I think the most exciting part of this album is the drums. They sound really good compared to a lot of compressed/triggered/plastic-bucket drum tracks on death metal albums from all four decades of the genre's existence. On this album, the drums sound lively and dynamic. The high hats and cymbals stepp in character and there's some low end to the kick drum. Hard to explain what it is really - the drums just sound good to me on this album.
They're also played in this sort of loose-but-not-amateurish manner that has a lot of character.
So that's a good thing about the album.
You can hear the bass, but it's got sort of vimpy tone, except when it plays in the lowest register. It's fine though. It just supports the riffs, so it works. It's not supposed to stand out on it's own.
The vocals are fine. A fair bit of power and variety. Better than a monotonous grunting thing.
The guitars sound fine and all, but the riffs are seriously hit and miss for me here. For every grinding, blood gargling skull crusher, there's a lame, cookie cutter death metal riff of the sort that sounds less menacing than goofy.
I'm not really a fan of this band to be honest. Their later albums mostly bore me to death. I can't even listen to the Covenant album without my mind wandering every two minutes.
This album is maybe one of the best of their I've heard. I also like some things on Heretic, even if it sounds so cardboard flat that it's considerably less heavy than it ought to be.
Altars of Madness may be a classic in death metal circles, but I'm no big fan of the genre and I'll always insist on rating according to my own tastes.
That means this album gets a fair grade, but nothing more.
It's got some bright spots, some fun drumming... but nothing I'll ever feel like returning to if I'm being perfectly honest.
I'll be listening to some Nile instead, thank you very much.
5
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