Welcome to Retro-Reviews, a space where I indulge in my own nostalgic reveries, reminiscing about a time that never truly existed, but one that I’ve crafted through various random albums that hold significance for me. Whether good or bad, one thing is certain: remembering can be a bittersweet journey.
It’s 1989, an interesting year for humanity: the Berlin Wall falls, the Tiananmen Square protests end in a massacre, the Velvet Revolution succeeds, and Nintendo launches the first Game Boy. Oh right, the Metal! A historical year for the genre with releases from Sepultura, Obituary, and Bolt Thrower, but today we’re going to talk about probably the most influential of all of them (finally, we cover something “mainstream” and a debut here): it’s Morbid Angel‘s Altars of Madness. An album so iconic that on its 35th anniversary, the question, “Is it listenable today?” makes even more sense. So, let’s go!
For those of us who didn’t grow up in the ’80s (thank God!), Altars of Madness defies what we know as Death Metal. It’s not the heaviest, the most aggressive, or even the most complex album. It’s almost a transition album that, to my younger ears, sounds like the most intense and violent Thrash you could come up with given the technological limitations of the time. It’s the same feeling I get when I listen to old Deicide: is this Death or Thrash? And this is so interesting! Those late ’80s albums are truly missing links in the evolution of the genre, which I like to define as the quest for more complex and extreme forms (yes, I partly stole that from Classical Music history).
Having said all that, there’s an appeal in how you can take the grooviest riffs of an era, which aren’t ridiculously complicated, and just play them as fast and as angrily as possible. It’s certainly something we’ve lost in our search for those brutal and complex forms. Altars of Madness reminds me of what we’ve gained and lost in the last 35 years. We’ve obtained so much musical proficiency and knowledge, but at the same time, we’ve lost directness. I mean, listen to “Maze of Torment,” for example. The track is so brutal and yet so catchy. Our art has become something that requires training to enjoy, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but I do love how accessible this dirty thing is.
The old guard must be mad at me now for saying that old Morbid Angel is an easy listen, but that’s precisely the point. It’s a total product of its time that I don’t think you can enjoy as much if you don’t understand the reality of those days. Those riffs have been played to death (no pun intended) now, but Morbid Angel was one of the pioneers in playing this mean and this fast. Also, can we just acknowledge how good this album sounds for the time?
“Catto, what do you mean? It sounds lame.” I disagree. You youngsters don’t know how horrendous Death Metal production was back then and how abysmal Black Metal got too. Compared to anything extreme from its time, Altars of Madness sounds crisp and clear, but it also has that sharp bite that makes it more than just another Thrash album. So yes, it’s an ancient work, but it’s also timeless. Just like we enjoy reading books that are 500 years old, I’d like to think angsty teens and fed-up adults will enjoy Altars of Madness for decades to come.
Label: Combat Records/Earache Records
Release date: May 12, 1989
Website: https://morbid-angel.bandcamp.com/album/altars-of-madness
Country: USA (FLORIDA!!!)
Score: you can’t score an icon!
Metal Eclipse Reviews 