Morbid Angel - Juvenilia (2015)

One has to wonder: is the title of this retro live album released for Record Store Day 2015 simply a nod to the fact that its date of recording (November 1989) being a moment in Morbid Angel's formative, 'juvenile' (aka important) history, or is there something potentially backhanded going on as some sort of meta reference to the overwhelmingly negative response to the band's last full length album where they suddenly thought they were Nine Inch Nails and Ice T? Obviously it's the former, right? At any rate, at least they got the wretched 'J' out of the way in their alphabetic catalog titling, and this is a limited release 12" record which some people will feel really lucky to have picked up, and the rest will just have to borrow it from one of said lucky individuals or listen to a rip online. Like its cover artwork and title imply, this is all material from a single gig, in Nottingham, in the late 80s, which means it involves Altars of Madness and little else...fine for me, since that happens to remain my favorite Morbid Angel disc.

In fact, it's pretty much that entire album, only performed in the live setting and not a particularly good recording, so I'm willing to bet the album ends up as a collectors' trophy, perhaps hanging on a bedroom or basement wall for cred, and not listened through very much. That's not because the band does a poor job of it, in fact the music hits here just like the wall of force it provided in its studio incarnation, only being a relatively primitive gig recording I feel like the bass and rhythm guitar levels kind of blend into this monotonous murk slightly upstaged by the clap of the snares and cymbals and the roiling bark of David Vincent. You can make out the gist of the notes on parade, and sure they sound just as fresh and evil structurally as they should have in '89, especially during the percussion breaks in tunes like "Immortal Rites" where the tremolo picked guitars break out on their own. As a whole, the recording is rather clean, the pacing of the set non-stop and furious, but it all just feels rather dry due to the restraints of the equipment used to capture it, and there is just no situation in which I'd ever want to listen to this over Altars of Madness itself, where you get all that depth and vivid, extradimensional carnage. I mean, Earache and the band know this, thus the limited number of copies...more confidence would mean more in circulation, in more formats.

So it's visceral, and the band were ablaze at the dawn (and arguably summit) of their career, but the reels here just don't do the songs as much justice as you'd hope. Which is, let's be honest, not going to bother a lot of underground death metal fans who seek out demos and rarities and thrive off the very primacy that the older recordings espouse. It's still a thrill to hear "Chapel of Ghouls" and "Lord of All Fevers and Plagues", and if you're a huge Trey fan, he starts sporadically showboating for a few moments after "Chapel...", which is frankly irritating and unnecessary in any context, at any time.  I guess my one takeaway here is that it just reminds me again of how great Altars was, and I hope the band sit there with this on a stereo, laugh at the shoddy recording quality (not the worst I've heard, but not very good), and then suddenly get swept up in reminiscence of when they were on top of the freaking world. After which, I sincerely hope they channel the nostalgia into their next studio recording, because I feel like they've been firing blanks since good old Y2K and I'm all about redemption. This is certainly a band capable of reining in the chaos of their roller coaster existence, and I want to believe they shall once again. But no matter what happens, we'll always have Altars of Madness, and at the very least this live recording reminds us (or reveals to us) how incendiary they were in front of a crowd. The band on this vinyl was a great one, regardless of any auditory deficiency.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

http://www.morbidangel.com/

Morbid Angel - Illud Divinum Insanus (2011)

It's a testament to a band's enormity when so many fans hinge upon each new release as if it were some kind of life changing or universe altering event, and such is the case for Morbid Angel. I've found the Florida vets to have one of the most inconsistent careers in all the death metal genre, peaking on their debut Altars of Madness and then bouncing back and forth between forgettable arrays of half cooked ideas and sudden storms of cohesive creativity and brilliance. I've never been a fan of Blessed are the Sick, Formulas Fatal to the Flesh, or Heretic, for example, but on the flip side I've a highly vested interest in Altars, Domination and Gateways to Annihilation, several of which are themselves divisive offerings.

So, when a leak of the band's latest Illud Divinum Insanus trickled out 'mysteriously' some time ago, it stands to reason that the masses would erupt in predictable poo flinging, metal monkeys on a crusade to protect their natural environment from outside influences (i.e. the deniers of the potential career holocaust that Morbid Angel just might have unleashed). There was quite a wealth of jabber from both the audience and the musicians involved about the 'experimental' nature of this, the band's long anticipated 'I' album, but unfortunately, aside from its stylistic dissemination, there is pitifully little of the innovation or 'avant garde' about what Trey and his ever shifting lunatic parade have conjured forth this time. Illud Divinum Insanus is instead split pretty evenly between monotonous, electronically imbued chargers and then some rather paltry death metal filler that wouldn't have even been worthy of the band's previous disappointments.

So, yes. This time, the clouds of nebulous, negative chatter that acted as vanguard to this album's release seem to have been acute in their shocked and awed reactions, but at the same time, this is hardly the biggest misstep I've heard in the metal genre. It's bad, but not unshakable enough to lose sleep over. Much of the staggering propaganda seems to revolve around expectations that the David Vincent comeback album would somehow be something of magnificence, after his long stint with the Genitorturers. Or that Pete Sandoval would be unable to record the album, and so was replaced with Tim Yeung for the sessions. Or that it was the studio debut for newcomer Destructhor, who had previously impressed some audiences through Myrkskog and Zyklon. I can say with great confidence that none of these musical chairs have anything to do with the lack of quality upon Illud Divinum Insanus. Instead, it's the poor songwriting, poorly chosen pace of the record and stagnant ideas that will drag it into the latrine of infamy.

