Morbid Angel's "Altars Of Madness" vs Pestilence's "Consuming Impulse"

So I've decided to try a new conversation starter after enjoying Utopia Records' weekly DIS vs DAT thing on Facebook recently. Let's start off with two classic death metal releases from 1989. Which one do you think has the edge & why?

I don't know what made you choose Consuming Impulse to go up against the mighty Altars of Madness, but it's hardly a fair fight. On the one hand you have the album that took what the likes of Death and Possessed had formed and pushed it to a previously unfathomable extreme without sacrificing quality musicianship or songwriting, while on the other hand you have a very solid if not-particularly groundbreaking slab from an at the time second tier band. Consuming Impulse is good, but Altars of Madness is truly great!

Look, I definitely understand what you're saying because I agree with you but "Consuming Impulse" would be in the top few most celebrated death metal albums of the 80's & was released in the same year as "Altars Of Madness" so it was as close as I could get. I do think it's unfair not to mention that Pestilence took the sound of Death's "Leprosy", added additional complexity & sophistication & presented it all with a thicker & heavier production though. It wasn't sending death metal careering to new heights in the same way that Morbid Angel were but it was still giving it a fair nudge forward. It's a great death metal record in its own right. Just not a genuinely classic one in my opinion. "Altars Of Madess" on the other hand is the best death metal album ever recorded. Every fucking track is a classic (with the possible exception of "Lord Of All Fevers & Plague" which was omitted on the vinyl version anyway).

Altars Of Madness 2 - Consuming Impulse 0

Another six-year old thread I have dug up from the abyssal depths. To be fair, though, at this time I was very much a newbie to death metal and wasn't even a member of The Horde at this point and only now feel confident enough to pass judgement on two such iconic albums. I love me some Pestilence and Martin van Drunen is one of my favourite extreme metal vocalists. On "Consuming Impulse" the Dutchmen had upped their game and turned in a career best release that sits pretty well up on my favourite death metal releases list. However, to pit it against one of, if not the, defining releases of a genre as huge as death metal is a little bit unfair and, let's face it, not many would stand a chance in such a match-up. Its a bit like the Muhammad Ali vs. ex-soldier Richard Dunn fight in '76 (look it up kids), Dunn put up a plucky display but was completely out of his depth and got his arse handed to him by Ali. So, ultimately what I am saying is that Pestilence are the *Richard Dunn of death metal!

*They aren't - they are much better than that.

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I'm jumping on the Altars hype train here and saying that Pestilence's debut hasn't aged as well.  Their debut might be as nasty as a death metal album should be, but it comes at the expense of some real creativity.  Much of the album follows a set path which involves some typical yet still skillful elements taken from the rising thrash scene.  Altars of Madness, however, is a whirlwind of riffage that also somewhat follows a set death metal path yet is always showcasing the band's attempts at throwing new ideas in despite their early death metal constraints.  And if they don't have a new idea, they still had one of he finest solos ever thrown in there.  Because of this, Morbid Angel has remained a top tier death band for me, and I think their debut might be my current #1.  Heaven and Hell both know it's been a difficult battle determining which I like the most.  But I never go back to ANY Pestilence album that much.

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I know how much praise Altars of Madness has gotten all over the metal realms, but I'd pick Consuming Impulse any day. Not only is it one of the few standard death metal albums that I absolutely love, but it would also lead to Pestilence's more technical/progressive material from their next album Testimony of the Ancients onwards.

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