Approaching an album with such a reputation, it is not easy to listen to it outside of the hype and glory in which it is shrouded. But then again, why is that necessary? Even more divisive classics – Gorgut’s “Obscura” comes to mind – are, whatever one’s adoration or hatred for the album itself, undeniable in their influence and, as such, deserving of their recognition. But, given that Metal Archives runs their reviews on a ratings system, individual enjoyment matters – as such, I’ll get right to it. Does “Altars of Madness” hold up as an enjoyable listening experience, whatever one may say about its influence?
For this reviewer: FUCK YES.
From the opening of “Immortal Rites,” the album seizes onto your blood, its rough but powerful riffing possessing the listener and transporting any remotely aware death metal fan back to an everlasting nostalgia, a moment in time in the late-1980s, when all that is old is made new again in the purifying flames of churning hells. The disintegrating oozing faces on the cover may well be the potentialities of the primordial writhing muck from which life itself first crept, and returned to, a tortured process whose pain the music on this album invokes. It is a uniquely powerful listen that still captures the novelty of a genre just fitting into its body, an escalation of the violent instrumental contortions already present on the albums of Death and Slayer, but which had not yet reached their grotesque apotheosis.
There is a certain nervous conviction to the performances on the album which, while I don’t usually wish to generalize in this regard, I can’t help but think that even people who knew nothing about the album can fail to notice. This idiosyncratic quality to the performances on the album make it a true moment in time. One of the best examples of this for me is “Suffocation,” where the almost panicked energy of the fast sections, as though the band can’t get out fast enough what they want to express, is wondrously displayed – just listen to the drumming, the finger-slicing guitar solos, the harsh scraping bass solo. “Visions From the Darkside’s” (dis)harmonized tremolo picked vehemence and back breaking caveman drumming continue the assault with, once again, more memorable riffs and ruthless guitar work.
But these fast-paced blast-heavy tracks are well-balanced against – certainly not “slower” – but more thrashy material. “Lord of All Fevers and Plagues,” “Damnation” and “Chapel of Ghouls” can be understood as being a tribute to their thrash metal predecessors, profanely ripping pages from Slayer, Kreator, and Celtic Frost and reassembling them in an even more ruthless, relentless formula. Whatever other examples one may point to, if ever there were clear “transition fossils” between the ruthless brute of what we would today call “death thrash” (early death metal of the “Scream Bloody Gore” variety) and the more unpleasant creature that death metal would become, these songs are it. Various other moments on the album more clearly display the lineage of the band, but what is so interesting about “Altars of Madness” is how much the band upped the ante.
Front to back, this cannot be anything other than one of the most enjoyable death metal releases for any fan of the genre. Every song is an absolute onslaught, an unstoppable war machine that will not be content until it is surrounded only by decimation. As stated above, this is a monster who hasn’t quite fit into its skin, who is just realizing its power. While I wouldn’t quite describe the genre as reaching its peak here, this is about as good as it gets – for any fan of death metal, and really, any fan of metal at all, this is essential listening, and not merely as a historical artifact. Its ability to possess the listener is still as powerful as ever: the cacophony and envenomed compositions contained here have already stood the test of time for three decades, and will surely resonate long into the future.
Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Official promo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