For starters, the first 9 minutes of this album are incredibly erroneous and weak. "Omni Potens" is a ritual intro piece delivered through boring synthesizer/horn lines and broken chanting, just as vapid as any of the interlude pieces from Formulas. Then there is "Too Extreme!" Do not adjust your screen. That's really the name of this brainless techno banger. Apparently the idea of 'innovation' here is to incorporate pathetic gabber beats that wouldn't have been impressive for a garage DJ in 1987 into a ringing and annoying cacophony of useless riffs that could find no other home, while Vincent rambles out crappy lyrics and a chorus in Spanish?! Once this nightmare has subsided, we get a streak of straight, familiar death metal through "Existo Vulgoré " and "Blades of Baal"; the same, pummeling blend of blasts and chugging that the band had perfected through albums like Domination to Gateways to Annihilation, only rendered wholly uninspiring due to the lack of memorable guitar patterns. Empty fists, beating the bored listless. The latter has a few spikes of excitement through the bridge, just not enough to save the song.

"I Am Morbid" feels like a vainglorious and cheesy march designed for the Morbid Angel faithful, but again it cedes into some pretty generic chugging/groove metal, while the next piece, "10 More Dead" might actually have pulled itself off without the lyrical flow that gives it a near gangsta rap approximation. What a waste of rhythm! Then we've got another of the band's awful techno pieces "Destructos vs. the Earth/Attack". Truly lamentable. In fact, how did this make it onto the album? How did it make muster? "Nevermore" is more of the pseudo-psycho groove driven ballast that many fans were probably hoping for. Perhaps the safest track on the album, so it's no wonder they used it as the advance single, but it's just nonetheless too easily fleeting from the memory chamber, a wax on/wax off of self-derivation. "Beauty and the Beast" is also familiar and forgettable, but still in the vein of Gateways/Heretic; while "Radikult" has some curious, bleeding melodies through it. Despite its 7 and a half minute bloat, I'd have to say it was the best track here. Just when you think the album might find some salvation, though, the generic gabber returns for the indistinct "Profundis - Mea Culpa", its sliding and schizoid guitar lines the only things going for it...

Illud Divinum Insanus plays out like an ill-informed mash of hurried ideas that needed far more time in the cauldron to come to a boil, but even if we were to trim away the needless techno fat, the meat itself is gamey malnourishment. Should we reduce this record to perhaps four tracks: "Radikult", "Nevermore", "Blades of Baal" and "Beauty and the Beast", then you'd have an EP of material possibly on the level of Heretic. The mix is functional, with the same punctuation and percussive tones the band have been using for years, and admittedly more solid than Heretic. Of course, functional is just not good enough, and neither are these songs. Eight years and nothing to show for it. A St. Anger. A victim of its own swollen expectations, sucking at the 'out of touch' trough, its only success riding on brand name alone. Surely Morbid Angel could do a lot better by their fans than this, but more importantly: they could do a lot better by themselves.

Verdict: Fail [3.5/10] (false idols blown away)

http://www.morbidangel.com/

Morbid Angel - Heretic (2003)

The 21st century has not been the most productive for Morbid Angel, who are now at the precipice of releasing only their 2nd full-length beyond Gateways to Annihilation (at the turn of the century). Now, granted, it's not as if they truly needed anything else to secure their legacy as legends or pioneers of the death metal genre, inspiring thousands of similar acts, but there seems to be this frivolous, counter-concern within the Trey and Pete camp in recent times. They'll do a tour, play the oldies, and every now and then, when they can bring themselves to care, churn some new material out of the womb of their imaginations. They've made their mark, so why bother to make another?

It's this tinkering and attention deficit which poison Heretic from achieving higher accolades, for while the 7th studio outing has its curiosities, and even a few revelations, it lacks the consistency and desolate might of its predecessor. Gateways to Annihilation was a trying and poignant glare into emptiness through the muscle of pure force, but Heretic seems far lazier. The guitar tone is thinner and thus less potent, especially since Trey is still focusing heavily on the twisted palm mute, lumbering backbone he had been using in the compositions since Blessed Are the Sick. A few of the tunes like "Cleansed in Pestilence (Blade of Elohim)" and "Curse the Flesh" seem as if they'd be scorchers with a better guitar sound, but instead feel bulimic and limp. The drums are quite strong, par for the course through the band's history, but without a more interesting sheet of riffing overlay, they are unable to get far of their own accord.

On the other hand, Heretic is still 'interesting' when it wants to be. Some of the faster breaks found in tunes like "Stricken Arise" or "Within Thy Enemy..." are well balanced and prove the band still have their extreme chops, even if musically speaking they were no longer riding the edge of the genre's levels of technicality and proficiency. Steve Tucker is strong throughout, his vocals digging into approximate levels of pain as Gateways. A number of the instrumental segues are quite wonderful, like the ominous crushing depth of "Place of Many Deaths" or the tranquil ambiance of "Abyssous", or even the dark age drought of "Memories of the Past". Morbid Angel attempted some similar, ritualistic environments beyond the metal itself with their shaky 5th album Formulas Fatal to the Flesh, but I feel that these work far better individually (though I could have done without the inner geek channeling "Victorious March of Reign the Conqueror", inspired by the animated TV series; cool idea, mediocre execution).

