Sepultura - Morbid Visions/Bestial Devastation

[Jim Necroslaughter]

The deceptiveness of an album like this is that it almost sounds like the same 2 or 3 songs played over and over if you're not paying close attention.

That would mean like 98% of death metal albums are deceptive.

Sure, but not to the degree of Morbid Visions (in fact I do consider metal to be deceptive in general).  After the 2nd track it sounds like one big song.  Also think about these albums:
Blessed are the Sick
Beyond Sanctorum
North From Here
I would put these in direct contrast to Morbid Vision to see what I'm talking about. 

On the other hand, something like The Karelian Isthums would be a pretty good comparison to MV/BD in this sense, but the songs still differentiate themselves more then Morbid Visions/Bestial Devastation.

Yes. This approach would emphasize structural development through internal dynamics. Where does Onwards to Golgotha fit in?

Onward to Golgotha is very unlike Morbid Visions in the sense that I was originally thinking.  But it is also unlike North From Here/Beyond Sanctorum/Blessed.  On OtG, there is uniformity from track to track whereas on those albums, tracks are almost entities unto themselves.  But the uniformity on OtG is not like the uniformity of Morbid Visions - you never get the sense that you are hearing virtually the same thing over and over.  Forget track to track, there is incredible variation within the songs themselves.  OtG is overwhelming and disorienting whereas MV lulls you into its genius.  OtG sounds like one entity that continually mutates; it could almost be described as “one big song.”  In that sense it is actually similar to Morbid Visions.

[aquarius]

Well, to some degree Morbid Visions is still bound in the black/death/thrash prototype style of the period (things like constant tempo, simplified riffing). The contrasts of Onwards to Golgotha belong to death metal proper.

[jcpcc14]

Not only is Morbid Visions one of the best death metal albums of all time in my opinion, but it's criminally unrecognized. Death fans in particular tend to point out Possessed's plethora of speed metal elements in their argument that SBG was the first true death metal albums, but that point, whether true or not, falls flat when you actually analyze Morbid Visions and not dismiss it as speed metal just because of what came later.