Customer Reviews

Blessed Are the Sick

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Possibly the most innovative death metal album ever to be released, Morbid Angel's "Blessed Are The Sick", is atop the death metal heap as far as playing, atmosphere and innovation are concerned. "Unholy Blasphemies" and "Brainstorm" features Trey Azagthoth's insane riffing style and bizarre time signatures, while "Rebel Lands" and "Thy Kingdom Come" features more typical death metal writings, albeit done the Morbid way. What really sets this disc apart from all the others, is the infusion of atmosphere. "Desolate Ways", is a tranquil, beautifully composed acoustic piece which fits perfectly here. "Blessed Are The Sick/Leading the Rats", for my money, is the best track on the disc. An exercise in doom, dynamics, and brooding atmosphere, which also features an incredible flute outro. Now, funny as it sounds having a flute playing amongst all this madness, it is incredibly effective and downright scary. Truly innovative and original, this is the blue print that death metal bands have tried to emulate, but have failed miserably at. All hail Morbid Angel and their testimony of pain and agony. One of the 10 best Death Metal discs ever produced.

Talk to serious fanatics within the Death Metal scene, and Morbid Angel will come up in conversation as one of the most important and essential bands within that realm of extreme music. It is generally understood that Morbid Angel's first three albums are considered absolute classics of the genre. The first, "Altars Of Madness", established the band as leaders of the new Death. Their second, "Blessed Are The Sick", irrevocably proved that their success was no fluke or mere lucky break. Finally, the third album of this unbelievably classic phase, "Covenant", the first Death Metal album to be released on a major label, proved to the world once and for all that Morbid Angel wasn't going to be stopped any time in the near future.
What made Morbid Angel so amazing at this particular early point in their career was how they harnessed and utilized the necessary ingredients of Death Metal's best as well as how they borrowed from completely unconventional sources and strangely made them part of the formula. A risky move in Death Metal, but ultimately it proved triumphant. Without a doubt, "Blessed Are The Sick" makes use of classical themes and mind-boggling complexities to the already fiercely brutal compositions. Indeed, with structures this painstakingly elaborate, it's sometimes almost a let-down to simply call them "songs" - these are compositions in the truest sense of the word.
With riff-shifts and tempo shifts abound and racing in every direction, there are perhaps some moments that make the listener wonder if the band will spiral off into chaos, but the sonic ebb-and-flow always winds up making perfect sense in the end as the songs rush to their finish. As strange as it sounds, these songs seem to end too soon, since you're still trying to figure where they have gone by the time they're over. Even with the lyrics, which are growled yet still understandable, there's an added fury that bubbles frighteningly close to utter madness.
Death Metal was still in its early stages when "Blessed..." was unleashed, and as it proceeded to crush everything in its path, it was obvious that Morbid Angel was refusing to rest in the conventions of the genre. They obviously had more important goals in mind, particularly using Death as a platform to create new boundaries in brutality and extremity. And that's what fans ultimately looked to this band for - leaders who weren't afraid to shatter boundaries and limitations and replace them with brutal brilliance... time and time again. From the swelling tides of the intro eerily building up into a twisting, tormented climax, the album proceeds through a cauldron of tracks that grind brutally between the blurring intensity of speed and then heavy, plodding riffs of doom. Perhaps the most extreme thing about "Blessed Are The Sick" is how Morbid Angel was able to consistently shift between this multitude of seemingly incompatible elements and yet come out of the recording studio with their sanity intact. Sick individuals, indeed... and bless them for it.

''Blessed are the Sick'' is compositional, yet compact. On most every track, the tempos range from sludge to machine gun. Yet the time changes are lightning quick. Most of the songs have varied tempos punctuated by quaking, shattering breakdowns that intrude as if the song broke through a brick wall. Good examples of this include ''Thy Kingdom Come'' and the title track. There is strong song structure throughout. The first half of the album generally uses manic tempos and complex song structure to build a vicious, chaotic mood. The second half of the album, so to speak, generally ''rocks out'' by using some more traditional song elements of verse and chorus. Good examples of this include ''Abominations'' and ''The Ancient Ones''. It feels like the simpler, catchier stye of the second half are used to vindicate the chaotic, furious mood built up by the first. Delicate, tone-setting instrumental pieces are scattered throughout the album, which pull the listener in deeper into the vicious, depraved mood of the album. This is as evil as music can get.

Morbid Angel are truly a band worthy of praise. They deseve to be commended for bringing a high degree of technicality to death metal. True, they aren't as brutal as Deeds of Flesh, nor are they as melodic as Arch Enemy, or as avant garde as (newer) Gorguts, but they are ten times as influential. This album is one of their best, with a variety of tempos to keep the whole affair from stagnating. Trey lays down some of his best solos, very atonal and Slayer-esque. Pete Sandoval provides some of the best double bass I have ever heard. David's vocals have a surprising amount of variety and suit the music very well. My personal favorite songs would be "Abominations," "Brainstorm," and "Thy Kingdom Come." Overall, fans of solid, well-executed death metal will be very pleased with this release.