Then there's the bonus disc, which is full of rough instrumental mixes of the vocal songs, and a bunch of isolated solos and snippets. I guess if you really wanted to use some of the metal tracks as background without Tucker's presence, it's useful, but I'd rather hear some cool unreleased tunes or a live set or anything. The core album contains a "Drum Check", which totally breaks up the otherworldly effect a listener might experience during a better Morbid Angel record, and this should have been consigned to the bonus disc, but it's not, and that is yet another reason the disc feels so hackneyed and half-assed. None of the metal songs here are necessarily 'bad', but they truly lack the primal and hostile power of the previous work, and I can't think of a single entry I'd offer on a Morbid Angel highlight real, aside from some of the ambient fare, which really wouldn't belong. Despite the rhythmic exploration, decent lyrics and leads, and the stylistic deviation for the off-tracks, it's just not one of their best.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10] (restraint is not an option)

http://www.morbidangel.com/

Morbid Angel - Gateways to Annihilation (2000)

Of all the Morbid Angel full-lengths, from the rightfully acclaimed (Altars of Madness) to the mediocre (Formulas Fatal to the Flesh, Blessed are the Sick) to the sadly underscored (Domination), I feel as if Gates to Annihilation is the most sure of itself. The experiments had been written and performed, the crowd's reaction noted. Deep in their sweltering Floridian bunkers, Trey Azagthoth, Pete Sandoval, Erik Rutan and no-longer new guy Steve Tucker knew that what they wanted to produce, a solid balance of their previous five full-lengths and an atmospheric slug-fest that was perhaps their best at interpreting the cosmic horrors and human isolation that their lyrics produce. Call it a 'broader view' of what such tantamount summonings and rendings in the fabric of space/time would produce.

The very crawling, battering rhythms created through the record forge mental images of long dessicated alien environments. Haunting brutality, twisted spires of rock and other elements that would no longer be scryed upon by the living or the sane. The cover image by Dan Seagrave is one of his personal finest, and in my opinion the best Morbid Angel have featured on any of the full-lengths, trumping even the iconic Altars of Madness. It really makes one sit back, think, and then if he/she thinks too hard, slowly start to lose grasp of reality. In a nihilistic universe of twisted occult aesthetics, Elder Gods stalking their next food source, and untold horrors that the 3-dimensional mortal simply cannot bear, it's really the whole package. Add to that the fact the production is so amazingly well-balanced, dual leads zoning over the intense punishment of the bottom end, and you've got an album forged to KILL EVERYONE.

Stylistically, this hearkens back to Blessed Are the Sick with a touch of Domination, in that it largely operates on a slower, fundamental tempo. Lurching, but so very determined and vast in scale, tunes like "Summoning Redemption" and "He Who Sleeps" retain a curious versatility despite their reluctance to spend considerable time in the acceleration zone. Tucker's voice has truly shaped itself here to become the ponderous bludgeon that can stand in for David Vincent, and the weighted fiber of the guitar tone possesses both a hard edge and a cystic resilience with great depth to it. The leads are exotic, alien sirens which splash upon the lifeless, terrestrial surfaces as if they were birds of prey striking through the vast vacuum of nothingness. In a sense, there is this cohesion throughout the album, from "Summoning Redemption" through the closer "God of the Forsaken", which makes it more difficult to distinguish individual pieces than it would be on Altars or Domination, yet this does not deter its quality.

Any gripes I have with the album are minor at best. For one, I dislike the scratchier, snarled vocals on "Secured Limitations". I feel that they distract me from the overall consistency and it would have been a better experience without them. For another, several of the repetitions of the riffs do come off a fraction too droning and monotonous. Granted, that's half the point of these things, but a few added dynamics would not have hurt the album's case. Otherwise, this is one of the best of Morbid Angel's albums, a dark, belligerent, savvy enterprise which proved beyond the shadow of the doubt that the new lineup was functional and formidable. I'd choose this over Blessed Are the Sick, Covenant, Formulas Fatal to the Flesh or Heretic any day. A poignant harbinger of Armageddons yet unseen.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10] (return these days to the righteous)

http://www.morbidangel.com/

Morbid Angel - Formulas Fatal to the Flesh (1998)

While I freely admit to loathing the shit out of this album for many years, I think it's important to take into account what transpired to lead into its creation. Long-time bassist/vocalist David Vincent had parted ways with Morbid Angel, moving on to help his wife out with the Genitorturers. This led to the search for a replacement, and thus Steve Tucker was brought on, leading to some derision and division among the fan base. Vincent left some huge shoes to fill, and through his three studio albums with the band, Tucker has done his best to do so. He's got a similar, deep vocal tone and four string acceleration suited well to their style, but I simply don't feel that he was given the most interesting material here to work with...

So I didn't have high expectations for what I'd be hearing, and after the insane deluge of hype and press surrounding its manifestation, it was a rather enormous disappointment. An even further experimental work than Domination, which received mixed responses (it happens to be one of my favorites in the band's discography, with a wealth of memorable content I still listen through on a normal basis). That said, after about a decade of numbness towards Formulas Fatal to the Flesh, I have so slightly warmed to its molten Mythos evocations. Not warmed to the point that I'd consider it a good album. I'll stand by the opinion that it's the worst they've ever recorded. But there are a handful of metallic tracks here with interesting components, and Sandoval seemed to set himself some new records for manic, inhuman blasting. "Chambers of Dis", anyone? Fucking ludicrous, in particular his ability to shift on and off these rhythms (i.e. "Covenant of Death").

It's honestly the most 'showy' Morbid Angel album, with extremely brazen, clean production values that surpass the swampy depths of Domination and the flat and average Covenant or Blessed Are the Sick. The guitar tone is fibrous and crunchy, yet loses nothing in the fits of sheer speed that populate the compositions. Admittedly, the bass lines are predictable and boring, rarely given the top billing, but then, so too were Vincent's. What really drags the album's flow under would be the ambient, instrumental vignettes which feel amateur and cheesy, and don't seem to mesh into the metallic onslaughts. I'm speaking of the forgettable "Disturbance in the Great Slumber" and its shoddy, uninteresting attempts at synthesized chaos, or the flighty and sporadic guitar instrumental "Hymn to a Gas Giant", or the VGM-like "Ascent Through the Spheres". About the only interlude of interest would be the "Hymnos Rituals de Guerra" and its warlike, programmed percussive sensations, but even this could have done with some better atmospheric accompaniment. In short, these all should have been snipped free of the album, and the metal left to do the talking.

