Altars of Madness

Speaking about his motivations at the time of writing and recording the album, Morbid Angel guitarist Trey Azagthoth recalled a strong desire to "engulf the whole world," "destroy everybody," and "smoke people." He was under the impression that bands in the Florida death metal scene were "trying to outdo" one another and "make each other quit," which he likened to the rivalries between East Coast and West Coast hip hop artists. He said, "I wanted to get onstage and have people go, "Holy shit - what the fuck is going on?" I wanted to write stuff that would make other bands run and hide. It's not really very nice, but that's what drove me." On November 23, 2018, there will be a digipak edition of the album, with remastered sound and the bonus tracks, along with a bonus clip of "Immortal Rites". == Music and lyrics ==

The album is one of the earliest examples of death metal and is considered to have helped pioneer the sound along with Possessed's Seven Churches in 1985 and Death's Scream Bloody Gore in 1987. Additionally, the album is said to contain elements of speed metal. Though now described as sounding "raw and primitive," Altars of Madness is considered to be a musically groundbreaking album in extreme metal, and has been said to make the music of Morbid Angel's predecessors Slayer and Venom sound like "children's music" by comparison. It is said to be "crisper" and more coherent than releases from other extreme bands during the time, and the songwriting is said to contain hooks. Jason Birchmeier of AllMusic assessed that "never before had a heavy metal band carried their lightning-fast guitar riffs and equally spellbinding guitar solos into such horrific territory," and likened the band's speed to playing in "fast-forward mode." The album's sound has been described as "being hunted through forgotten tombs by diseased ghouls, slowly shedding the last rags of your sanity." The album's style has drawn comparisons to the "wilder moments" of early Napalm Death releases. The album's style is also characterized by extremely fast performances, complex compositions, and technically demanding musicianship, producing a "musical onslaught [that] will surely send children and parents running away in fear". Frontman David Vincent's vocals have been described as "monstrous." His style derived influence from early English grindcore as well as from the death growls of Chuck Schuldiner of Death. The album's lyrical content explores themes such as Satanism and blasphemy, and are said to "seem far too sincere to be a pose". The album's tracks have also been called "awkward and chaotic tales of madness," drawing comparisons to Lovecraftian horror. The guitar work of Trey Azagthoth has been described as "demented," and as sounding like he was "taking the guitar and making it wail as if it were slowly being melted." Azagthoth himself has noted that psychedelic music was an influence on his writing on the album, especially the work of Pink Floyd. When composing guitar solos on the album, he abandoned the use of traditional scales and said that "I would just pick an area on the guitar and play it without really looking at it. I'd connect it in a different way." == Artwork ==

The cover artwork, by Dan Seagrave at age 18, depicts what he described as a "flat disk" composed of fossil material, shown to be imprisoning "captured souls". Altars of Madness was the first death metal release for which Seagrave had created an album cover, as he had previously worked with British thrash metal bands such as Warfare. According to Seagrave, the "disk" has been wrongly perceived as having been intended to look "spherical". ==Legacy==

Many death metal fans and critics consider Altars of Madness to be one of the best death metal albums of all time. Jason Birchmeier of AllMusic wrote that one "cannot deny its influence", UK magazine Terrorizer rates this album as both Morbid Angel's and death metal's finest hour, describing it as "bludgeoning and raw but also technical, exacting and intimidatingly consistent". Altars of Madness has appeared at the top of lists of the greatest death metal albums of all time by Decibel magazine and Terrorizer magazine. Loudwire named the album as the best death metal album of all time. In April 2006, the album was inducted into the Decibel Hall of Fame. The magazine wrote that the album "would turn death metal both upside down and inside out." Robban Becirovic of Close-Up credited the album for helping define death metal as a distinct style. He said: "Before [Altars,] there was no clear distinction between death, speed, or thrash among regular metalheads. It was just brutal metal. But Altars of Madness opened people's eyes, and made us realize something new was going on. Everybody bought that record. Everybody. And thrash was executed by it – the whole genre just disappeared." In 2022, Stephen Hill of Metal Hammer named the album as one of the best releases on Earache Records. He wrote: "Morbid Angel may not have invented death metal, but with their debut album, they raised the bar so high that the genre is still frantically straining to reach its majesty to this day." The album's influence has been observed in the music of Emperor and Cradle of Filth. ==Track listing==

Morbid Angel • David Vincent – bass, vocals • Trey Azagthoth – guitars • Richard Brunelle – guitars • Pete Sandoval – drums Production • Dig – executive production • Morbid Angel – arrangement, production • Tom Morris – engineering, mixing ==Notes==