Heretic

Morbid Angel – Heretic (Earache Records)
Death metal, old-school, from Florida, from the originators of the style, often-imitated and duplicated. This, however, is the original, awesome sound that made these guys household names to begin with. The production is kinda iffy, the guitar sound is harsh, and there’s far too much emphasis on the drums and bass. Vocals are sick as always, and the guitar playing is exceptional. This is definitely one of the shining albums of the year for me. NOTE: The promo CD in your hands had the songs broken up into 8-10 little pieces each to prevent mp3 ripping and sharing. Bill fixed that, but the result was songs with anywhere from five to fifteen seconds of empty space at the end, so keep that in mind when you play these.
Tracks:
1) Fast start, perfect opener, they haven’t lost it yet. Whew.
2) Great trilly start, fast double-bass, great guitar work, and a pretty memorable song; this isn’t bad at all.
3) Probably the best song on the album, mid-paced, with guitars that sound almost hypnotic, and I think there’s a little breakdown-like thing in there. Awesome vocals, too, and the guitar solo is truly exceptional.
4) More death, more obscure references to every deity ever conceived by every culture, ever, anywhere. Good song, mid-tempo, with lots of changes.
5) Slower pace, lotsa blast beats, scaaary vocals.
6) Sounds like black metal. Fast single-note type riffs, double bass all over the place, and more experimental vocals. The drums really shine here.
7) Just a series of funny/quirky keys/FX with some riffs and melody lines in the background.
8) A short ambient/instrumental interlude. Ignore.
9) MUCH better, this song rips! Mid-tempo riffs, but just excellent drumming, and the vocals sound like they’re being recorded in a cave.
10) Classic death sound here, furious, vicious, brutal.
11) Acoustic instrumental, just a guitar and some other string instruments, sounds rather peaceful. Urge to kill fading, fading...
12) …gone. A march, of some conqueror dude. Sounds like a film score. Pretty good for what it is.
13) Starts out with an out-take, then the producer says “Alright, Pete, let me go ahead and hear your kick-drum please”. Then you hear the kick-drum, twice. Then Pete Sandoval tears into an unbelievable drum solo, just like that. No reason, no excuse, no mercy! Two minutes of kick-ass! It ends with the producer saying “OK, Pete, now, can I just hear your kick-drum, please”. Hilarious.
14) Just Trey doodling on the guitar. In other words, awesome, random guitar solos.