I've already mentioned "Chambers of Dis", and it's the one song I would take away from this album and include on a career highlight reel for its voracious swiftness and diabolic thundering urges. It's also one of the few points at which this album recaptures the sinister miasma of their legendary Altars of Madness, trumping it in sheer force, with bristling leads and a whirling muted barrage deep in the bridge that creates a sense of vertigo, of falling into the unknown. But for this, there are a number of faster, less intriguing pieces present. "Hellspawn: the Rebirth" is pure Morbid Angel, an old tune given official release at long last, but the majority of the riffs lack distinct character, and the same goes for "Heaving Earth". "Covenant of Death" is about half kick-ass, while the slower, crawling fare like "Nothing is Not" or the epic and bizarre "Invocation of the Continual One" are sure to lose a few minds in their labyrinthine corridors.

My own gray matter cannot be counted among the victims, I'm afraid. For all the variation the band have brought together, Formulas Fatal to the Flesh as a whole feels disheveled and rushed, as if a majority of random riffs and elements were packaged together with mildly conceptual libations to beings that don't exist, and some decent lyrics ("Nothing is Not", "Prayer of Hatred"). Punishing if you just want your eardrums kicked in like the pedals beneath Pete Sandoval's feet, but largely lacking in the malevolent dimensions that made their debut album (and Domination) so great. From a technical standpoint it bears its burden, and it seemed stifle the concerns over the band's new front man. But in the long run, I've found it nothing but an experiment in controlled chaos, a buffet of brutal scattershot urges with little cohesion. An opiate of atrocity with no lasting addiction. Mediocrity unbound, served with an ADD additive.

Verdict: Indifference [5.5/10]

http://www.morbidangel.com/

Morbid Angel - Entangled in Chaos (1996)

Riding such a cloud of deserved, infernal hype as they were, I was honestly surprised it took as long as it did for Morbid Angel to issue an official live recording. Entangled in Chaos was recorded during the 1996 European tour, and unfortunately it was only released in Europe itself through Earache, so those of us interested in the States were forced to either pay steep import prices or get really lucky. I was blessed to find myself in the latter category, grabbing it cheap out of a festival bin a few years after the fact. This was also pretty important at the time because it was basically the 'swan song' for bassist/vocalist David Vincent, at least until he rejoined the cult in the 21st century.

The recording benefits greatly from the Trey Azagthoth/Erik Rutan combination, pretty much the band's prime in power. The guitar mix has a coiled, fluid power to it which sounds great, with some searing flange and reverb, especially when placed so highly in the volume; what's more impressive is how the leads resonate, whether sloppy or structured, with even more character than most possessed on the studio recordings. Sandoval is just as precise a menace as a concert attendee would have hoped, and Vincent's voice sounds ominous with an extraworldly hue, much to my satisfaction. All of the musicians truly sound up a storm here, even if the bass feels mildly subdued. Tom Morris and Trey did a fine job mixing and mastering it, so you really fear like you're present at the shows.

The track list is fairly well balanced from the first four studio albums, with a slight and welcome favoritism towards Altars of Madness: "Immortal Rites", "Maze of Torment", "Lord of All Fevers and Plagues", "Chapel of Ghouls", and "Blasphemy" are all represented, with "Chapel..." and "Lord..." offering the most entertainment on the entire album. From Blessed Are the Sick they have gathered the title track and "Day of Suffering", and even though that's not my fave material by the band, they sound fitting to their environment. The Covenant selections are "Sworn to the Black", "Blood On My Hands" and "Rapture". As it was their most recent offering, it does make sense that they'd only include "Dominate" from Domination, since most consumers would be more interested in the earlier material in the stage setting.

I was a little disappointed that they didn't at least offer us "Eyes to See, Ears to Hear", being in the minority who actually really likes that album. But if you, like me, view "Blessed Are the Sick" as the spiritual precursor to "Caesar's Palace", then you'll appreciate its lumbering magnitude as an acceptable substitute. All told though, it's an understandable roster of tunes that exhibits the cult's exorbitant level of dynamic ability, and Entangled in Chaos is a successful proxy for those who had no opportunity to be there. Not necessarily a world class live recording, but certainly a function and accurate effigy of blazing hymns.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.morbidangel.com/

Morbid Angel - Laibach Remixes EP (1994)

Within their 30+ years of existence, Slovenian industrial/electro act Laibach has covered, remixed and deconstructed a wealth of material from acts the world wide; from classics acts like the Beatles to more extreme and obscure fare. Considering Morbid Angel's leaning towards experimentation throughout the mid 90s and beyond, and the transition of industrial and electronica from the club and cult scenes to the mainstream, it makes a lot of sense for the two to collaborate, even if that union was limited to a pair of remixes. The Laibach Remixes EP provides a simple equation: lift two tracks from a band's most recent studio album (Covenant), then sample and mutate them to evoke a decidedly dissimilar atmosphere.

