Composer Reacts to Morbid Angel - Summoning Redemption (REACTION & ANALYSIS)

Bryan reacts to and talks about his thoughts on Morbid Angel - Summoning Redemption (Official Audio)
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0:00 Intro
00:43 Reaction
07:53 Initial Thoughts
10:21 Analysis - Metric Oddities
16:51 Analysis - Interesting Solos
25:05 Analysis - Some Great Ideas
29:21 Analysis - Lyrical Dive
33:33 Outro
#reaction #morbidangel #deathmetal

[@sipke9485]

Morbid Angel, the masters of broken time signatures

[@aiLoveE]

beyond a doubt, all intentional! not imperfectly played.

[@aiLoveE]

but please react to Lion's Den from Covenant album!

[@joreljameson2795]

Just try to count it out, you will go insane.

[@WTrewarthaJones]

For me the innacuracy and humanness of the riffs is fully what attracts me to this song, especially the slow dragging tremolo riff. Where a tech death band might connote roboticness and surgical precision, for me Morbid Angel suggests old gods and cyclopean horror. Really appreciate the analysis as always.

[@Ca11mero]

This combined with more "clinical" sounding recordings that a lot of death metal bands do today makes it sound like it could just as well have been made in a computer with no real instruments. One of the reasons why I gravitated towards black metal back in the days, it might sound shitty on purpose but at least it sounds like humans playing it and with real instruments (including it's flaws).

[@fabianbravo6964]

El sonido de las langostas, evoca al grimorio Al Azif. El sonido de los demonios menores, de los cuentos Lovecraft. La memoria colectiva lo asocia de inmediato con el Exorcista (la película )y por ende recuerda a Pazuzu, demonio sumerio. Ésta temática ya la habían desarrollado en el disco Blessed are the sick, de 1991.

[@cesarcampos8746]

​@@fabianbravo6964por que hablas en espanol?

[@fabianbravo6964]

@@cesarcampos8746 Espanol? 😂 No, yo hablo castellano y se escribe español, con ñ 😂

[@satanlaffing]

One of the most brutal songs known to man. One of my all-time favorites.

[@vacuus9281]

The 1st solo of Eric Rutan..he usually plays in harmonic minor scale... It's one of the best solos on the album and I don't understand how it doesn't work according to this guy here. Whereas the underlying theme rhythm Riff is disjointed somewhat by having this so called slorhythm.. the solo has a epic quality of adding clarity on top of the context. It's a very melodic solo with a lot of feeling andJust can't believe this guy doesn't like it 😂

[@MaaZeus]

Now we are talking! While I am not the biggest Morbid Angel fan out there I do recognise their style anywhere and the "sloppy timing" is definetly an intentional effect they use in some songs, particularly midpaced songs like this, to create a sort of uneasy feeling (or so it works for me). These guys can play their guitars tight if they want to and song calls for it.

[@at1with0]

It is utterly intentional. There is also a second track layered on top of Summoning Redemption. It is called Kwazu or something. You hear it isolated on track one but it plays at that same volume for the entirety of this song. Not sure if that’s what you’re hearing.

[@subixbarbarasson6052]

Ominous stalked feeling

[@ryandiamond5871]

Trey breaks the paradigms , creating instead of going with set ruling.

[@ryandiamond5871]

Galloping , came out moons ago , before maiden , early Metallica....

[@biorythmicshifter]

Trey is undoubtedly one of the originators of this creepy, sludgy and twisted style of death metal. Trey was always about feeling and an organic nature as opposed to that super clean, sterile almost computer like precision that overtook much of the metal scene in later years. Personally, I love that organic quality of the music. It was all intentional, I think that oddness adds to the music. Metric precision can suck the life out of a song and this is a great example of that. Someone that is used to the super technically precise sounds of newer breeds of bands wouldn’t appreciate this on the same level. So yes, the “imperfections” work for the greater good for a lack of a better way of expressing this idea. Artistically, Morbid is an undeniable force or nature. It’s definitely not for everyone so I do appreciate the respect you showed in making the concessions you did. They’ve never been a scholastic band that fits in the grid. They push and pull organically which is entirely consistent with the intention behind this whole album. It was dedicated to the silence between thought so overthinking about these songs in a scholarly way won’t work. I get it, like I said it not for everyone…the way real death metal should be. It’s never been a friendly sound.

[@Childchewer9393]

I hanged out with trey after their show a few weeks ago and he said he wrote almost all of gateways, including summoning redemption he wrote

[@MacDonald2500]

​@@Childchewer9393The songs he didn't write were he who sleeps and god of the forsaken. The whole album rips hard.

