DEATH ANGEL drummer Will Carroll recently returned home after spending almost two weeks on a ventilator in an intensive care unit at a Northern California hospital. The musician — who tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus — first got sick when he and the rest of DEATH ANGEL spent more than a month on the road in Europe with TESTAMENT and EXODUS as part of "The Bay Strikes Back 2020" tour. Carroll told Decibel magazine in a new interview that he "knew" he had been infected with the coronavirus while he was still in Europe. "I get colds here and there but I had a fever and aching and this intense flu," he said. "I never get sick like that. On the flight, I worried I wouldn't get through [the San Francisco] international airport. They were testing people at the passport check. Since we travel so much in and out of there, people recognized us and just said, 'DEATH ANGEL — welcome home.' We looked like shit and were sweating. But since they see us all the time, we got lucky." According to Carroll, his condition took a turn for the worse "about three days" after he returned home. "My fiancée said I looked and sounded terrible," he told Decibel. "She said I was wheezing in my sleep and struggling to breathe. That's the last thing I remember. I don't remember the ambulance ride or getting to the hospital. The next thing I remember is waking up after a 12-day coma with tubes stuck in me and machines all around. I didn't even know I was in San Francisco." Asked he was scared when he woke up, Will said: "Like I mentioned, I don't remember going to the hospital. They didn't want to give me too much information at once, because they didn't want me to go into shock. They were just asking me questions here and there. They were asking if I knew what year it was and who the president was. I kept asking what city and country I was in. When they told me I was in San Francisco, I was very relieved. Once I calmed down, I got the whole story and was asked if I remember going to the hospital 12 days ago. I guess I could barely breathe and my lungs were collapsing. When they told me I was in a coma for 12 days, it was like a baseball bat to the head. But it was smart to not give me all the information at once. Once I came to grips, they told me they seriously thought I was going to die. That was a scary thing to hear. I was both thankful and horrified." On March 22, TESTAMENT singer Chuck Billy revealed that he had tested positive for COVID-19. Several days later, EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt also said that he was infected with the new coronavirus. DEATH ANGEL has spent the last few months touring in support of its ninth album, "Humanicide", which came out last May via Nuclear Blast. The band was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Metal Performance" for the "Humanicide" title track. It was the group's first Grammy nomination. Carroll joined DEATH ANGEL in 2009 as the replacement for the band's original drummer, Andy Galeon. Will can be heard on the last four DEATH ANGEL studio albums: "Relentless Retribution" (2010), "The Dream Calls for Blood" (2013), "The Evil Divide" (2016) and the aforementioned "Humanicide".
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