This is Morbid Angel first release, But on the opposite of other debut albums, this piece of work shows a new band integrating heavy new concepts to death metal. They dare to fuse some elements of grindcore/death (as shown on the drum playing by Pete Sandoval) to new ideas and lyrical work made by the composition of the always guitar genius Trey Azagthoth, the fierceness of David Vincent's vocal and bass arrangements and Richard Brunelle's Maniatic soloing. The first song starts as an electric storm into our brains and that doesn't end until the last song, with some "break exceptions" (As on the slow riff in "Lord of all fevers and plague" and the ghost singing-guitar riffing on "Chapel of Ghouls"). However, this album keeps a remarkable unity in composition as in vocal works, with David Vincent using a less deep voice than later works in the band, but not less aggressive.

Soloing...that's an indisputably important aspect on this album. Both Azagthoth and Brunelle do a fantastic work on their lead parts, adding atonal solos but still keeping the unity of the songs and the lead parts (something hard for atonal soloing).

Bass adds an even harder atmosphere to the songs, with David Vincent showing bass arrangements "a la" Terrorizer, but a little bit slower, i think, in order to fit in with the songs.

Vocal parts creates a Lovecraftian - Demonic aspect in the whole atmosphere of this particular album. Both Azagthoth and Vincent have created horrific stories of mourning, death and blasphemy, all combined in one of the best lyrical work i have ever seen.

Sandoval, i think, is the one who creates most of the rawness on this album, doing pretty fast drumming some times, which makes some guitar parts which are considerably slow, considerably fast (As in the case of the opening riff in Blasphemy).

To make the story shorter....go buy it or suffer in the Maze of Torment!!!

© 2000 phelo