I can’t possibly put that or blessed as tops for me, they just sound too muffled, the major label production is better for me, covenant and domination I absolutely love, covenant is my top, I bought that recently and just can’t stop jamming that
BATS is also my #1 MA album hands down and I love the crisp production with Pete’s pronounced drums. MA’s BATS and SEPULTURA’s ARISE both led the field production wise when they were released in 1991.
I’ve always been a thrash guy. But Covenant got me into death metal more and I thank Morbid Angel for expanding my metal experience. From there it was Entombed, Benediction, Unleashed, Obituary, and on and on
Necrotic Nick- Napalm Death is definitely on my list but, again, we're waiting on that new album so we can review it and include it in their discography. I think Voivod has a new EP of original material coming out soon as well.
Blessed are the Sick marked me for life. I actually love how the voice of David Vincent sounds on this album. Perceptibly and scary as shit for a 12 year old me in 1991-also, at this age, I had to hide the vinyl from my parents, because of the awesome artwork they chose for the album. :D
My #1 is Gateways to annihilation just love the snare and the kicks + vocals and guitar work with the background ambient sound just perfect for me, altars of madness is a solid #3 for me.
Great choice. It's some of their absolute best song writing. Thoughtful and interesting the entire listen. For me, it's the best production for the band to me personally.
Richard Brunelle played a key role in the design of Death Metal and obviously Morbid.. he wrote the greatest Death Metal instrumental, teetering a fine line.... He ( Richard) lost two projects being a major musical roll in the beginning, then handing off the torch while drugs took his soul! The last and final thing he lost was his life RIP Richard Brunelle.. No shout out!!! shame on you guys!!! Plus he was pure love. RIP..
Brunelle was an absolute genius, he left the world way too young, and I think his role in MA was always understated. All credit where it is due to Azagthoth, but we have to remember that he is the type of person who would cheat with a bandmate's girlfriend (he did that to Mike Browning).That, paired with the commercial success of Morbid Angel, does suggest that Trey is extremely ambitious, and perhaps not very interested in cultivating the idea that the band had more than one genius. Anyone familiar with After Death knows that the loss of Mike Browning was HUGE for Morbid Angel, and I think it has always been Trey's goal to ensure that no-one ever considers any of these members as a major loss to the band, because Morbid Angel is a huge band who operate in the same way as other huge bands. If you haven't heard it, you should check out Incubus' 'God Died on His Knees' demo. 2 of the musicians on that AMAZING demo were members of Morbid Angel. That incubus demo was PURE Death Metal in 1987 and was much more wild that anything Morbid Angel had done at that point. I think Trey has always been happy to let people run with the idea that he was the standout. In truth, he was jamming with some of the most creative musicians on the planet, but none of them had his commercial ambition, which is why people are quick to dismiss legends such as Richard Brunelle.
For me the first three albums revolve between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place at different times. Domination , Formulas, and Gateway are much the same for 4,5,6. Well I finally settled on this... 1. Blessed are the sick 2. Covenant 3. Altars of Madness 4. Domination 5. Formulas 6. Gateways 7. Heretic 8. Kingdoms 9. There are no more Morbid Angel albums to rank. Kingdoms pisses me off because it’s so middle of the road. Nothing stands out and all I hear is drums and vocals. Where the hell are the guitars?? Upon listening to these again after ten or more years, I’m surprised how much my taste has changed. I used to love Heretic. Also, I deleted all of the instrumental/intro/interlude BS and wow! What a difference in listening pleasure. So much more concise. What a better flow. Death to all these damn intros and useless interlude crap bands are coming back to. I used to love that stuff back in the 80’s and 90’s but so much of it serves no purpose. Either tack it to the next song or the previous song, or get rid of it. Anywho. You guys rock. Love what you review. It’s more in line with my tastes than any other channel. Thank you!
Cannibal Corpse is not from Tampa-FL. They are from Buffalo - NY, where there is a huge death metal scene as well. CC had moved to Tampa to record the first albuns, though.
I thought it was odd that half the vocals on Blessed sound like they do on Altars and others like on Covenant. It’s like David went through puberty during the recording or something.
