Review by SilentScream213 for Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness (1989)
Since its inception in the late 80’s, Death Metal has become one of the most adaptive and varied subgenres of Metal. The vast amount of styles and incorporations added to it are nothing short of amazing for what was originally a very strict and niche genre. I personally am a huge fan of everything the genre became and what was done with it, and what’s still being done and changed. But sometimes, there’s nothing better than some gold old fashioned honest to Satan Death Metal.
Altars of Madness is Death Metal perfected in its purest form. Every song just consists of masterful playing on every front, and only the very best of evil dissonant riffs shredding one after another. Songwriting and song structures are far from simple, adding in loads of substance between the all-out blast beat riffing. The vocals are some of the best in OSDM, very intelligible growls with decent lyrical writing to back them up.
There’s not much else to say about this beast. Pure Death Metal incarnate.