[@TaureanMixing]

Morbid Angel ALWAYS built syntax where as many modern death metal bands use the "words" already present and push technicality, however by the book. Morbid Angel is not by the book: they create language. I think this is the primary reason they are difficult to understand by some. There are certain cues people wait for, whether through music or written word and those cues were at some point in time the creation of another. To defy that is merely to return to an original creator: enter Morbid Angel. The metric oddities we hear; the flaming of accents between left and right guitars; the call/response: it's ALL intentional. Trey's main idea for this album was to mimic the call of nature, interwoven into a creative force. I recall Trey mentioning the rhythms and long sections for this album reflect the silence in between thoughts. That's why this album is so different compared to the others. The "inaccuracies" are the accuracies. Trey picked up on the Earth's metrics i.e. take note of the swamp creatures introducing the track, playing in the background during the track and closing the track. He was mimicking THEIR rhythmic oddities! It is all intentional. The night creatures are HIS conductor. Pete the drummer's interlude break in that section with just drums also exemplifies that. The precise drag demonstrates nature's devil may care, yet precisely recursive "attitude." Morbid Angel has also always been about groove, even during the fastest blast beats ripping your head off. This album went deeper with the groove symbolizing the perfect (imperfect) hulking Earth, with it's heavy feet and unavoidable presence.

[@lordpazuzu]

Well said

[@brandonwoldridge1417]

This is one of my favorite MA tracks - I love the relentless aspect of the riff, it's just a perpetual, malicious hammer into your brain. As for the dragging aspect of the timing, that is intentional (stylistic choice) as it pertains to the guitar. I recall a past interview with Trey Azagthoth in which he was bragging about his guitar playing (he's quite a bizarre character), and stating that no one else has his, "warped, dragging, 8-track style" to the riffing - it has a bit of an evil feel because of that. Morbid Angel is a weird death metal band and one of the greats - they're somewhat avant garde in the sense that their songs and style are odd & unique, almost as if they are the culmination of many years of death metal and a deliberate attempt to take it in odd directions - except that they were one of the early death metal bands. I do agree with your comments about the solos, though - they're odd in relation to the song, and I'm not big on them (but I don't care much for solos anyway).

[@jonathanhenderson9422]

Morbid Angel and Death are probably neck-and-neck as the most important/influential of the classical death metal, but I think many would argue Morbid Angel was even more so because they (for the most part) stuck with the traditional DM sound throughout their career. They also had unprecedented commercial success, and the sales of their third album, Covenant, inspired Columbia records to sign many other DM/extreme metal bands (Carcass, Entombed, Napalm Death). While I do like this song and the album its from, I probably would've picked a track from their first three albums, which were all much more influential historically. However, I do think this demonstrates why they're so beloved among DM fans, because it showcases what a great guitarist and riff writer Trey Azagthoth is. Much like Death was Chuck Schuldiner's band, Morbid Angel is very much Azagthoth's. Between them, I think Azagthoth was even better when it came to combining the brutal, grinding nature of DM but finding catchy patterns in the rhythms both vocally and instrumentally. FWIW, Morbid Angel were one of the genre's innovators: Altars of Madness goes back to '89. This is just from one of their later albums. As for the sloppiness, that was pretty common prior to the advent of tech/prog-death and eventually DAWs that allowed bands to easily synch together. Before then most metal, in general, played in the studio like they did live, which often wasn't super precise. I'm with you in preferring the more precise bands, but at the same time I get why some would prefer the sloppiness that adds to the ugly/harsh aesthetic of death metal in general. In general, Morbid Angel is one of those bands I enjoy, but I still rank them way below Death and other more progressive-tinged DM bands like Immolation, Gorguts, Ulcerate, etc.

[@DominusLuna]

Obituary \m/ Slowly We Rot. Death - Scream Bloody Gore. \m/

[@squashedeyeball]

Just some info about Vincent leaving after Domination. He was into EDM, industrial, stuff like that. And he pushed all sorts of bs into the band, without consulting Trey (the founder) and the others, with his new lyrics too (*ahem*, Where the Slime Live/Dawn of the Angry). Overall, he was pulling the band his own direction. As Trey said, in his mind a band is a group of people who move in one direction. In 2011 we saw what we were saved from during the late 90's early 2000's: David's return blew in our faces. Glad to have Steve back.

[@yodieyuh]

They recorded this, literally, in a swamp. You can hear the chorus of the night through out the song, the frogs and the toads and the peepers. Obviously Steve and his mic are at least 2 feet down in the muck, and it should be evident that Trey's fret board is slathered with wet, sludgy, diatomaceous earth mud. Have you tried recording while you're shoulder deep in a slow Southern slough? You don't get the typical results.

[@yodieyuh]

All you have to do is open up the CD case and BAM. There's Steve, with his mic, in the muck.

[@CriticalReactions]

That's wild! And quite effective for this specific sound.

[@ryandiamond5871]

Old school death metal....kawazu is the sound of frogs from the swamp at treys house

[@chagatainouveau]

Much like Death, Morbid Angel is also one of the originators of the genre, but they didn't go into techdeath/progdeath the way Death did and stuck with their classic sound into the 2000s. I'd say this is more of a "grinding" death metal tune, so to speak, the dragging and disjointed feeling is likely intended. 'Where the Slime Live' from Domination is another one of their grinding tunes, I think that one's better though.