Now, the inclusion of the originals ("God of Emptiness" and "Sworn to the Black") is rather useless if you've already acquired the full-length and absorbed the material, but here they are not inconvenient as a 'control group' for what Laibach are attempting. Surprisingly, the remixes are not major attempts to re-structure the tracks, only to filter them through clanging dystopian landscapes. Within "Sworn to the Black", this is achieved through the mere incorporation of pipe like percussion and reverb to the original. It's not a huge difference, really, but I do rather enjoy this subtle twist, and in fact I prefer it to the original. What they've done with the other piece, "Gods of Emptiness" is much more substantial and impressive, tweaking not only the drums but also the vocals and adding a choppy, mechanical ambivalence. Vincent is more drawn out and deepened here, and the result is something more creepy than the original, though perhaps not entertaining for very long (I would have liked to hear more variation and alteration).

The biggest issue with the EP is simply that there is not much to it at all. It's a positive that the Slovenians did not make a bad techno mockery out of the material like you'd find on the Fear Factory remix album Remanufacture, but there's not a hell of a lot here to justify the product. Had this been a half decade later, these tracks might have just been released to the internet for the fans of both bands to peruse. I kind of dig the cover and the concept behind this, not to mention both bands involved, but the scarcity of content is crippling unless you're a collector who simply doesn't care about anything more than acquisition of the product itself. Also, perhaps a bit more could have been attempted by Laibach to draw the material more into their own realm of manipulations, rather than playing it so safe. Curious but easily avoidable.

Verdict: Fail [4/10]

http://www.morbidangel.com/

Morbid Angel - Covenant (1993)

You don't get a chance to review the best-selling death metal album of all time every day. Just once is enough, and if the various arcane and mechanical procedures factoring into this selection are to be believed and up to date, that album is Covenant, the third full-length from Florida's maniacal Morbid Angel. Much like Blessed Are the Sick, this is an album I've long held to be overwrought with excess acts of fellatio from the death metal audience. It's not surprising, as it arrived in that fragile space and time when many brutal subordinates were first exploring the genre. Just in observing the raw numbers it pushed, it's rather obvious that Covenant wound up in the hands of many who had no previous contact with such extremity. But this success might also be partially attributed to the album's visibility, as it was the first of two released through the then-major (now defunct) Giant Records.

I'd also draw attention to the fact that this album is like a cheetah running the 100 yard dash against a motley band of tortoises and beached whales. It's energy might not have held out indefinitely against its shelled and blubbered competitors, but it didn't need to. One burst rush at the finish line, and we have our Gold medalist. Covenant is pretty fucking fast, enough that Pete Sandoval might have turned it into an informercial for weight loss had be been so inclined. It's perhaps not so explosive and impressive for 1993 as Reign in Blood and Darkness Descends felt in 1986, but it makes the majority of Blessed Are the Sick sound like an overnight IV drip bag. That's not to say the speed necessarily translates into quality. Like its predecessor, I had a subdued reaction to this when it was first released. There were clearly some good moments to be found throughout the 40+ available, but there are definitely a number of full tracks I feel no adverse reaction to skipping entirely, though I've felt more of a 'growing' attraction to this than the sophomore which confounds me today with its fanatical and formidable palanquin of diehard devotees.

The first impressions the album leaves are admittedly rather mixed. I was very psyched that the band had returned to the lethal ballast of Altars of Madness, and yet I found not a single riff throughout "Rapture" to reach said quality, not even the morbid weave of the messy lead. The exhaustion of Sandoval is admirable, but ultimately hollow with no good guitars affixed to it. Thankfully, "Pain Divine" compensates once the first few rhythms burst by into the solemn melodic snaking around :30, and I rather enjoy Vincent's vocals on this, which bear a ghastly countenance not unlike the early Death albums. "World of Shit (The Promised Land)" changes gears to a punishing crawl manifest through thicker bass and a swampy sequence of notes that foreshadow much of Domination and Formulas Fatal to the Flesh, but I'd attest that I like the slower segments than the faster. "The Lion's Den" has a similar flow to it, though more thrashing and concrete, while a few of the other tracks like "Vengeance in Mine" and "Blood on My Hands" have little more than wild, wretched leads to balance off their ceaseless, banal brutality.

Once you dig a little deeper, there are a few more interesting pieces in wait, like the versatile and inspiring "Sworn to the Black", my favorite song of the whole album for its steady, warlike fervor and the slice of the leads. "Angel of Disease", an early Morbid Angel tune being repressed here from their unreleased demo/debut album, is likewise curious, opening with a fairy splattered heavy metal sequence before some great grooves akin to those of the Altars of Madness era. Don't much like the vocals though. "Nar Mattaru" is a mere synthesizer sequence to herald the closer "God of Emptiness", which is yet another quality piece that serves as precursor to the following album, albeit with interesting vocals cast in a deeper, almost demonic narration that makes the listener feel as if he or she were traveling through a dimensional tear to a plane of twisted, formless horrors that will soon devour him/her.

Covenant is produced just as cleanly as Blessed Are the Sick, but there's something absorbing and unusual about its sound. Simultaneously organic and mechanical, the former through the rich and functional fabric of the guitar tone, the latter through the precision with which the band is known to perform. I'm not always able to make it through the play list without skipping at least 2-3 of the tracks, but for the most part it's a solid experience. For all its momentum, there are not as many moments of distinct atmosphere or delicious riffing as Altars of Madness, but it was clearly aimed back in that direction, and certain individual segments stand to memory in the near two decades since their conception. The lyrics are decent, flush with the concepts of the first two albums, and I also love the classical occult appeal of the cover image, which I'd consider more iconic than the music itself. Is there enough hereto justify it as the greatest seller in the whole of the genre? I think not. But at least that acclaim has been placed squarely upon the laurels of something somewhat exciting, something that doesn't suck.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (so what makes you supreme?)

http://www.morbidangel.com/

Morbid Angel - Abominations of Desolation (1991)

Earache Records must have had a lot of faith in their burgeoning new superstars Morbid Angel, to release this so early in their career. Perhaps if they had tossed this on the racks in the mid or late 90s, it might be more understandable, but I'm sure it sold enough despite itself to have been a worthwhile cause for them. So it goes without saying that this is not a new album, but a group of demo sessions that were originally planned as the band's debut in 1986, now considered just a demo by Azagthoth as they were never officially manifest. Through the years, the recordings had surfaced through bootlegs, so this was a situation of 'why not have the band and label making money if it's out there anyway?' Touche, motherfuckers, touche.