Here Morbid Angel create an undeniable statement of metal for all of the world to see. Many flag the death metal genre as one with endless carbon copies and talentless musicians just pounding away at instruments. Those people have never heard this masterpiece of brutality. On "Blessed are the Sick," Trey's muscianship is simply amazing. His guitar creates blistering solos, heavy riffs, and Trey creates some great music for the interludes between the ear crushing songs on this album(check out his solo piano piece on "Doomsday Celebration"). Pete Sandoval completely destroys his drum set for this work of art, and his lightning fast beats explain exactly why his nickname is the "commando." David Vincent provides great bass and his lyrics and vocals absolutely shred. His evil and dark content adds to a great instrumental performance by Trey and Pete, and David's growling style perfectly complements this album. Certainly a classic of the death metal genre, this album should not be missed, if not for its great musicianship, then for its creativity in an otherwise monotonous (to some people) genre.

This is my favorite Morbid Angel CD....and that is an achievement in it self, seeing that Morbid Angel is one of the best and most influential Death Metal bands ever...

Sure "Altars of Madness" has very seminal stuff on it, "Covenant" sports the best Morbid Angel track ever ("God of Emptiness"), "Dominatioin" has one of the best productions ever on any extreme metal release and "Formulas fatal to the flesh" has one of the most elaborate lyrical/spiritual concepts in death metal history, but "Blessed are the sick" is still my personal Morbid Angel favorite.

First of all, I think "Blessed are the sick" is the most varied Morbid Angel release; featuring both high-speed and more atmospheric mid-paced tracks.

Secondly, I think the intro's/outro's to both the CD as a whole and to some of the induvidual tracks, are the best Morbid Angel has done.

Favorite tracks? "Rebel Lands", "Unholy Blasphemies", "The Ancient Ones".. No, this futile...

ALL the tracks are awesome displays of Trey Azagthoth's skills as a composer of innovative, contorted riffs, that seem like they were created with the intent of invoking The Old Ones, Pete Sandoval whips up an iconoclastic storm with his amazing drumming and David Vincent's vocal style in unparalled...

Add great esoteric lyrics and cover art-work that suits the music perfectly, and voila.... You have an undying Death Metal Masterpiece!!

Guitarist Azogthoth claimed to be inflamed with Mozart for this album.
Rather than compare Azogthoth to Wolfgang M., let us say that the vitality of this album sounded an early death-bell for all other Death Metal bands who might fein PROGRESSIVE leanings.

"Blessed Are The Sick"...awe struck I found myself at 14 and now.
They were the best of the best and one of the earliest of the best, too! This album knocked me silly! Every member of the band is bleeding soul on this album.

Specifically, Vincent on Vocals barks commands to a supposed legion, while ripping his fingers into the bass which is *audible*, and Richard Brunelle bleeding soulful guitar solos on most songs, Azogthoth lacing into his Hamer with precise disciplined rhythm and writing all the structures, and Pete Sandoval thumping like a mainframe processor with machine-like precision and *fantastic* varied choice of fills and crescendos!!!

It takes one listen to get a glimpse of the complexity and two to become semi-enraptured at all the inscrtable structure on the album!
When Pantera toured with Morbid Angel, I saw Phill sing leads on "Day of Suffering"

This album is unbelievable fast and heavy.

The lyrics are silly, though,
"The Fiends Encircle Me
They Speak my Name In Tongues
...Spirits, Race Into My Eyes."

...yeah and leprichauns and pixies and faeries, too guys. What are the real issues we face?

I find it hard to believe that no one wrote a review of Morbid Angel's best album. From the illustrations (the cover art is gorgeous and unusual for DM art), to the production, the music, and the raging lyrics. This album is so artisically full that I have yet to tire of listening to it, and I have been doing so since its release. It took me a year just to notice the fearful voices in the intro, the recording is so multi-layered and intricate. If you are thinking of exploring Morbid Angel, listen to this album first, then Altars of Madness, and then Covenant.

This is much better than their first album, "Altars Of Madness", IMO. The sound is cleaner and there's more variation going on. Four of the songs are instrumentals, and out of those, "Desolate Ways", an acoustic song, and "In Remembrance" soley piano played by Trey, are great interludes between the waves of death metal mayhem. The guitar solos are killer, usually played really fast. These guys aren't afraid to slow things down every once in awhile, occasionally throwing in a heavy riff like on "Day Of Suffering." This album is essential.

...but this album aint all that. its the production that killz it. the drums sound phony and terrible. clicky bass drum and the fills sound fake. the vokillz are way too high. look im a metal fan, but this type of production is the epitome of what metal shouldn't be. metals meant to be ugly, raw and nasty. this stuff is too clean. in all honesty if this record was produced to sound like altars of madness, i'd have given 4 stars. too flat, too fake. in my opinion this was morbid angels downfall. always this fake sounding production.