1 : BLESSED ARE THE SICK 2 : COVENANT 3 : ALTARS OF MADNESS 4 : GATEWAYS TO ANNIHILATION 5 : FORMULAS FATAL TO THE FLESH 6 : HERETIC 7 : KINGDOMS DISDAINED 8 : DOMINATION I don’t rate IDI at all.
My ranking from least favorite to favorite is: 9. Illud Divinum Insanus 8. Heretic 7. Kingdoms Disdained 6. Formulas Fatal to the Flesh 5. Domination 4. Blessed Are the Sick 3. Gateways to Annihilation 2. Covenant 1. Altars of Madness Altars was one of my intros to death metal. I dig the hell out of it, still. All other albums are worth listening to, imo, except for Illud Divinum Insanus. I got excited when David Vincent returned to Morbid Angel because I dig the first four albums, and I listened to Illud, and was like "what the fuck is this?" It's not heavy at all, the lyrics are bad, and the drumming is just meat and potatoes. Even their non-industrial songs on Illud are a Diet Coke of death metal. For a discography that is this strong, Illud sticks out like two sore thumbs. I don't have much positive to say about it.
I absolutely do not think Alters Of Madness is their best. It was the 2nd extreme metal album I ever heard, behind Napalm Death "Harmony Corruption," all the way back in 1991. But, I'm not nostalgic about it at all. I'd say: 1- Formulas Fatal To The Flesh 2 - Blessed Are The Sick 3 - Covenant 4 - Alters Of Madness 5 - Domination 6 - Gateways To Annihilation ... After that, I don't really care. I've opened for Morbid Angel three times, sadly and gladly, none with David Vincent in the band. I started my musical adventures in 1997, so by the time I shared the stage with them, "Evil D" was gone. When he came back, I did not want to open for them!
1. Conenvant 2. Altars of Madness 3. Gateways of Annihilation 4. Domination 5. Formulas Fatal to the Flash 6. Blessed Are the Sick 7. Kingdoms Distained 8. Heretic 9. Should Not Be Named
My ranking: 1. Altars of Madness 2. Blessed are the Sick 3. Covenant 4. Formulas Fatal to the Flesh 5. Gateways to Annihilation 6. Domination 7. Heretic 8. Kingdoms Disdained 9. THE ILLUSIONARY ANUS!
Illud is terrible, but for me Kingdoms is even worse. Just blurry riffs with plastic trigger fills and an average grunt. Even after 20 times listening none of these songs sticks in my head. No hooks, no melody. At least Illud had a few good tracks and a good production.
Illud sucks! But I feel like if you listen to it as 3 eps broken up one is like David Vincent goth cheese, one is a weird electronic project and one is a few ok Morbid Angel songs. Basically tracks 3,4,8 and 9 but also they are very direct and not at all in the direction Morbid Angel had been progressing. I did enjoy the punchiness of them but it was still like Domination b-sides and could make an argument that if the whole album had been like these tracks it wouldnt have been so reviled but of course I'm much happier with the direction they went after w Kingdoms.
Always late to the show but i think heretic is hard underrated. The production sucks but the Songs are great. My list: 1. Blessed are the sick 2. Covenant 3. Formula fatal to the flesh 4. Gateways to Annihilation 5. Altars of madness 6. Heretic 7. Domination 8. Kingdom disdained 9. You know
1. Covenant & Blessed 2. Formulas 3. Gateways 4. Domination 5. Altars 6. Heretic 7. Kingdoms Disdained (not a bad album at all, imo) 8. Illud (3 or 4 ok tracks + total BS haha)
Personal Ranking: Covenant Gateways to Annihilation Domination Formulas Fatal to the Flesh Kingdoms Disdained Blessed Are the Sick Abominations of Desolation Altars of Madness Heretic Illud Divinum Insanus (not as bad as everyone says, but it's still the worst morbid angel album)
Hi all, I'm more like Shredlord because, well, maybe because I haven't heard all the other albums as many times as I have to Altars of Madness and then Blessed are the Sick and the next 2 and Jamin Jon, I respect you and maybe, just maybe can just a bit relate to you, but let me try to convince you that even though you've heard Altars in your car on your way to this album ranking, maybe you should rather consider hearing Altars in your room with your earphones from beginning to end of this amazing albums as I have done countless times! Now you must remember Slayer's Reign in Blood, right? I know there's some difference but you know something? I was 16 years old when I got Reign in blood and if my calculations are correct, I'm more than twice your age, right? Trust me, Altars of Madness is a classic! I know that maybe there's a difference in our tastes which can be cool, but I hope that was your official rating for this amazing band, okay?
