Angelcorpse Exterminate

Angelcorpse 'Exterminate' (Osmose Productions 1997)

Impeccable. Morbid Angel worship of the highest order. Truly the Ancient Ones must have been pleased with this magnificent homage to the gods of gods. Savage, crushing Satanic death metal. Easily my favourite form of musical expression.

Unfortunately, nothing will ever affect me the way Morbid Angel's debut, 'Altars of Madness', and sophomore, 'Blessed are the Sick', did in 1989 and 1991 respectively. The speed, the heaviness, the occult lyrics, the musicianship - Morbid Angel were the mother lode as far as I was concerned. So brilliant were they that they created a sub-genre of death metal that consists entirely of bands who, I hesitate to say 'rip off', 'model' themselves upon the swamp dwelling monarchs. Angelcorpse are definitely in the Champions' League of Morbid acolytes and bring me a great deal of pleasure.

I could go through this album song by song and tell you that 'Christhammer' is reminiscent of a warped 'Brainstorm', that 'Wartorn' has a distinctly 'Invocation of the Continual One' mid-section, that 'Phallelujah' reminds me of 'Sworn to the Black' and that 'That Which Lies Upon' sounds like 'Blasphemy' mixed with 'World of Sh*t (the Promised Land), but all that would tell you is that I am a massive Morbid Angel nerd and that Angelcorpse sound like, surprise, surprise, Morbid Angel!

Yet they are more than mere copy cats, there is a true darkness here which is all of Angelcorpse's own. There are brilliant nuances that only those truly versed in the cult of Azagthoth could hope to achieve. There is a deep seated hatred that oozes from every groove, with the band eschewing the artistic pretensions of Morbid Angel for straight for the throat barbarity. This is a very angry record that is relentless in its pummeling. Great stuff.

'Swoon - poison souls procured, Acknowledge the rot of divinity..'

Thanks to Zach, Finn and Dylan for the Daleks. I was very touched when Zach stood on the front room windowsill and shouted after me - 'You can come back any time to take photos of my Daleks!'.

Peace