Customer Reviews

Morbid Visions/Bestial Devastation

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

this is sep's best. all black metal fans should buy this. buy this one first. minimal production, max power

Before "Schizophrenia", "Beneath the Remains", or "Arise", Sepultura was an angry and determined Brazilian band looking to get noticed, which they did with "Morbid Visions". This is Sepultura playing heavily Venom-influenced black metal that features all the imagry you'd expect from an old Slayer album, and it must be heard to be believed. The production is beyond shoddy, and the musicianship is hardly as accomplished as it would be on later albums, but the seething attitude and demonic imagry is worth the price of admission alone. Songs like "Troops of Doom", "Crucifixion", "Antichrist", and "Necromancer" are simple and unapologetic, and it's hard to believe that those songs were written by Max Cavalera; the same guy who has done countless material "dedicated to God" on his Soulfly albums. New Sepultura fans may want to check this out after hearing "Beneath the Remains", "Arise", or "Chaos A.D.", while older fans who have never heard this deserve to pick it up.

Every Sepultura fan should own this album. It's a true classic despite the bad production. Max Cavelera's vocals, and the fast paced guitars on here will drive you insane. The echoing drums are really good especially on Morbid Visions and War. The Bestial Devastation EP which is also on here has better prodution. It also includes a remake of the song Antichrist turned Anitcop which was recorded live at some time earlier in the bands career. All in all, a must have for anyone who loves moshing and headbanging. Sepultura rules.

This album in my opinion presents the best work from Sepultura. Chaotic and intricate in narrative, these songs make from simple riffs and pure noise an aura of evil that holds reality in suspense. Although some instrumentation is unsteady as a whole drumming and guitar work is creative and deliberate. Dramatic theming to songs make them unique, but raw spirit and concept is what draws these collections of power chords together. Riffs are of the faster Slayer-influenced style or in a minimalist muffled strumming rhythm playing form. Blasphemic lyrics tumble out in a death metal vocal of some sophistication considering the 1984-85 recording date on these albums. For those looking for a underground insight to the passion of this band, this album is great, but if Chaos A.D. is your thing pass it by.

I don't think these early gems receive the credit they deserve. They were influenced more by Bathory and Destruction than anything. I don't hear SLayer in any of the songs and if they had satanic lyrics, it doesn't mean they were influenced by them. Just listen to song "Necromancer" deffinate Bathory/hellhammer inspired black metal song. This is early beginning of black metal and anyone who thinks Cradle of filth or Emperor invented Bm is just a clueless idiot. If you don't have this release you may as well be marilyn manson poser

In the mid 80's Sepultura, and several other South American bands became along with Bathory, Celtic Frost and Venom, the very roots of the style that would come to be called Black Metal. Sepultura, heavily influenced by Venom, Hellhammer, Cletic Frost, and punk, formed in Brazil to create a primitive thrash like assult, that was just as much black metal as Bathory. Indeed both bands early work could be very similar. Bathory however was inclined to be less thrashy and more punklike and noisy.

Sepultura are not however, death metal at this point. Nothing on Morbid Visions or Bestial Devotion could be even imagined to be death metal, it was not until a few years later, when they matured as musicians that they would delve into the death metal world. This release is purely what is now called blackened thrash.

I enjoy this album alot, it's really heavy, really crazy and really primitive, and oozes dark awe inspiring atmosphere. I can't suggest this enough to black metal fans to find out about the roots of an excellent band, and the very style.

It's been nearly 23 years since the sultry summer of '86, when four teenage outcast death metalheads from Brazil booked seven days of time at a backwards studio in Belo Horizonte, and emerged with their debut LP "Morbid Visions." That band was Sepultura, and the record remains a milestone of brutality as well as one of the benchmark releases in early death metal. It in fact may be one of the first true death metal LPs to ever be released; sure you had Possessed from the year before (whom these young longhairs seemed to idolize), but along with Repulsion, Death, and Bathory, Sepultura were one of the few to take the sound to new, unforeseen extremes for '86. Listen to any of the album's eight tracks and you hear elements that would turn up in countless recordings since: namely, downtuned guitars, (near) blastbeats, and particularly, Max Cavalera's evil growling vocal emissions.

That's in fact one of the things I will never understand about criticisms of Sepultura's early work (even from Don Kaye, who contributed the liner notes to the '97 reissue) -- that the supposedly "bad" production ruins the sound. I think the bad (better stated: extremely raw) 16-track production is one of the things that MAKES this record what it is. I for one happen to love death metal that is raw, unpolished and ugly -- the way it was meant to be. In fact, to these ears, Igor Cavalera may have one of the all-time SICKEST drum sounds ever on "Morbid Visions." And you have to remember that the band hailed from an extremely impoverished corner of the world; they were clearly working with what they had. Thus, the inherent grimness and ugliness of the music is evident for the duration of this 33 minute opus.

And let it be said that original lead guitarist Jairo T. (who would depart after the release of this album) deserves his place in Sepultura's early history as a key innovator of their sound. (The band's 1987 follow-up "Schizophrenia" and subsequent releases were good but in my opinion, the band would never again recapture the sinister atmosphere found on this album.)

All in all, classic stuff here. "Morbid Visions" deserves its place in history, along with other recordings from the same era like "the Seven Churches," "Horrified" and "Scream Bloody Gore," as pioneering works that shaped the face of death metal for years to come. Highly recommended.

Agree with other reviewers, the early Sepultura was very influenced by Slayer, Bathory and Celtic Frost. Their primitive sound and the production delivers a thrash/black metal with attitude. I prefer the raw and primitive sound of this album for this type of music is welcome.

this is a raw example of a band about to change the music scape forever. i think this is one of the first "growl" type vocal CDS. 1985 was when this EP was released, beating POSSESSED to the punch, if i correctly remember so. this cd is a taste of what was to come from Sepultura, hard fast heavy thrash metal, with unique vocals. this is truly a one of a kind. i am glad that SEPultura changed alot after their first couple albums or show, and how they evolved somewhat as a band. get this if you want to start from ground up with SEPULTURA.

How can the members of sepultura say this not a great piece of work. It shows raw musical creation poorly produced for the clear sound of what to come. The drumming is not like the rest of sepultura's later stuff because of a non-working drum set. This is the essance of what metal is about.