Death Angel's Will Carroll has attested to an entirely otherworldly experience following a bout with the coronavirus that landed him in a coma. The veteran thrash metal drummer claimed he visited hell and made visual contact with Satan after contracting COVID-19 while on a European tour in March.

Carroll spent 12 days in the medically induced coma after the band cut its trek short amid the global coronavirus outbreak, as GQ reported. When he awoke at San Francisco's California Pacific Medical Center on March 30, the musician — as he told it — had quite literally been to hell and back.

"I went to hell and Satan was a woman, and I was being punished for sloth," Carroll told Decibel last month. "I was this giant obese Jabba the Hut type creature. I was vomiting blood and kept on vomiting blood until I had a heart attack, which is kind of weird because I had heart failure during my coma."

The musician continues, "I remember rising up from hell … and once I got to heaven it was horrifying there, too. It was like a Roman orgy and the angels were scarier than the demons. I shot back down to earth, and I was with some friends in a nightclub. … That's the last thing I remember."

Amounting to more than just a dream, the drummer described the vivid trip to the afterlife as an "out of body" encounter. "I don't believe in Bigfoot, and I'm not an ambulance chaser," he cautioned. "I'm not a super-spiritual guy."

Still, when he finally stirred from his coma, he asked a nurse, "Am I still in hell?"

The truncated tour that resulted in Carroll's coronavirus battle was called "Bay Strikes Back" and featured fellow Bay Area thrash legends Testament and Exodus. Exodus and Slayer guitarist Gary Holt came down with COVID-19 as well, but he made a much smoother recovery after testing positive.

Indeed, Carroll seems to have suffered the worst among the musicians who experienced coronavirus symptoms, which included Death Angel bassist Damien Sisson and guitarist Rob Cavestany. Attending doctors Ritik Chandra and pulmonologist George Horng painted a grim picture of Carroll's hospitalization, which they shared with the San Francisco Chronicle's Datebook this week.

Horng said the drummer was "near the limits of what we could do with our supportive care, and we were very worried about him. He wasn't getting worse, but if he were to get worse, there wasn't much more that we could have done."

Thankfully, Carroll and the group of affected musicians have all since recovered. The experience has given the Death Angel drummer a new lease on life, and he said he's going to cut out heavy drinking and smoking going forward. He's currently in therapy, strengthening his body after the ordeal.

"This is not the common flu," Carroll warned. "You really need to stay indoors and follow the rules. It's no fun to be cooped up, and I'm no fan of Big Brother but we have to prevent this from spreading. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy and people need to take it seriously."

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