Morbid Angel

Morbid Angel
If you are a death metal enthusiast, then you must have heard about Morbid Angel. This American death metal band has played a great role in the development of the death metal genre and its standards.

Morbid Angel, along with some other bands, separated it from the thrash metal genre completely and gave it new and captivating sound.

Morbid Angel was formed in 1984 in Tampa, Florida. It is one of the original death metal bands that have touched the mainstream success, such as being signed to Giant Records in 1992 and having the music video for the song God of Emptiness shown on an episode of Beavis and Butthead.

They are famous for adding guttural vocals, up-tempo blast beats, incorporating atonality in guitar soloing, and dark, chunky, mid paced rhythms to their music to it more interesting.

The band made their record debut in 1987 on New Renaissance Records. Their debut album, Abominations of Desolation, was recorded in 1986, but the band was unsatisfied with the final product and it remained unreleased until 1991. This was the first sign of the true professionalism of the band as they did not compromise on a low quality product.

The band first presented them to the listeners with their album Altars of Madness. Released in 1989, the album earned them great success and critics also welcomed their work. Today, the album is regarded as the milestone in the history of death metal with one remastered version in 2003 that included several remixed versions of songs from the album.

Basking on the success of their first album, Morbid Angel released Blessed Are the Sick is their second official album. It features an overall slower musical sound and classical music undertones revealing one more side of the band.

Abominations of Desolation made its way to mainstream in 1991 when the band's record label, Earache Records decided to bring their very first work on the scene. And although, they earlier thrashed the work, it still proved than what was going on those days.

The third official full-length album by Morbid Angel came in 1993. Titled as Covenant, the album represented bands first foray into the mainstream as they became visible all over the place with this act. The band signed with Giant Records and made the music video for God of Emptiness.

The style was darker and more disturbing in approach and lyrics by David Vincent were evil and satanic. All this made Covenant one of the bestselling death metal albums of all time, with sales of over 127,000.

The band further proved their domination over the death metal scene with their next titled Domination released in 1995. The album retained their traditional death metal sound, along with sludge sounding feel to it. Where the Slime Live was the most popular track from the album.

With Formulas Fatal to the Flesh, the band introduced singer/bassist Steve Tucker who replaced David Vincent. This super hit album was followed by two blockbuster and record shattering albums like Gateways To Annihilation and Heretic. Heretic was their seventh studio album that again saw the band experimenting with different tunes.

In this album, they moved between the two differing styles and played with moments of powerful speed by mixing it with moments of atmospheric slowness. This is also the only album made not to be recorded at Morrisound Recording and the band's final release under Earache Records, as the band decided not to renew its contract.

Supreme talent, utter perfectionism, will to do experimentation, magnificent sales record and superb stage presence; this is what summed up the characteristics of this phenomenal death metal band Morbid Angel.

Having registered two of their work among the Top 40 Greatest Death Metal Albums, as UK music magazine Terrorizer ranked two of their albums in the list with Altars of Madness appearing at #1; the band has truly the best in the Death Metal genre of music. Also, bands guitarist Trey Azagthoth was rated as the #1 Death Metal Guitarist Ever.

While Morbid Angel is leaving no stone unturned to make the best of death metal music and treat their fans with truly crude and dark melodies that is a forte of this genre, you can also make sure to support this talented band in every way possible.

So the next time you plan a holiday, check out for a powerhouse performance by the real kings of metal, Morbid Angel.