song was getting played all over KNAC. And I admit, I didn’t… I had my cassettes in my car. I listen to cassettes of things. I wasn’t listening to KNAC a lot, but I was getting phone calls and messages, answering machine messages from friends saying, ‘Hey, man, have you checked out that new METALLICA? Man, check that thing out, man. Wait till you hear that thing.’ And I’m just, like, ‘Oh, okay. Well, whatever.’ And when I heard it, I understood what everybody was talking about.”
Theorizing how METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich might have heard “Darkness Descends” in time to “borrow” Gene‘s drum pattern, Hoglan continued: “I thought back to — ’cause I always love trying to figure out the genealogy or the lineage of riffs and ideas and concepts and what came here, what came first, and I remember having a conversation with [future METALLICA bassist] Jason Newsted when he was in FLOTSAM AND JETSAM, and ‘Darkness Descends’ was just coming out. [FLOTSAM AND JETSAM‘s] ‘Doomsday For The Deceiver’ was out. We were backstage at the Country Club [in Reseda, California]. We were out in the parking lot just shooting the breeze and talking about metal and stuff. And he was talking about what a DARK ANGEL fan he was. And that’s where I was kind of, like, he talked about what a fan that he was, and I just kind of wondered… I wonder how this… At first, it’s, like, okay, it’s a coincidence. It’s a drumbeat. But when the opening lyric [of ‘One’] is ‘Darkness imprisoning me,’ that’s why I was kind of, like…”
Gene clarified that he was “never offended” by Lars apparently lifting one of his drum licks. “I was grateful,” he said. “I was, like, thank you. You made this riff, this thing that I wrote, we wrote, whatever, you just made it become legendary. Thank you, Lars. You are the godfather of all that we do. Please, if I’ve got anything you wanna borrow, you are welcome to it. Absolutely.”
Hoglan went on to say that there was another DARK ANGEL riff that made it into an earlier METALLICA song. “I remember hearing ‘Battery’ by METALLICA,” he recalled. “The first time I heard it, I was, like, ‘Hey, Jim [Durkin, then-DARK ANGEL guitarist]. That’s the riff from ‘Welcome To The Slaughterhouse’ off [DARK ANGEL‘s] ‘We Have Arrived’ [album].’ I was, like, ‘Yeah, that’s the same riff.'”
Gene added: “I’m the riff police. I’m the O.G. riff police. I could tell you where this riff sounds just like this riff. And [I heard it] admittedly from people where they’re, like, ‘We totally stole that from you. The other guy in my band, he writes and he’s writing some classic metallic tunes that are gonna go down in the annals of history. He’s borrowing drastically from your band,’ kind of thing. And I’m just, like, ‘Wow. That’s crazy how that works out.’
“But, yeah, that’s where I just wondered,” Hoglan said. “And I wonder if that’s where it comes from. But METALLICA are the fathers. Lars Ulrich is the godfather of what we do, Bill Ward [BLACK SABBATH] being the godfather of what we all do. So, Lars will always get much respect from me, and we appreciate you doing that.
“And you know who plays that [‘One’] drum beat better than just about anybody, even myself? [METALLICA frontman] James Hetfield. You never heard him when they do their little drum thing on stage? James Hetfield gets on the drums and he plays it, and he plays that beat, and it is so rock solid. I’m, like, ‘God, he plays that better than me. And I wrote that darn thing.’
“So, there you go. But we are very appreciative to METALLICA for how they’ve helped us in that little annals of history.”
Back in 2019, Gene said that he once joked about suing the members of METALLICA for allegedly “ripping off” “Darkness Descends” for “One”. The DARK ANGEL drummer revealed his band’s musical connection to METALLICA while discussing the evolution of double-bass drumming during an appearance on Dean Delray‘s “Let There Be Talk” podcast.
When Delray brought up METALLICA‘s 1988 cut as an example of how the use of unison sextuplets between a wall of guitars and Lars Ulrich‘s aggressively EQ’d kick drums redefined the use of double-bass drums in metal, Hoglan said: “I’ll flat out tell you, that comes from a DARK ANGEL song. That comes from ‘Darkness Descends’. And it’s well known in the scene that as soon as [METALLICA] put out ‘One’, I got so many phone calls going, ‘You know those guys are ripping you off.'”
Gene continued: “We had [METALLICA‘s longtime] soundman, ‘Big’ Mick [Hughes], we had him on a tour, and METALLICA was up for the Grammy at the time, but it hadn’t been announced or anything yet. And I was joking that, ‘If they win the Grammy, I’m gonna sue.’ [I was] totally joking. And Mick was, like, ‘You should. They’ll probably give you a hundred grand to shut you up.’ And I was, like, ‘I’m not gonna become the pariah of the metal scene by suing METALLICA.’ Everybody’s stolen METALLICA riffs.”
Asked by Delray if he believes “One” was inspired by “Darkness Descends” in the drumming only or in “the musical part” as well, Hoglan responded: “The whole everything. The drum part, definitely. And that’s why I just thought it was kind of funny. The first line in the whole thing is, ‘Darkness…’ And it comes right from ‘Darkness Descends’, opening track on the second [DARK ANGEL] record. So, as soon as you hear it, you’d catch it.”
Gene went on to say he never brought up the similarity to Ulrich despite the fact that he had toured with METALLICA many years later when he was a member of FEAR FACTORY.
“One” was featured on METALLICA‘s fourth album, “…And Justice For All”, which was the band’s last LP to be engineered and co-produced by Flemming Rasmussen, who also worked on “Ride The Lightning” (1984) and “Master Of Puppets” (1986). According to Rasmussen, Ulrich blasted out the double-bass machine gun section in one take. “He just flew straight through that,” he told Songfacts.
Eight years ago, Hoglan told LA Weekly that the “Darkness Descends” title track was the first metal song inspired by Judge Dredd, right before ANTHRAX did its own tribute to Dredd with “I Am The Law” on the 1987 album “Among The Living”.
A short YouTube clip pointing out the musical similarity between “One” and “Darkness Descends” can be found below.