9. some bullshit 8. Kingdoms Disdained 7. Heretic 6. Domination 5. Blessed Are the Sick 4. Formulas Fatal to the Flesh 3. Altars of Madness 2. Gateways to Annihilation 1. Covenant
I’ve been a morbid fan for 25 years and i actually like the middle songs on illud there’s 4 songs that are unlistenable 1 that bearable and 6 I actually think slap maybe im alone in this lol
Btw Pete's drums were triggered on a lot of albums not just Gateways, and I dont think they gave two flying fks about what was happening...its just them experimenting with things as always. Trey is an experimental kinda dude haha
I really can't understand WTF happened in 2011 to metal. By that point, we in the USA were leaving the "Great Recession" in the dust. Yet....some real shit offerings. Illud Divinum Insanus is NOT Morbid Angel. It is a clunky redo of Ministry's early 1990's albums. Too Extreme sounds like New World Order or N.W.O. I like the industrial sound but this is not Death Metal. The drums are canned; and remember, Pete Sandoval had departed the band before this album, so the drums are terrible. I like some of it, but not much of it. Altars=#1 for me. Blessed is great and so is Covenant. Morbid Angel probably did their best work early, but it is still badass work! I think Covenant is still the best selling Death Metal album ever released; and of course, the infamous Beavis and Butthead video of God of Emptiness definitely helped the band. "Hey Beavis, Goober spelled backwards is Booger....lol" 2011 though...WTF happened? You have an amazing band in Opeth, which had this incredible album called Watershed in 2008. They go on to do a mediocre one in Heritage; and I fucking saw them live at the Showbox SODO in Seattle on that tour and the energy sucked. Katatonia was FAR better that night. Nile is fucking badass \m/ \m/ and yet, they do this shit called Worship The Animal which is horrible. Metallica and Lou Reed did Lulu (I am the table....lmfao). In Flames Sounds of a Playground Fading was okay, not great (much better than Siren Charms though). Anthrax Worship Music and Machine Head's Unto The Locust are pretty good albums. My favorite from 2011 was probably Symphony X's Iconoclast. Even mainstream Death Metal from 2011 was lame. Amon Amarth Surtur Rising is okay, but Arch Enemy and Deicide have done much better work than what they put out in 2011. Thanks for the rating on Morbid Angel!
Don’t think Illud Divinum Insanus is that bad. Sure there are a few songs inspired by industrial metal but some others are pretty groovy. It’s definitely the worst album by Morbid Angels standards but it’s an “alright I guess” industrial metal album with death metal influences. That said I’m an industrial fan so.. yea. Too Extreme sounds like a mediocre Ministry song, other songs sound like Rob Zombie and others remind me of “Evil Disco”, a term created as a joke by Wayne Static to define Static Xs genre. Writing is pretty cringe though.
Here’s my ranking at the moment: 1. Altars Of Madness 2. Covenant 3. Formulas Fatal To The Flesh 4. Gateways To Annihilation 5. Domination 6. Blessed Are The Sick 7. Kingdoms Disdained (actually really like this album, but the classics are better obviously) 8. Heretic Oh, I forgot one? No…I don’t think I did…
Gateways was the last Morbid album, Heritic had a couple listenable moments. Namely Petes drum solo on the hidden track and Treys isolated solos. Not sure if it was Pete and Eric Ruttan leaving or LSD finally catching up with Trey but Morbid fell off quickly after Gateways. Hate to say it as a fan since the 90s but I'd rather see them call it a day then put out more like Illud Divinium/Kingdoms Disdain. Though a final redemption album would be needed to go out on top as the Death Metal behemoths they once were.
