News: Heaven’s Metal staffers Van Pelt and Haley release Fake Metal – Angels of Vengeance (AI Alert)
For Immediate Release: Heaven’s Metal Editor Doug Van Pelt and Staff Writer Lee Haley have joined forces to create a ten-song power metal album with Middle Eastern instruments. The so-called “Artist” name is Angels of Vengeance and the title of the album is The Warriors of Tehachapi. The first single off the album, “Kinsman Avenger,” was released today (10/9/26).
“I know, I know … that the use of AI in music is weird, wacky, and suspect,” says Van Pelt. “I understand the misgivings we all have.”
Angels of Vengeance is a fake metal band! But it starts with real people: Doug Van Pelt (Heaven’s Metal) and Lee Haley (One Bad Pig). All songs were conceived, written and directed by Doug Van Pelt. All guitars were directed by Lee Haley.
“I forgot how good Lee was on the guitar. He’d take his HILS NEXT HN3 six-string electric or his Taylor 214 acoustic and connect to his computer with some guitar plug interface and he’d play a riff and tell the Suno program to follow suit. For some of the blazing fast oud (Middle Eastern instrument) riffs, he’d use the nylon string acoustic.
“‘Some of these riffs are brutal,'”‘ he’d say. He’d also caution me and tried to hold me back from some of the technical and uber skilled playing. ‘You’ve got to write with the live performance in mind,’ he’d tell me.
“I’d tell him, ‘Look, if this becomes the ultimate demo for a superstar Christian metal band, that’s great. But I’m not going to limit anything for this recording. Let it rip!’ And rip it up he did. I can’t tell you how happy I am with this recording. The fact that it’s not a filled-out with real humans performing all these tunes is secondary to how cool it sounds, at least in my mind.”
The first single, “Kinsman Avenger,” starts off like the rest of the ten songs on The Warriors of Tehachapi, with over a minute of instrumentation. This mixture of Middle Eastern instruments—like the oud and Darbuka drums, with the twin guitar attack of power metal bands like Judas Priest, Sabaton, and myriads of others—is what sets this project apart. The only band my naive and unresearched set of ears have heard that sound similar is the Myrath. “Blazing desert metal.” Who knew?
The storyline of the lyrics are about the law and concept of the kinsman avenger and the security of a sanctuary city for the manslaughter slayer.
“I wrote this album,” says enhanced-by-technology vocalist and lyricist Doug Van Pelt, “for my 17-year-old self. Taking these grisly, blunt, brutal, and violent stories from the Old Testament and marrying them to power metal music makes these true stories come alive in such a way that might have really appealed to me at that stage in my life.
“This is a toy I’m playing with,” continues the heavy metal magazine editor, “and boy, am I having fun! This is a dream I had, and one thing I’ve trained myself to be is a pursuer of dreams. If I felt like God was calling me to go stand in the ‘Free Speech’ zone at the University of Texas during my lunch hour and preach, I’d go do it. There’s something about taking dream steps that strengthens you for the future—the next dream. This is one of those next dreams.
“I’m a music critic and journalist. I know the DNA of art—especially rock music. I know where it came from. It came from suffering. It came from the blues. It came from humans with soul. I’m not unaware of this fact. I’d almost die for art, too. But I’m not going to let the wind of nay-saying deter me from this vision. Come what may.
“I remember seeing Extreme on the Take Us Alive Tour in ‘08. Guitarist Nuno Bettencourt asked the audience, ‘How many of you guys play Guitar Hero?’ A lot of people in the audience gleefully raised their hand. He sneered, ‘Why don’t you learn how to play the real guitar?’ I love that band, but that sounded like a grumpy old man. That’s not me. And that’s not Lee. This is fun. I think it sounds unique. I think it sounds great. I hope this ‘music’ can find some appreciative ears out there. If not, it’s just for me. Me and my little heavy metal toy.”
The “band,” er, uh, project has a website: angelsofvengeance.com, and can be contacted via email at doug@angelsofvengeance.com or lee@angelsofvengeance.com. The first single has been released digitally, with the full album scheduled to drop on Oct. 30. There are vinyl and CD options at ElasticStage.
Digital options are live: Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, etc.
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