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Music > Albums > Morbid Angel - Blessed Are the Sick (2002) Retail CD
added on April 25, 2007, at 17:33 by allcdcovers

For well over a decade now Morbid Angel have been battering us with some of the most forward thinking, varied and musically competent death metal the human race has ever produced. As a spotty, long-haired teenager I was obsessed with them and their occult image. Now as a clean-cut, 29 year old civil servant who recently heard their latest offering I was inspired to go back and buy up their back catalogue on CD. Back in the days Blessed are the Sick was the first Morbid Angel album I ever heard. After the blistering pace and intensity of Altars of Madness it immediately alienated many extreme metal heads. What a shame, because for its time and genre it is an album of truly breathtaking scope, variety and production. Amongst, admittedly talented peers such as Carcass, Entombed and Deicide, Morbid Angel were the only band who had the guts to fully utilise a clean, tight production, decipherable lyrics and numerous melodic segways making use of non-rock instrumentation.Blessed are the Sick is, all in all, a text book lesson on how to do a heavy album well. A distorted, loop driven intro brings things around to first track 'Fall From Grace' which right away showcases a breathtaking mix of tempo changes, catchy riffing and ridiculously fast and accurate drumming. From here the tone for the album is set. There is no repetition, no treading water just songs which at times reach levels of catchiness never seen before or since in death metal (see Rebel Lands, They Kingdom Come, Unholy Blasphemies, Ancient Ones).As the songs progress one is reminded of the true brilliance of Trey Azagthoth's guitar playing. He truly was (and is) the death metal Jimi Hendrix. Although rhythmically fast and accurate, when he solos he switches to a noisy, bendy, almost freeform style of playing that serves to give Morbid Angell an almost bluesy quality which eluded all other bands of the era. Trey is often thought of as the key member of Morbid Angel, but on these earlier albums David Vincent is an awesome presence. Possibly the best ever vocalist in death metal he retains a brutal edge along with a quality of diction which makes the vast majority of his lyrics immediately decipherable.So all in all if you are interested in heavy music either past or present or even if you are just looking for some great guitar work then this album deserves its place in the history books.

back 1008 x 800 px

cd 716 x 710 px

front 1011 x 800 px

inside 1011 x 800 px