Re-review: Morbid Angel – Altars of Madness (1989)

Re-reviews here on Invisible Blog tend to happen:

1. When my thoughts on media have significantly changed in the last few years.
2. For content I covered in ~2010-2011, well before my approach to Invisible Blog ossified.

With Altars of Madness, it’s definitely the latter. I convinced myself years ago of the musical links between Morbid Angel’s debut and foundational 2nd wave (Norwegian) black metal, and I still believe it. I guess that’s just what happens when you have a few years to make your mark (more if you count Abominations of Desolation) and the marketing muscle to get folks’ attentions in foreign markets. That being said, Morbid Angel definitely had their own identity, which sometimes took them in very… interesting directions. If you want to understand them, this debut is an eminently reasonable place to start.

The (admittedly reactionary if not always strictly fascistic) folks at DMU had a useful term for describing the sort of music here – phrasal death metal. In theory, it means the riffs tend to be lengthy and melodic, but rhythmic and textural variety/complexity are de-emphasized. As a description, it feels about right. That being said, the drummer here (Pete Sandoval) still gets plenty of opportunity to perform his fair share of tight and technical drum patterns. “Phrasal” is presumably more of an archetype than a strict prescription. That being said, there’s a definite throughline between this and, for instance, the windswept chill of Immortal or the unearthly melodrama of Mayhem. A lot of it comes down to aesthetics – the folks at Morrisound chorused and/or flanged the guitars and drenched the percussion in reverb, and otherwise did everything they could to make Altars of Madness sound like a whirling maelstrom.

The influence Morbid Angel wielded throughout the ’90s is a definite sign that they succeeded on some levels. A few trends I can point out – first, this is understandably a tighter and more disciplined take than Morbid Angel’s primeval demo era, though the high speeds and solos courtesy of Trey Azagthoth help add back necessary chaos. If you listen to it all in one go, the songs here have enough variety in riffs and overall texture to keep your attention. Things do tailor off towards the end, though – this is where the band delved deep into their earliest catalog and pulled out songs that, while enthusiastic, still need some time in the oven to stand up to the first half. I guess it’s not that much of a difference, but it does feel like Altars of Madness runs out of steam after a while.

That being said, there’s a ton of important death metal DNA on Altars of Madness, and you can’t go wrong with the classics. You could say this is the gibbering lunatic face that launched a thousand ships!

Highlights: “Suffocation”, “Maze of Torment”, “Lord of All Fevers and Plague”, “Damnation”