Ironically, though the recordings were produced by none other David Vincent, he was not actually yet in the band. This was a much different Morbid Angel roster, involving bassist John Ortega and drummer/vocalist Mike Browning, the latter of whom would go on to Nocturnus. Trey and Richard Brunelle were the only members that would go on to the amazing Altars of Madness album and the less impressive Blessed Are the Sick, picking up Vincent soon after this and Sandoval a few years down the stretch. If you're expecting some wealth of unheard material here, you will be sadly disappointed, because almost all of these tracks were revamped for the various full-lengths, even though some of the titles were changed. Three of them would be recycled to Altars of Madness: "Chapel of Ghouls, Lord of All Fevers and Plagues", and "Evil Spells" (the last titled "Welcome to Hell" here); three to Blessed Are the Sick: "Abominations", "Unholy Blasphemies" and "The Ancient Ones" (retitled from "Azagthoth", thus an egotistical namesake piece); "Angel of Disease" reappearing on Covenant, and "Hell Spawn" later dubbed as "Hellspawn: The Rebirth" and exhumed for Formulas Fatal to the Flesh.

Some good songs in that mix, undoubtedly, but they sound kinda crappy here. I'm actually a fan of Browning's vocals for Nocturnus' great debut The Key, and they're functional here too, but I find that the musicians (especially Trey's leads) are incredibly frivolous here, using too many effects and sounding like a giant porridge of unhinged excess. Vincent's production isn't really all that bad, but without exception, every single track found here is much improved with the budget and focus of the band's 'actual' full-lengths, so there is not a single reason to listen through this unless you're: a) just curious, or b) that obsessed with hearing Browning vocals over these cuts. There is one song here which has remained in oblivion, that being "Demon Seed", which has parallels to the Altars of Madness frenzy if injected with some straight up NWOBHM style riffs. Barbaric, sure, but not at all worth the price of this collection.

I've heard CD-R rips of the band's first few demos, and obviously this is a step up in sound quality from that, but I can't think of any reason to drop cash on this unless you feel indebted to the band and want to offer them more support. Alas, since they're not on Earache anymore, it's likely they would not receive much of it anyway, so buy an extra ticket to one of their gigs, or a t-shirt from the merch booth instead. As a window into the past, this is far from the worst thing I've heard, but these versions frankly suck when compared to the later studio efforts. Let's put it this way: the band didn't really want to put this out. The label didn't want to put this out as an official debut album. Such confidence! It wasn't really good enough for either institution, so why, by the tendrils of the Old Ones, would it be good enough for you? Because it has their goddamn logo on it?

Verdict: Fail [4/10]

http://www.morbidangel.com/

Morbid Angel - Blessed are the Sick (1991)

One needn't comb very far into the depths of the Morbid Angel sophomore to recognize that this is a very different beast than the band's exhilarating debut. The Jean Delville painting used for the cover (which had, coincidentally already been used by the Danish thrash band Hexenhaus for their debut several years prior) hints at a more classical, if no less diabolic premise, but the real aesthetic shift comes in the composition. Where Altars of Madness was a day at the hellhound tracks, Blessed Are the Sick is a stroll through the abyss, utilizing far more controlled tempos throughout the track list, as if the band were sobering up from the massive hangover they received from the blasting, precision chaos of its predecessor.

The truth is, the actual change of pace is not what cripples this album. The band still pulls out the stops where necessary, allowing Pete Sandoval more breathing room as he swerves between taut and manic bursts of speed and slower, swaggering grooves. The ideas circulating through these tracks will continue to turn up through the band's career, fleshed out further through albums like Domination, Formulas Fatal to the Flesh and Gateways to Annihilation. Nor would I lay the flaws upon the doorstep of David Vincent, who experiments with a more stolid death grunt in tandem with his bludgeoning barks. Blessed is the Sick is a beloved album, and an important album due to its chronological placement. In 1991, a lot of people were turning towards death metal as it emerged from the thrash landscape as an alternative to the shoegazing, funk, grunge and rap explosions of the period. I wouldn't be surprised if Blessed Are the Sick (like Human, or Tombs of the Mutilated, or Effigy of the Forgotten) was the first death metal album many were exposed to, and it makes sense: this is far more forgiving, and much less overwhelming than the band's 1989 masterwork.

The problems I have with Blessed Are the Sick, and have held for nearly 20 years despite numerous attempts to let it 'grow' on me, lie in the fact that the album is too clean for its own good, and too short on memorable songs. As the album lacks the labyrinthine punishment of the debut, there is nothing here that forces its way to the surface upon repeated listens. It's all laid out bare and accessible for the initial consumption. This wouldn't be an issue if I found that the content was memorable, but I can't think of a single song here that I'd every turn to if I was in need of a Morbid Angel fix. When the instrumental adornments on your album, like the fluted and creepy "Leading the Rats" outro, the plucky acoustic segue "Desolate Ways" and the cheesy and pompous synthesizer march "Doomsday Celebration" number among its more distinct offerings, then certainly the metallic core is lacking for something...

