Conjuring dragons and sorcerers, the Los Angels symphonic and progressive instrumental metal band Angels On The Battlefield treads common metal ground. But below the medieval imagery, a more personal and less explored theme lives: a battle not between knights and evildoers, but the struggle within.
Indeed, a stated mission of Angels On The Battlefield, who released their latest single “A Dance With Angels” today, “is to empower listeners through music, to assist individuals who are fighting on their own battlefields and to help them find courage,” and “to improve awareness of and discourse around mental illness through the power of heavy metal.”
The new song will be featured on the group’s debut album “A New Beginning,” which comes out in January and follows a debut EP released in 2018.
Guitarist JD McGibney, formerly of Voodoo Kungfu, a metal band formed in Beijing that relocated to LA, launched Angels On The Battlefield as a side project before solidifying a full band line-up in 2021. The current roster is bassist Jason Klein, formerly of Butcher Babies, drummer Eddie Trager, formerly of Nekrogoblikon, and keyboard player Chris Wirsig, whose work includes composing for TV, film and video games.
As McGibney and company were creating the new album, topical themes emerged, he explains.
“Most of the songs on the record came to be composed over the span of a little over a decade,” McGibney says in a video interview. “Once everything was kind of finished and fleshed out, I realized, ‘Oh, there’s a lot of common themes going on here.’ After the writing period was done, I kind of realized, ‘This is what these songs are conveying to me,’ and they kind of built the theme themselves, I feel.”
Listeners might wonder how concepts usually presented via lyrics announce themselves to the writer of an instrumental song.
“That is a really good question,” says McGibney. “Each of the songs in my head has a narrative that goes along with it. Every song that you hear, there’s a story that goes along with it, so through that narrative is where I’m driving the themes of everything. A lot of it is obviously emotionally driven in the compositions, or we have a few songs that were inspired by books, or like ‘Modern Prometheus,’ which is not on the album, is inspired by Frankenstein, but still, there’s an emotional context to the composition that I related to.”
One of the songs on the upcoming album, “Beauty In A Body Bag,” tackles Borderline Personality Disorder.
“I’ve actually had two people in my life previously who have Borderline Personality Disorder,” the guitarist and composer says. “One person is clinically diagnosed with it, and the other person has not been clinically diagnosed but shows all nine signs of BPD. It’s affected my life as an outsider, as a loved one, looking in and just seeing the hardships that people that suffer from BPD go through on a daily basis. And for me, one of the most heartbreaking things is seeing somebody go through that and deal with that level of darkness and not being able to actually do anything for them.
“But there are treatments for BPD. You very much need to see a mental health professional in order to properly get that treatment, but it is 100% treatable. I just want to bring awareness to it because I personally have seen people suffer from it, and it’s utterly heartbreaking.”
Heavy metal musicians have traditionally portrayed themselves as larger-than-life “tough guys,” with some even cosplaying as Vikings or demons. The vulnerability required to open up a discission about mental health goes against that perception. However, McGibney says he hasn’t experienced any reticence from the metal community. In fact, he has found it to be an inclusive space since his youth.
“Everyone in the band is 100% on board with the message and the mission of the band in general, which makes doing this just feel so much more comfortable knowing that I have a team around me that believes in the same thing. Because it’s hard to make art with that kind of purpose without having anyone wanting to do the same thing, especially because it touches on such a sensitive topic. But the overall feedback and reaction has been wonderful, and I personally feel that the metal community in general is a lot more open to mental health in general. A band like Bring Me The Horizon, lyrically and thematically, Oli Sykes is very open with his struggles and the things that he goes through.
“I also think especially with a lot of legacy acts, like a band like Metallica, I think when a band opens up with a song like ‘Nothing Else Matters,’ when that song came out, it was a shock, because James Hetfield just kind of poured his heart out, wore his heart on his sleeve.
“I personally have experienced almost nothing but love for openly talking about mental health, and I want to give credit to the metal community for just being so open to one another, because one of the things that drew me to the community when I was a kid was the fact that it was so inclusive. When I was growing up, I was an awkward kid. I felt like I didn’t really fit in anywhere, but going to metal concerts or hanging out with other metalheads, there was this idea of acceptance of like, oh, you could just be you, you don’t have to put on any pretense. It’s just you are who you are. Just come on in.”
McGibney hosts a podcast called “Conquer Your Battlefield,” where he and a guest discuss life’s struggles and metaphorical battlefields. Past guests include Atreyu’s Travis Miguel and Dr. Jerald Kreisman, a leading international expert on BPD. Future guests include Vicky Psarakis from Sicksense and Matt Cerami of Lapetus.
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