Morbid Angel – Formulas Fatal to the Flesh – Review

Morbid Angel

Formulas Fatal to the Flesh (Earache)
by Paul Lee

It’s been nearly ten years since Morbid Angel‘s blasphemous classic, Altars of Madness, was unleashed upon an unsuspecting world. Grindcore and death metal were just starting to make a huge impact upon the extreme music scene and Morbid Angel was leading the unholy legions of the more demonic kind. In those days, Morbid Angel nearly tore my head clean off as I was still a neophyte to this most extreme form of metal. But Morbid Angel have spewed forth Formulas Fatal To The Flesh to a more jaded metal world. Do they still make an impact? You bet your violent music-loving asses!

Guitar sorcerer Trey Azagthoth, amazing original drummer Pete “Commando” Sandoval and new bassist/vocal masochist Steve Tucker have created a work of blasphemous brilliance with FFF. I was sorely disappointed and bored by the soulless work on Domination, but FFF tears a new hole in my skull (call it Morbid Angel trephination) and wins me back. It’s an album that shows the maturity and growth of one of the greatest of all death metal bands.

There’s good reason why Morbid Angel have received so much acclaim and still deserve to. FFF is unmistakably Morbid Angel all over, but it’s a major evolution forward. Never mind that MA’s last two studio opuses, Covenant and Domination, couldn’t compare to their first two brilliant releases (Altars… and Blessed Are The Sick). FFF recaptures the original evil glory and reestablishes why Morbid Angel are the most cutting-edge and influential death metal band on both the death metal and black metal scenes. Of course, a good portion of the songs, like opener “Heaving Earth” and “Chamber of Dis,” have the classic, vertebrae-shredding pace and unholy chord and time changes. But, add to this some mid-tempo blasters like “Invocation of the Continual One,” a beautiful guitar piece, “Hymn to a Gas Giant,” a wild, Sandoval-penned rhythmic tune, and some other great songs, and you have a truly amazing, diverse opus.

You’ll hardly find a group of musicians more talented anywhere in the metal realm. Azagthoth once again proves that he’s one of the most adept and insane guitarist/composers anywhere and continues to progress as a musician and composer. His weird time signatures and chord progressions eclipse any guitarist around. His lead bursts squeal, shred and create sparks without being overbearing or lengthy (we’re talking about 10 to 20 seconds here). Even Azagthoth’s lyrics have started to veer away from the overwrought Satanic themes and taken a more intelligent and scary direction with their strange occult themes. There’s even some of Azagthoth’s creepy instrumentals to add to the diversity. Azagthoth took on the risky job of producing the entire album. No Scott Burns or Colin Richardson needed here, Azagthoth’s production is flawless.

Pete Sandoval’s drumming is as distinctive as Trey’s fretwork with his signature blast beats, double bass thundering and generally incredibly fluid and brutal skin work. Even without original bassist/vox man David Vincent, Azagthoth and company are actually better. Tucker fills Vincent’s combat boots quite nicely with solid bass work and vocals just as guttural and mean-spirited. You’d never know he was the new killer on the block.

To all the doomsayers of death metal, we true believers should roar in unison a mighty “FUCK OFF” and pummel them with repeated playings of FFF. Sure Deicide’s latest was good, but Morbid Angel are the true kings of Floridian Death. There’s undoubtedly new life for these mavens of death. All hail to the nameless and ancient gods that have inspired Azagthoth and his minions for putting out the best metal release thus far in 1998!