That said, I could never accuse the Floridian demi-gods of lacking some variation here, because if the sophomore has any leg up over its monolithic predecessor, its the more even split between faster and slower climes. You still receive the rapid brutality of "Brainstorm", "Rebel Lands", "Day of Suffering" or the smaller bursts in "Thy Kingdom Come", which are all pulled straight from the altars, yet uninhabited by individual riffs of such quality. More intricacy seems to have been placed in the crawling compositions like "Fall From Grace", "Abominations", and "Blessed Are the Sick" itself, which alternate between the slower passages of the debut, simpler chugging maneuvers and a glaze of occasional propulsion to ensure that the listeners (and Sandoval) do not fall asleep. Often, the band will incorporate some nice atmospheric touch, like the low growl that casts a cavernous din over "Abominations", or the popping, copious leads that slice through "The Ancient Ones", but neither seems to amplify the quality of the track.

Morbid Angel tries a lot here, despite the fact that the sophomore seems like the grizzled reduction of a piece of fine meat, its beautiful fat evaporated and a less juicy and tasty sirloin tip left behind for the consumer. Blessed Are the Sick is not a poor album, nor is it even unpleasant to sit through a few times, but it's incredibly underwhelming when there were such exorbitant alternatives in the field, fully delivering on their riffing value and morbid, atmospheric motifs. The ritualistic lyrics, often from the first person perspective, are not all bad. If I had to pick favorites among the metal tracks, I'd probably run with "Fall From Grace", "Rebel Lands", or "Blessed Are the Sick" (though "Caesar's Palace" expands its lurching strides with delicious misanthropy), but these deliver only a fraction of the brilliant, shiver inducing madness of a "Chapel of Ghouls", "Suffocation" or "Maze of Torment".

Evolution and innovation are not foreign concepts to Blessed Are the Sick, and the novelty of its placement in the death pantheon seems to have granted it the status of the sacred calf, leaving not a marginal influence in its wake (certainly there are scores of albums mirroring its sluggish and varied dynamics). Alas, next to the eponymous transgression of the debut, and the potential ghastly feast I had desired from its successor, this was and remains naught more than Meals On Wheels. Tore off the plastic, put it in the microwave, got a nice bite or two and some essential proteins, but too soon was I salivating over the next morning's breakfast.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10] (the storm will cleanse me)

http://www.morbidangel.com/

Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness (1989)

Truly a tyrannosaur of the death metal realm, Altars of Madness remains one of the most important and infectious statements in all the genre's history, so brilliantly crafted that even its creators have not been able to surpass it in all their future experimentation and expansion. While most of the formative bands in the style would cross the bridge from thrash to its more extreme offspring, Morbid Angel decided to hang out below said bridge and exact a gruesome toll from all of the audience following in their wake. That this is an immensely influential work goes without saying. Probably 50% or more of all black, death and high velocity thrash I've heard in the past 20 years (and I've heard a LOT of it) owes it at least a salute in passing, if not a more substantial expiation like a handjob.

That said, Altars of Madness is not necessarily an innovation on the aggressive advancements of the 80s as it is a meticulous escalation of such virtues. Surely you will hear the taint of Slayer, Dark Angel, Kreator, Possessed and other monstrosities within its folds, ramped up to nigh impossible levels of malevolence through the unflinching occult lyricism. Pete Sandoval was a living storm and an obvious successor to the recently acquired drum throne of Gene Hoglan. Trey Azagthoth channeled Hanneman and King into a writhing vipers' nest of acrobatic ideas, producing such a force in tandem with Sandoval that half the album sounds like a cacophony of invisible hammers beating in your ribs. David Vincent would not necessarily adopt the same, guttural demesne of a John Tardy or Chuck Schuldiner, but instead a harsher, barked evolution of the more intense vocalists in thrash metal, possessed of perfect resonance through its start contrast against the brighter, scintillating evil of the guitar rhythms and just the right amount of reverb. This is the best Tom Morris (Morrissound) mix ever, and hell, even artist Dan Seagrave got in on the deal, creating one of the most iconic and beloved cover images of his career.

This would all mean jack shit if the songs didn't live up the hype, and with one possible exception, they not only measure up to it, but trample you with their brilliance. "Immortal Rites" paves the ghastly path with its infamous reversed guitar intro, colossal drum performance and more curving, squealing and flesh carving riffs than you could initially count. Not to mention the highly atmospheric breakdown around 2:00, with the slower but still precision chopping and the trill of its synthesized heraldry. 'Lords of death I summon thee!' Who could forget this? "Suffocation" attempts to beat the memory straight out of you with malignant levees of staggering brutality, alternating smooth currents of carnage in the verses to the splattering eruption of the leads and that amazing, descending passage around 1:50. Then, "Visions from the Darkside" explodes with what by this point is the most accessible, 'catchy' structure on the album, from the baleful razor bliss of the dual melody (:20) to the almost happy grooves inherent in the verse. Attention should be spent here on Vincent's bass lines, which are incredibly fluent as they twist below Trey's juggernaut exhibitions.

"Maze of Torment" opens with shrill gutter force, almost like old Death Angel circa The Ultra Violence but quickly transforming into a neck battered onslaught of perplexing rhythmic thrust that evokes imagery of seraphim being delivered multiple stabbed wounds. "Lord of All Fevers and Plague", which was exclusive to the CD version (back then you were given more for paying more) is a slicing addition with entropic leads and grisly gallantry, but then we arrive at what I must consider the apex of the experience: "Chapel of Ghouls". This is an exercise in not only intensity via Azagthoth and concrete jointwork via Sandoval, but arching and ebbing patterns of disgust that incessantly tear through the listener at unfriendly velocity before the magnificent breakdown before 2:00 with its epic, haunting keyboard line. The gates of the old chapel burst asunder, its contents spill forth into the cold night mist, rampaging silently through the sepulcher before they sate their undead hunger on the nearest village of unsuspecting living. Surely this is one of the greatest moments in all of death metal!