1 Blessed Are The Sick 2 Altars of Madness 3 Covenant 4 Gateways to Annihilation 5 Formulas Fatal to the Flesh 6 Heretic 7 Domination 8 Ilud Divinum Insanus 9 Kingdoms Distained What?? You mean you guys didn't subject yourselves to the entirety of the three hour long "Ilud Divinum Insanus - The Remixes Complete"?? Posers! Difficult band to rank! I really enjoy all these albums except the last two. Insanus may be terrible, but taken on it's own terms I don't think it is quite as bad as a lot of people say. Compared to all their previous albums though? Yeah. Obviously a GIANT step down for this band. It's not boring though! Every song contributes a different kind of shit. You got the clumpies, the diarrhea spray, the wet greasy, the drippies, etc. In that way, it's probably the most nuanced terrible album that I can think of. A diverse array of turds. But Kingdoms Distained? BORING! And frustrating! I mildly enjoyed it the first time I heard it, but upon repeated listens it gets worse and worse. Nothing sticks out. It's heavy and fast, but it doesn't kick anything even remotely related to an ass and none of the songs are memorable. Sure, occasionally there are moments of false promise where my ass thinks it's about to get handed to me but alas, my ass and myself remain tragically estranged for the entirety of that god damn album. It's really more like being smacked in the head over and over again with a...I dunno, an empty milk crate or something. Something plastic and not very impactful. Anyway, that's my two cents. I appreciate what you guys are doing with this channel! Altars at 6? Love it. As Jon said, there is much to appreciate in their discography! The passion you all share for this kind of music is moving, your points are well articulated and the chemistry between y'all is magical. Cheers!
1- Formulas 2- Gateways 3- Domination 4- Heretic (acquired taste production and guitar sound but lowkey genius especially place of many deaths) 5- Blessed 6- Covenant (worst guitar sound) 7- Altars 8- Kingdom (still a great record!) theres only 8, the other one is so bad it doesnt count, Im just grateful that Trey did Kingdoms and redeemed himself
Illud Divinum Insanus is Morbid Angel's worst album, a truly insulting piece of garbage. It was the album that almost got me going to church. I felt filthy after listening to it. The true irony of that utter disasterpiece, is that it's probably what hell actually sounds like and I don't want any part of it.🤢
Illud Anus is absolutely awful BUT - I'll take the three 'real' songs off of that over anything on Kingdoms Piss Stained. Come on man - that new album is garbage. For instance people shit on albums like In Torment In Hell and Insineratehymn for being half assed and phoned in but those are creative milestones in metal compared to Piss Stained.
Illud Divinum Insanus is Morbid Angel's best album, and a true work of genius. I got into Morbid Angel with that album. I went back in their discography and listened to Covenant. That sounded god awful. Gateways was god awful too. I like to bump I am Morbid before I go raving every Wednesday night. David Vincent inspired my wardrobe.
U just said 2 of their best albums sounded bad...that's the morbid angel sound man illud divinium was an experimental album,I dont completely hate it but it's just not their style 🤣🤣🤣🤣 but gateway's and covenant are literally them at their best...idk maybe u were trolling in that case lols.lmfaos ect.
1 ALTARS OF MADNESS 2 COVENANT 3 DOMINATION 4 FORMULAS FATAL TO THE FLESH 5 BLESSED ARE THE SICK 6 GATEWAYS TO ANNIHILATION 7 HERETIC 8 KINGDOMS DISDAINED 9 THE ALBUM THAT MUST NOT BE NAMED.
Necrotic Nick- We may wait a bit on Immolation just to see if they go into the studio but Nile is definitely a possibility since they just released a killer album last year.
If Heretic sounded as perfect production-wise as Gateways did then it would be my number 1 by such a long shot. Unfortunately it sounds like a headache, so It's a tie for Gateways and Formulas for me.
Heretic is so fucking good that I can overlook the poor production that really seems to get alot better after blade of elohim. Its an underrated and under appreciated record that is all killer, no filler.
