MORBID ANGEL — Altars of Madness (review)

MORBID ANGEL — Altars of Madness album cover Album · 1989 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
Altars of Madness is the debut full-length studio album by American death metal act Morbid Angel. The band already recorded the Abominations of Desolation album in 1986 with later frontman David Vincent acting as producer, but it was not released until 1991. Abominations of Desolation was available in several bootleg versions until its 1991 Earache Records release. So Altars of Madness ended up being the official debut album by Morbid Angel. Released in May 1989 by Earache / Combat, this is one of the seminal albums in death metal. The original LP version lasted 35:09 minutes and contained 9 tracks.

The music on Altars of Madness is technically well played death metal. The vocals by lead vocalist/ basssist David Vincent are not deep growls as they would be on later releases by the band but more an aggressive higher pitched type of growling vocals. The pace varies from mid- to fast- to blasting which means the album features good variation. There are loads of solos on the album of the screaming, arm-bending, fast-paced non melodic kind ( Slayer haven´t lived in vain). The tracks are of high quality but especially the tracks on side 1 of the original LP, Immortal Rites, Suffocation, Visions from the Dark Side and Maze of Torment, stand out as excellent. The tracks on Side 2 sound a bit more dated to my ears and I much prefer Side 1. That doesn´t mean that the songs on Side 2 are average or bad. On the contrary they are actually very good and powerful. Just not as great as the songs on Side 1.

The production is pretty raw yet greatly enjoyable.

As stated above Altars of Madness is a seminal album in the death metal genre and a great start to Morbid Angel´s career. While they´ve made more sophisticated and IMO better albums later in their career, Altars of Madness still deserves 4 stars.
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UMUR wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Thanks Jeff, I´ll be watching out for those reviews.
J-Man wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Great review Jonas! I've been really getting into Morbid Angel lately, and I look forward to reviewing their albums myself. :)

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