Review by Marcelo Vieira on August 24, 2024.

Why did the Norwegian Inner Circle hate bands like Morbid Angel? The case made by them is that the Florida boys weren’t Satanic enough, because they didn’t actually worship The Devil and were basically posers because of it. The REAL reason is that this loosely organized gang of misfits couldn’t play like Morbid Angel if someone held a fucking gun to their heads. Not even to this day can Mayhem hold a candle to what Trey and crew bring to the table as far as adeptness and compositional savvy. The fact is, Satanic metal in The States was created during that particular era as a way to blaspheme the church - a pushback against the Bible Thumpers of the ’80s and ’90s whose sole purpose was to censor and condemn freedom of expression. And it just so happens that Morbid was the cream of the Florida scene.        

Following their celebrated Altars Of Madness debut, in 1991, as the Inner Circle’s hooliganism terrorized the local Christian community over in Norway, Morbid Angel quietly released their magnum opus in Blessed Are The Sick via Earache. Engineered again by Tom Morris at Morrisound, “Blessed” was yet another pinnacle of production majesty - all phases stripped down to an essential state with purity as the main focus, as opposed to clarity - a sonic tapestry as soft as cotton, yet brutal all the same. Trey took a much different, more temped approach to songwriting on this one when compared to “Altars”. You’ll still experience all those bewilderingly aggressive passages, but oft following much slower, torqued parts in tracks like 'Fall From Grace' that put on display a freakish level of almost classically inspired songwriting ability along with some old-fashioned Floridian brutality. A mad scientist behind the axe is Trey Azagthoth and unpredictably is the name of the game here: un-foreseeable shifts in tempo like racing down a track you’re unfamiliar with, just trying to anticipate as best you can, strapped in for the ride and at inertia’s mercy. 

A little classicism coming by way of the vampiric interlude, 'Doomsday Celebration', that draws to mind images of desolate winter landscapes overlooked by creatures of the night from some cursed vantage; writhing in the ecstasy of watching it all die - a classically-inspired little gem of recording to leave you in awe just before the unbridled savagery of 'Day Of Suffering' unfolds. Less than two minutes in duration but loaded like a fucking shotgun with oppressive grooves and blasting slugs through your chest with every primal rhythm/gut-wrenching guitar riff. 

Somehow, Trey stands as a relic or even a forlorn player in the game these days and that’s a shame, especially considering his writing of the uber-complex 'Thy Kingdom Come' and his strikingly gorgeous acoustic stringed contribution to 'Desolate Ways' - another breathtaking interlude and a lulling into an intoxicated state as each moving arrangement penetrates past even your most fortified of defenses straight to the soul. And yes, it’s naturally followed up by a screamer in 'The Ancient Ones': wailing leads, grinding but intricate riffs, and bludgeoning rhythmic onslaughts - an unsung deep cut that encapsulates everything this band had done so well up until that point, even some jam to get that head banging and the juices flowing down to your naughties. 

The Norwegian kids were jealous! I mean, it took Mayhem seven years to release their debut LP following “Deathcrush”, and all their music leading up to that point was garbage. You just can’t compare albums like “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas” to Blessed Are The Sick not fair and do I subscribe to the notion that if you’re going to go Satanic, you should go all the way with it and seek out the spiritual side? Absolutely, but then again, that has never been the point of Satanic metal in America. Leave all the mumbo-jumbo to the Swedes, the Finns, and the Greeks, because at the end of the day, for Morbid, the music is what has always been the focal point; to be the very fucking best and to compete with the very fucking best of the USDM movement - simply leaving every black metal artist of that time in their dust. 

Morbid Angel’s latest Kindoms Disdained LP is one of their very best recordings, despite it being criminally unsung and now we anxiously wait for a new chapter to be written. Seven years since the last record and it’s like Morbid Angel has been all but completely forgotten. Long gone are the prolific days of the ’90s for this outfit as Trey has adopted the quality over quantity approach since then, but the stage is set for a big one from Morbid Angel, and considering the recent output from the majority of the Tampa crew as of late, dominating the comp should prove to be a remedial task. Blessed Are The Sick - a Morbid vision of abomination and blasphemy brought to life and packaged beautifully under cover of Jean Delville’s “The Treasures of Satan” (1894). A genuine masterpiece…

Rating: 10 out of 10