The final third of the album is the only place where a chink in its armor is exposed, coming with the perhaps all too straightforward "Bleed for the Devil". Don't get me wrong, this is one hectic storm of savagery that will peel the paint of artillery as surely as a nuclear wind, but despite the dizzying lead breaks and virulent speed, there was just something missing in there. It's the only reason I don't award the album a perfect score. "Damnation" is immediately more interesting with its guillotine curvature, and "Blasphemy" spits forth frag grenades of concussion through the flange effect nestled into its earlier verse, and the morbid death hymns of the bridge. Lastly comes "Evil Spells", possessed of incredibly memorable guitar rhythms, lead spatter and just about everything you liked about its predecessors, a summation of sin and scourge. The CD version also includes some alternate solo remixes of "Maze of Torment", "Chapel of Ghouls" and "Blasphemy", meant only as an addendum, and thus they don't detract from the appreciation despite the obvious redundancy.

The Morbid Angel debut felt like one of those moments where some gate to cosmic horror had just opened and there was not going to be any way to close the rend. In fact, the band's obsession with the Lovecraftian Mythos, Satanism and archaic occult ritual seems to reflect this. The lyrics rule. It's one of those precise occasions of singularity in which you know the game has changed forever. Such a defined, developed work of craftsmanship that one can be assured that the years leading up to its release were well spent. This was pretty much an instant breakout hit for Earache. I was already seeing the band's name dropped everywhere before it was even released, and even more so as the t-shirts began to infest the chests of every sick fuck from here to Timbuktu. But not often was the hype this well deserved. Morbid Angel wasted no effort in writing and executing this material, and you should spare none in tracking it down immediately if you are one of a handful of blessed ignorami who have yet failed to do so. Fundamental, and so near perfection to my ears that its successors couldn't help but breed disappointment.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.75/10] (caverns below await the wine to flow)

http://www.morbidangel.com/

Morbid Angel - Domination (1995)

When discussing the back log of the influential Morbid Angel, I'm often surprised that Domination is typically held in low regard. Though I'm a huge fan of their debut Altars of Madness, fan favorites Blessed Are the Sick and Covenant held very little of interest to me. When their fourth album Domination arrived, I was hesitant to take the plunge, what with its gaudy cover art, but it's turned out to be Morbid Angel's most interesting album, a slab of sludgy yet complex death metal with memorable songwriting. It transports their core of dense riffing and infernal drum battery into a realm of sadistic grooves and sinister tones. These days, when desiring a fix from this Floridian staple, more often than not I will reach for this album over any other.

Opener "Dominate" is not a far cry from the material on Covenant, a blasting frenzy which suffers from a slightly dull verse but makes up for it through its bridge and chorus thrashing and sick leads. David Vincent's vocals are incredible on this album: truly dense and brutal in a way the band had not yet manifested. "Where the Slime Live" may be a silly title, but the song is simply phenomenal with its deep, wrenching grooves over Pete Sandoval's apocalyptic levels of double bass, and its simultaneously anti-Christian, anti-political lyrics. Mythos-inspired "Eyes to See...Ears to Hear" is one better, and perhaps my favorite Morbid Angel track aside from "Chapel of Ghouls". The choral verse is fucking incredible, and Vincent is just VULGAR sounding, it's as if he has transc...descended into one of the Elder Gods the band is so fond of in their lyrics.

Worlds apart are they and I
My world remains in sight
Their lives - despair
The "I's" and "They's" cannot compare

I should also note the amazing guitar work of this track, both the rhythms and leads are among the best constructed of the band's entire catalog. "Melting" is a brief instrumental featuring some hints at deep cult chanting and bombastic synths, which is followed by the intense "Nothing but Fear", another platter of winding, dense rhythm and the 'swampy' sound permeating much of this material. "Dawn of the Angry" features some blistering axework and utter brutality which should appeal to those who worshiped the previous album. Ditto for "This Means War", with a rhythm not unlike "Eyes to See...", only cranked in velocity. "Caesar's Palace" is another of the album's best, with a wondrous, morbid and majestic intro segment before the slow pummelling grooves of the main body. "Dreaming" is another of the bombastic synth instrumentals which do well to pace the record, and "Inquisition (Burn With Me)" is unflinchingly riff-tastic. "Hatework" combines dark atmospheres such as strikes of a bell into its epic, abyssal composition, to close the album with class.

The atmosphere and production on Domination is phenomenal, something the band has never so brilliantly captured on their other output. Formulas Fatal to the Flesh took this 'swampy' Everglades feel of death metal to a further extreme, but simply failed to deliver any quality songs (in my opinion it's horrid and the worst of their offerings). But the grim luster of this 1995 morass sounds perfect today. It's really a shame this wasn't a bigger splash for the band. It sold fairly well but didn't receive the critical acclaim it deserved. I'm not sure a lot of fans who were expecting another blast fest quite understood it. The thing is, it's STILL a blast fest, Morbid Angel 100% through and through, but the cohesive and sludgy groove of the material makes it truly stand out. There are one or two tracks which slack behind as far as memorable writing, at least in part, but the rest of the album is surely the stuff of cosmic cult horror.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10] (might and splendor forever return)

http://www.morbidangel.com/