9- ... Do I need to talk about probably the worst metal record of all time alongside Lulu? I won't even waste time describing the disgrace this thing is. 8- Heretic: Forgettable stuff apart from Enshrined By Grace that happens to be quite good. 7- Formulas Fatal To The Flesh: Chambers Of Dis and Nothing Is Not are really cool songs. There are also some great passages on Invocation Of The Continual One. Other than that, the same old thing, only even less interesting. 6- Altars Of Madness: I know it's a classic and features some great tunes like Chapel Of Ghouls and Immortal Rites and everything is really well played and Trey is a virtuoso and all. But fact is it never rang with me, especially when I was already into records like Realm Of Chaos, Leprosy, Left Hand Path, Harmony Corruption and World Downfall among others when I first listened to it. 5- Domination: The album opens leveling everything with Dominate. Then Eyes To See and Where The Slime Live are ok and the remainder of the record is overall boring. 4- Kingdoms Disdain: A cool surprise. The opener and Architect And Iconoclast are great songs and the absolute standouts here. DEAD, Paradigms Warped and From The Hands Of Kings are also ok. Hey... glad to see these dudes doing decent Death Metal compositions once again. 3- Covenant: Rapture opens this bad boy with a blast and Pain Divine keeps the pace frantic in a more Death/ Thrash fashion. Vengeance Is Mine is also ok but man... Sworn To The Black is one amazing tune. The remainder bounces between filler and ok-ish. For many years this was tied with my number one but it aged a bit bad. Nonetheless there are some really strong stuff here. 2- Gateways To Annihilation: Summoning Redemption... Summoning fuckin' Redemption! Man is this thing powerful! Now we're talking. But GTO is more than solely this gem of a song: He Who Sleeps, At One With Nothing, I or Ageless Still I Am are low paced grinding behemoths that take no prisoners. Great and underrated album. 1- Blessed Are The Sick: My first contact with the band back in 91 and to this very day my favorite record. It has lots of variety: excellent DM heavy as hell speedsters like Fall From Grace, Brainstorm and Thy Kingdom Come, mid tempo muscular tunes like Rebel lands or Abominations or even the slow grind of Day Of Suffering... All of this peppered with great outside box interludes. Without shadow of doubt still my favorite MA album.
Came across this channel quite recently when I was reminiscing about all of the different bands discographies you guys have reviewed and absolutely loving just pausing whenever you mention a track to go and listen to it and remember how much I love these records! Great channel...
#1 - Gateways - Trey opens portals to the depths of hell and unearths ancient Mesopotamian secrets with his solos. Perfect mix of doom, speed and psychedelia. #2 - Covenant - Peak of the original line-up. Greatest selling death metal of all time, can't argue with it. #3 - Domination - Full of bangers, got to agree with shredlord about Ceasar's Palace. I just love the atmospheric stuff they do. #4 - Blessed - Love me some doom and death. I actually love the midi tracks like Doomsday Celebration and the end of Blessed are the Sick, gives me some real 90's vibes. #5 - Formulas - Trey shows he is the Jimi Hendrix of death metal. Tucker does a great job of replacing Evil D but the production could be better. #6 - Altars - Absolute classic but I can't rank it above other albums, Immortal Rites is what I show people when they ask what death metal is. #7 - Kingdoms - Beats Heretic on production alone and a few really good songs but it's bloated and isn't quite as good as earlier albums #8 - Heretic - Horrendous production and almost gave me an aneurysm when I was tripping on psychedelics LOL #9 - Illud - I agree with Jon, let's not even talk about it.
Gateways To Annihilation came out a year after Korn's Issues album came out! Korn was the biggest band in the world around '99-'00 and Nu Metal was in full force!
Gateways was one of the albums of the late 90's that helped me and my brother-in-law bypass that Limp Bizkit, Korn and other nu metal shite that was taking over at that moment! We were from the late 80's and early 90's era when metal was brutal and the belt on your pants actually fitted around your waist and not halfway down your leg! 🤘
Fair call, I was born in 94 and I prefer a lot of other albums over Altars but I understand why it would be so groundbreaking and influential at the time.
I instantly respect him more for rating it lower, just because it was revolutionary doesnt mean it was the best. Its unquestionably an incredible album and one of my favorite records that I can never get sick of listening to, but I'm sick to death of everyone pretending that all their other work isn't miles ahead of altars.
@@jasonberezowski2869 I love Blessed, Covenant even some of the post-Vincent stuff but something about Altars just keeps me coming back. I don’t expect it to be everyone’s number 1 pick but putting it that low is a bit crazy to me.
