Almost no one understands what made speed metal great, looking from the outside-in as any time after the era tends to do, nor what made those transitional bands like Slayer, Rigor Mortis, and Destruction so powerful.

These bands used the tremolo strum like death metal instead of the palm-muted percussive riffing that Metallica and Exodus made famous, and this technique requires different song structures to support it, something that Mortuary understood on their first album and carry through to the present.

These songs incorporate more of the bounce from Destruction and Testament, but all of the Slayer and Morbid Angel speed thrills in fast featherstrum riffs that soar above the trudging rhythms of speed metal and give these songs a quality like a darkened angel soaring over a burning Earth.

Tags: death metal, Mortuary