Review Summary: This album will kick your ass and give you a headache.
This is an album I listened to five times straight when I finally got my hands on it. This is an album that’s so heavy, it gave me a goddamn headache, an album that stands the test of time to this very day, an album that single-handedly defines what it means to thrash. This is Morbid Saint, the heaviest ***ing band to come out of the thrash scene in the late 1980’s. This is the band’s first and last offering to the world, and although this is the only album they made, it still without a doubt made an impact on the late 80’s thrash scene.
Combining the heavy riffing of thrash metal with the harsh vocals of death metal, this thirty minute monster will satisfy even modern metal fans. The album’s strengths are heavy and compelling riffing, and expertly executed solos that sound frantic and angry. Vocals also sound evil and pissed off, and that fits the band’s aggressive style perfectly. Every instrument is played with speed and precision, and the band takes no prisoners with an attitude and extreme sound that gives them a certain unique style and sets them apart from other bands.
However, the album can become quite cumbersome, with repetitive riffing and repeated drum patterns being the main problem with the album. Although the band has at least two riffs and a solo in each track, this does little to make the album a varied listen. Expect heavy riffing and frantic soloing to be the only thing this album offers, as there aren't any tempo changes or stylistic transitions. The album also suffers from relatively poor production, as the album as a whole could have been a bit louder, and as it stands now, the album is in dire need of a mixing to iron out several production problems.
Still, if you’re content to just thrash and not care about variety and technicality, then this album is perfect for you. Despite some production flaws and some repetitive moments, this is still one of the heaviest albums I have ever heard, and it contains some of the most brutal riffs the genre has to offer. Seek this out of you’re a fan of extreme metal, as this album has it in ample supply.
