Review by Michael on November 10, 2022.

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark! The guys don't sound all that technical anymore like on their debut A Serenade Of Agony but more like old Edge Of Sanity. Well, for all of you who know some things about the band it wouldn't be much of a surprise that Dan Swanö (aka Day Disyraah) did the vocals on the debut album. The debut which became 30 this year in October. On It Never Ends… Dan did all the vocals and on the title track and on 'Tender Twigs Of Innocnece' you can also hear their regular vocalist Jan Bergmann Jepsenon. Dan told me that he wanted to do some more vocals again but I hadn't expected it that quick. It was a bit surprising but having him do it was a great choice I think.

Starting off with some blood-freezing piano sounds that don't let you expect anything good, the old school death metal inferno takes its relentless course. Buzzing, grinding guitars with thunderous drums that pummel down everything in its way blast the listener straight to the wall. Dan vocals sound as powerful and voluminous as 25 -30 years ago when Edge Of Sanity released their classics. I have to say that he sounds really pissed off and very aggressive and that this is one of the best vocal performances I have heard from him in the last few years. Of course Maceration isn't an EOS copy, the focus is much more on pure death metal without these experiments that EOS did. Melodies aren't in the foreground, it is much more sheer horror, brutality and heaviness that the Danes want to spread with their music. What is quite remarkable, too, is that there are only a few guitar solos which have a lot of old Morbid Angel vibes in the songs. The tracks show that Maceration is a well-oiled killing machine where everything works together very well. The tempo in all the tracks is pretty fast and only drops for some gloomy atmospheric parts.

Of course Maceration doesn't reinvent neither death metal nor do they have some innovations in their songs but that is not necessary. Driving HM-2 sound with a lot of blast beats keep hitting you straight in your face again and again. Songs like 'It Never Ends…' with one of these sick guitar solos and bonesawing riffing or the opener 'Lost In Depravity' with its uneasy atmosphere are brilliant old school death metal that won't leave any death metal maniac unsatisfied. 'Monolith Of The Cursed' is a worthy (short) closer of the album with all death metal trademarks you want to hear. The production, mastering and mixing was done by Dan Swanö himself at his Unisound Studio and when you know how he works you can be sure that this one is absolutely flawless.

Rating: 9 out of 10 Monoliths

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

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

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