The Story
1989–1992: In a freshman art-survey class recording of “Kokomo,” Kevin Borland picked up guitar. He formed Descending Angel with drummer Rob Santiago and bassist Jim Frint. Early vocalists included John Giordano, Dan Dempsey, and Steve Santiago, before settling into a long run with Missy Helmstetter. The band gigged in Northern New Jersey and New York, blending originals with covers by Poison, Ozzy Osbourne, and popular hair metal bands of the time.
1993: The group cut a self-titled 10-song cassette. The sessions captured the spark, but mix/format limitations left the archive hard to enjoy. The Age of Robots album contains a reimagined version of "There's a Heaven" using 2025 technology.
1996: After Kevin's MIT years (and a popular alt-rock cover band stint), he tracked volumes of new Descending Angel material with Jeff McManus in Oak Ridge, NJ—some with Rob on drums, some with Jeff. "Try a Little Harder" became a cassette single with vocals by Wes Williams (singer from Kevin's MIT alternative rock band); a new version also appears on Age of Robots. Several other songs remained demos or instrumentals.
2025 — Age of Robots: Kevin restored and re-produced 10 classic Descending Angel songs and built an AI e-singer inspired by Missy's timbre to front the modern versions. The album name was chosen to contrast the "Age of Cassettes" in which the original incarnation of the band lived. The result is Age of Robots: a faithful continuation of the band's melodic metal—with present-day punch.
