Two EPs in One Mixed Package – 80%*
Morbid Angel stormed onto the scene with Altars of Madness. After stewing in the underground, a nixed first attempt at a full length (Abominations of Desolation), a merger with the rhythm section and vocalist from Terrorizer, they came out with a 10-song slab of classics front to back. Altars of Madness lives on as one of the greatest metal records ever for good reason. So, what next? Morbid Angel wasn’t going the way of ’90s Finnish Death-Doom bands releasing a single album and then disappearing.
So, they needed to write some more songs, get another album out, and keep the momentum going. The band had another issue though. They had a bunch of songs they hadn’t rerecorded off “Abominations of Desolation.” This led to the mishmash that is “Blessed are the Sick.”
There are 3 songs rerecorded from “Abominations…” on here: Unholy Blasphemies, Abominations, and The Ancient Ones. That leaves 10 tracks, of which 4 are small instrumental pieces, of which 3 are neat, but I don’t consider as full songs. The “Abominations…” songs are not write-offs. These were well written songs and there’s a reason they continued to pop up on future albums. However, using three of them here, in addition to 4 instrumentals only leaves 6 “new songs” on this album. These are: Fall From Grace, Brainstorm, Rebel Lands, Day of Suffering, the title track, and Thy Kingdom Come. This means of this whole album, just over 20 minutes of it are new, full-fledged metal songs.
I don’t measure albums by quantity, or else funeral doom albums would all be 10/10s, and grind albums would all be 0/10s, but this album is lacking a clear identity due to this split. I love the “Abominations” songs, and it makes sense to release them so that when they’re played live, people know what they are. However, when 1/3rd of the death metal songs were written at the same time as much of the previous album, and the other 2/3rds were written for this album, it feels like this album is a half-step for the band. It is plain to see that the new songs resemble the songwriting heard on “Covenant,” while the older songs feel like “Altars…” era songs. David Vincent even switches between his “Altars…” rasp and his “Covenant” growl depending on the songs. I always thought Blessed are the Sick would work better as two separate EPs, rather than a whole that confuses itself.
This is not a bad album! Every single death metal song on this album is good. The particular standouts to me are “Day of Suffering,” “Fall From Grace” and “Thy Kingdom Come,” but there are no duds here.
Two highlights of this album come in the musicianship of Trey Azagthoth and Pete Sandoval. Trey’s writhing, twisted solos and rhythm sections are always a highlight, and his ability to make tempos lurch and leap via his riffing is always a treat to listen to. “Day of Suffering” opens with a great example of this. On that same note, the intro to “Day of Suffering showcases Pete Sandoval’s drumming spectacularly. He always sticks in the pocket of the band, and I feel that Trey and Pete together are what really make Morbid Angel so special to listen to.
To close: I don’t think “Blessed Are the Sick” is a poor offering. As I noted in my “Domination” review, “Covenant” had some hints of what was next for Morbid Angel. It looked back, with “Angel of Disease” being rerecorded. It also looked forward, with the doomy “God of Emptiness” and “Nar Mattaru” foreshadowing the electronic experimentation of “Domination” with the doomier and sludgier tempos. “Blessed are the Sick” does the same. It looks back to pre-Altars material while expanding the horizons of the band and progressing their sound to what would be heard on “Covenant.” I think that Covenant is a better album than this one solely for its cohesion. This one does not deserve an overly negative score but is a step below the album that precedes it and the albums that succeeded it.
I have a full dynamic range copy of this CD as part of the series of FDR releases that Earache has been releasing over the last few years. It sounds excellent. I will note (as I do for many of these Earache FDR reissues), there are no liner notes in the CD FDR reissues. The digipaks these come in are also junk. They are extremely difficult to remove the CD from, and due to this, I put the disc in a spare jewel case next to the digipak on my shelf to avoid damaging the disc. I wish this was a minor nitpick, but when my copy of “Altars…” came with the inner ring of the cd partially cracked due to the shoddy design of the packaging, it’s an issue worth mentioning.
Seriously Earache, if you’re going through all the effort to reissue these albums in the best sound possible, 1) use the right artwork (looking at you “Altars…” and “Realm of Chaos”), 2) give us the full package with liner notes, and 3) don’t make it impossible to get the cd out of the packaging.
*Note: Originally posted on the Metal Archives by CelestialEmissary
