“He knows what he wants, and I just follow his lead.” - Why Ted Aguilar Still Feels like The New Guy in Death Angel - Bloodstock 2026

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Death Angel guitarist Ted Aguilar joins Guitar Interactive's Hayley Leggs backstage at Bloodstock Festival 2026 to talk about his ESP signature guitar, sharing guitar duties with Rob Cavestany and an incredible milestone, 25 years as a member of Death Angel. Ted recalls first seeing Death Angel as a fan in San Francisco in 1987 and following the band through every album before eventually receiving the call from Rob Cavestany to join them.

Twenty-five years later, Ted says he still sometimes feels like “the new guy” and remains “like a kid in a candy store” whenever the band plays, writes or records. He also discusses his relationship with Rob, describing him as Death Angel's “mad scientist” and explaining why he trusts Rob's songwriting vision rather than fighting for the spotlight. Ted also reveals his favourite songs from The Evil Divide, admits there is one Death Angel song he's occasionally tired of playing, although he refuses to name it, and talks through his latest ESP TED EC Eclipse signature guitar.

Finally, Ted imagines his ultimate money-no-object touring setup: multiple rigs waiting on different continents, no more flying with guitars, and perhaps even a private jet for the longer journeys.

Hello, I’m Hayley Leggs, and I’m here for Guitar Interactive at Bloodstock Festival 2026 with my lovely friend Ted from Death Angel.

Hi, Hayley.

Hi, Ted. It’s been a while.

It has been a while.

Welcome back to Bloodstock.

Thank you. Home of metalheads—heavy-metal fest, as someone once called it.

I wanted to ask you specifically about your guitars, and then some more general questions too. Tell me about your signature guitar series.

Actually, I have three of them, and I’m on my third one. It’s with ESP and it’s called the Ted EC Eclipse. It’s basically all black with white pickups, because my first two series were all white. Then I got another one that’s all black, but I wanted to mix the two up. I said, ‘Let’s make it all black with white tuning-machine heads and white pickups. Let’s have a bit of both.’

What was the development process like for that?

It’s funny. ESP has been really good. This one was based on a custom guitar they made; I call it ‘The Moth.’ There’s a big moth on the back of the guitar, a moth engraved on the twelfth fret, and LED lights on it. They said, ‘That whole black-with-white-pickups look could be a signature.’ So we decided to do it.

Very Silence of the Lambs.

Yeah. I’m going to be playing it tonight.

When it comes to handling the guitar duties between you and Rob, how do you decide when he’s going to take over and you step back, or when it’s time for you to come in?

I basically leave that all up to Rob. Rob’s the mad scientist. He’s the main songwriter and the producer of the band. He also writes lyrics along with Mark, and he has this vision. When you have an artist with a vision, I don’t want to step in; you have to let him see it through. When it’s all done, I do have my opinions—I’ll say, ‘Why don’t we do this or that?’—but ninety-nine percent of the time, I just go with it. He’ll tell me, ‘I’ve got this solo spot for you here. Do that.’ I say, ‘Okay, whatever you want.’ I’m a team player and an easy guy. Rob’s a great songwriter, and I love what he writes, so I follow his lead.

A lot of respect.

He knows what’s going on, and I love all the songs he’s written. He picks out the set list, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, we’re playing that song. Cool.’ There are certain things where he says, ‘Why don’t you do that, and I’ll do this?’ He leads it; I follow.

In that department, what are your favourite songs to play?

‘The Moth’ is one of my favourites right now.

Of course—it inspired the guitar.

It’s a fun song to play. The riffs are really good, and it has great energy. Mark sings it really well. There are quite a few favourites. This year is the tenth anniversary of ‘The Evil Divide', so we’re playing a lot of songs from it when we do headline shows. At festivals, you’re limited to a certain amount of time. On this tour, it’s ‘The Moth,’ ‘Hatred United / United Hate,’ and all the material from ‘The Evil Divide’. I’m having a good time. Of course, there are the songs people love, like ‘Thrown to the Wolves’ and ‘The Dream Calls for Blood.’

Are there any songs where you think, ‘Really? Do we have to play this one again?’

There are, but I’m not going to name a song.

You don’t want to ruin it for the fans.

I don’t want to ruin it for a fan who loves that song. I don’t hate it; it’s just one of those, ‘Again?’ But I understand why people like it. I’ll go up there, play it with a smile, and be into it.

When you joined the band, they were already pretty well established. How was it trying to settle into this, because you were already a fan, right? You had connections with them.

I was very much a fan. It’s funny you’re talking about this. I saw them at my first show in 1987 in San Francisco. I saw them on every album, and then they broke up. Throughout the nineties, when they reformed for the Chuck Billy benefit—when Chuck Billy had cancer—they had a benefit in San Francisco called Thrash of the Titans. Four out of the five original members were able to do it. Gus Pepa, the other guitar player, was living in the Philippines at the time and just wasn’t into doing it anymore. Rob called me, and here we are today. Today is August 8th, and August 11th will be twenty-five years since I’ve been with Death Angel.

Happy twenty-fifth anniversary.

Bloodstock’s twenty-fifth anniversary too.

It is. Oh my God—perfect.

August 11th will be twenty-five years since I joined Death Angel. That was my first gig twenty-five years ago.

How long did it take for you to stop feeling like the new guy?

When Will and Damien came in. But I still kind of feel new. It’s that excitement; I’m still excited about it. I’m still like a kid in a candy store. I get excited when we play, and I get excited when we do anything band-related—writing, recording, all that stuff. It’s still fun. I think when you lose that fanboy feeling, that’s when you have to step away and enjoy it from afar.

If money were no object, what guitar setup would you have on stage?

That’s hard. If money weren’t an object, I’d have multiple rigs on each continent, so we wouldn’t have to fly with our guitars or deal with customs with all this gear. That would be handy. We wouldn’t have to worry about things; you’d just show up and everything would be there, like Metallica probably does. Iron Maiden probably does it too. If money weren’t an object, I’d do that.

That’s perfect—the sheer ease.

The convenience of it. But all of them would be the most banging setup. While we’re on the subject, maybe a jet to go here and there would be nice.

That wouldn’t hurt.

On long flights—more than six hours—let’s jet it. If it’s under six, a nice tour bus. Maybe a boat ride. Get a balance of both.

Wonderful. I’m very much looking forward to seeing the set. Do you know which song you’re most excited to play today?

All of them.

Good answer. I look forward to checking out all of your favourite songs, which is all of them. Thank you very much for talking to us.

Thank you, Hayley, and thank you, Guitar Interactive. We’re at the twenty-fifth anniversary of Bloodstock. How many years has Guitar Interactive been going?

Since 2008, so about eighteen years.

Not far off. Eighteen years—it’s old enough to drink in this country.

Very much.

Thank you, Hayley, and thank you, everyone.

Thank you, Ted.