Morbid Angel: Covenant thoughts....

[Divus_de_Mortuus]

I always figured that song was comprised of left over ideas that were not fully developed, so thats possible. The riffs on that song are some of the best moments on that otherwise pretty disposable album.

Morbid Angel gets some of the focus back for Formulas Fatal to the Flesh, which finds Trey alone, free of Dave's failing passion and Rutan's ever shitty song writing, able to flesh out ideas and songs that existed from the era of the first three albums. Covenant of Death, Invocation of the Continual One, and Hellspawn : The Rebirth some examples.

[Cynical]

Hellspawn was actually an older song that was about as reworked as the Convenant version of Angel of Disease.

[Divus_de_Mortuus]

I know...?

[oscar the cat]

Morbid Angel gets some of the focus back for Formulas Fatal to the Flesh, which finds Trey alone, free of Dave's failing passion and Rutan's ever shitty song writing, able to flesh out ideas and songs that existed from the era of the first three albums. Covenant of Death, Invocation of the Continual One, and Hellspawn : The Rebirth some examples.

He was back to the idea of taking old riffs and inspirations and making them into songs, which kind of went out the window with Domination, which was generic songwriting with one killing riff each.

It probably helped to no longer have Dave bashing his prostate into pulp nightly, but homosexuality and rough sex have inspired more quality heavy metal than death metal.

[Divus_de_Mortuus]

Erik Rutan is credited on almost half the songs on that album. His influence is understated in why that album failed.

[born for banning]

Erik Rutan is credited on almost half the songs on that album. His influence is understated in why that album failed.

Did it have any positive influences? It's just solidly terrible, and only their fourth album.

[Divus_de_Mortuus]

Positive influences? I can't think of a single thing that album brings to the table that is worthwhile in a new or different way.

Domination is worth a few listens but unlike any previous work and the album that follows, it stays about as fresh as a dead human corpse does in 90 degree weather.

[I_Stab_People]

who said formulas fatal to the flesh was a cool album? That record is a boring mishmash of shit.

[esoteric]

No it's not. The phrasal construction on FFF is actually more clear-headed and expressive, and the band in some ways seems to have a greater direction on this release than on C.

[Divus_de_Mortuus]

Absolutely. Formulas is one of the last classics in Death Metal.

[born for banning]

I don't know if it's that good, but it's a big improvement over Domination. The problem is that they threw a lot of other shit into the mix, like the fairly stupid "electronic" tracks, and didn't spend enough time cooking down those songs so they'd reach the effortless quality effect of early MA.

Covenant has the same problem. Too hasty. Most metal bands screw up because their work habits are terrible, and if they were forced to spend another year playing their albums live, the results would be far better. Do we even need mention the third Unleashed album, or the second Dismember, or anything recent from Suffocation, in this context?

[Stranger]

Positive influences? I can't think of a single thing that album brings to the table that is worthwhile in a new or different way.

Domination is worth a few listens but unlike any previous work and the album that follows, it stays about as fresh as a dead human corpse does in 90 degree weather.

The album didnt innovate in any kind of way, but it was a solid melodic rock/metal album. I dont listen to this album often, but it was going to be difficult to continue the innovations found on their first three.

Come to think of it, the doomish work on, "Hatework" is some of the best ever done in the doom genre, in my opinion.

[death metal black metal]

What makes Convenant "different" for Morbid Angel is that it was their first album without concept. The first album was a handful of songs stuffed together with an introduction, and edited until they fit a similar mood. The second album was the opus that was designed to wrap some disparate songs into a quasi-narrative. The third was a bunch of songs that went in different directions, so it's more like a sampler than a whole idea.