Morbid Angel - Gateways To Annihilation

Mark

Not blessed, or merciful
Apr 11, 2001
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Sarf Lundin, Innit
Morbid Angel - Gateways To Annihilation
Earache Records - 2000
By Philip Whitehouse


The latest release from Florida death metal crew Morbid Angel, Gateways To Annihilation is the latest example of punishing beats, tortuously complex riffing and gravel-gargling vocals to come from one of the two biggest bands in this genre.

Although Morbid Angel get off to a bad start by putting an irritating intro track 'Kawazu' on the album, which consists of nothing more than almost a minute of off chirping sounds, thing swiftly improve when 'Summoning Redemtion' kicks in. An ugly, gore-drenched riff stomps on top of a double bass drum grounding, as Steve Tucker's sand-blasted vocals come growling over the whole thing.

This trend is pretty much set through the whole album - every now and again, a horrifically impressive guitar solo takes pride of place above the drums, although occasionally these seem to go on for far too long.

Basically, this is a typical death metal album from one of the finest bands in the genre. If you like this kind of thing, you'll be headbanging to your heart's content to this for a long time. If you don't like death metal, stay well away. As for me? I'm putting a Cannibal Corpse album on.