Reviews list for Angelcorpse - The Inexorable (1999)

I do find it slightly bemusing that Angelcorpse have much of any repute in the death metal world.  Through a turbulent final few years, The Inexorable represents a once thought of as final album from the Americans but they reformed (twice) after this to little acclaim or notoriety.  If this record represents what had come before then it would seem fitting to try and end on this release knowing that after three years they had taken this format of death metal as far as they could.

Often lumped into the realm of blackened death metal (which I flat out do not understand the relevance of) Angelcorpse sound little more than Morbid Angel worship in all honesty.  I know they probably hated that comparison but when you sound so similar to a band then it is inevitable really.  I read a review that said it was okay that they were doing what MA were doing because by 1999 MA were not any good at doing it anymore.  First of all, bullshit and secondly the rationale is based on an incorrect assumption that MA had seen their day by the end of the 90s.  Whilst not producing many Altars...or Blessed... type albums anymore they were certainly not done.  Even if this were true it still does not mean that it is fine for their finer moments to be straight up replicated by Angelcorpse - or anyone else for that matter.  Spoiler alert - Angel Corpse are nowhere near MA's finest hour btw.

Whilst this worship the Florida death metal titans is done reasonably well, the album is not even close to the capability of the Trey's and Pete's of this world.  Dropping breakneck riffs and sonics against non-stop blasting drums does not qualify as being of the level of either of the aforementioned musicians.  What Angelcorpse also lack in large quantities is any tangible sense of horror or menace.  The vocals are not deranged enough for this and the lack of understanding of variety of pace to generate atmosphere just makes for a very energetic yet instantly forgettable album.

Sure they can put together some stompers like Wolflust, Solar WIlls and Stormgods Unbound but I already have MA albums thanks guys so I do not need any very similar sounding albums with a much less interesting vocal style.  Safe to say I will not be back to this one.