[@warphalak]

This band is really a "monster". They definitely have their quirkiness through out their catalogue (quirkiness = experiments good or bad), but I consider this one, Possessed and Death, the bands that kinda defined what death metal is. And I honestly prefer this sloppiness to the surgical attacks of modern... metal, which we all know how most of them achieve it... with a few exceptions.

[@bryandaniel2856]

You should check out something from their first two albums. "Altars of Madness" and "Blessed Are the Sick".

[@ryandiamond5871]

You are also not a death metal fan..,but i appreciate your opinions, trey the guitarist is a weird cat....trey is a very creative player who doesnt go with the trend type shot, breaking rules...killer track .

[@sivakumarsathiamoorthy6583]

Thank you for the critical analysis. I only heard this song a few days before and was immediately drawn to it. There is something special in this song. That bone-crushing opening riff is enough to make any take notice. I think the imperfections in this song make it special. I also like the frogs!

[@shub9211]

If you like harsh harmony in the vocals, you should definitely check Deicide. Sacrificial Suicide should be a interesting listening.

[@benneburg]

Treys solos made a lot more sense, after I read The Music of Erich Zann

[@Metalguy86]

My favorite death metal song of all time! Interesting fact about the song the intro sound before the riff kicks in is an analog recording of a frog in Trey Azagthoth (guitarist) back yard. Saw them play this when the album first released. Was so awesome!

[@gratuitousfootnote1183]

You picked the very best Morbid Angel song to analyze! This song rules so hard!

[@jamesmcternen4608]

Morbis Angel watching this review like: GOT-EEEM!!!!!!

[@Dr_Twist]

wonderful analysis

[@theferaldays]

Considering that Morbid Angel has been around for some decades and having listened to almost all of their albums, i think they do what they do on purpose and with a lot of thought behind. So you might try out the song 'World Of Shit (The Promised Land)' from their '92/93 album 'Covenant' (KZbin does have an official high dynamic range version of that as well). In my opinion, it showcases much better what Morbid Angel has been famous for.

[@lHarshlizerl]

When I first heard Morbid Angel, I was scared and disturbed somehow, I really felt idk darkness yet it was so epic, I didn't know if I liked it at first but as I was exposed to it again omg I loved it, the harshness, the incredible low voice and the video was crazy creepy, the lyrics also... I prefer Morbid over Death, the banshee screams are OK but feeling that empty feeling in my stomach because of the deep low voice from Morbid can't be compared I can't describe my thoughts and impressions as technical as others or know MA history so precisely like others in the comments but it was God of emptiness that made me love Morbid Angel

[@MMasterDE]

Nice, more DM! :) Actually cool suggestion by KZbin. Great band too, but I've not really listened much to anything after the Covenant album, so while it's not a first for me, it's close. The one album I've listened to a lot is "Blessed are the Sick", oh and the album names, first letter is in alphabetical order. This one is from their "G" album, AKA 7th.

[@MMasterDE]

(Comment before watching the video, oh, and Morbid Angel is like one of the "biggest" / most selling bands in the genre, also pretty old-school, part of the Florida DM scene that blew up)

[@MMasterDE]

Ah, pretty decent track! :) I should give some of their albums another spin, even if this is the post-Blessed sound that started with "Covenant".

[@paulanderson771]

I always love seeing these kinds of reactions on my feed. The guitarist is a really psychodelic player and that layering and things happening off time are pretty common in the later albums. I think this is one of the best Morbid Angel songs and love the bizarreness.

[@blakelauderdale9142]

I love how he ends up head banging slightly halfway thru 😂😂 nobody can resist the metal 🤘🤘🤘

[@aaoppe]

I love having my favorite tracks completely dismantled and criticised by someone who knows what they're talking about. To me, the groovy chaos that is "Summoning Redemption" is much more than the sum of its parts, and this video made me appreciate it all the more. Please keep doing what you're doing! Cheers.

[@josephsampson9169]

Love it when knowledgeable people listen to Morbid Angel

[@donnygrungerson473]

Trey and Pete Sandoval's playing compliment the songs by drastically contrasting with one another. Sandoval's insane precision and clean timing on drums with Trey's sludgy and loose rhythm guitars create this unique atmosphere. It's like existing in a realm nearly outside of the boundaries of time itself. The drums still keep time, but the guitars at the forefront are nearly barely in sync with it as to give this ethereal and otherworldly sound. While people seem to dislike Heretic, I love that album for this very reason.

[@triumphtinltcomicdg]

I think MA with the passage of time added more groove in their music, probably that's where the sense of sloppiness comes from, their previous stuff are very consistent and played very tied, for example whole Covenant album

[@Barbro247]

Your ear is broken.

[@heraldlee8112]

Sick jam..saw them on this tour back then

[@hhdhpublic]

While there are some cases where technical perfection is desirable I find myself preferring less perfect takes. This doesnt mean completely sloppy but not too on the beat and on the time either, of course depending on the genre and all that. It is just that once you reach certain level of perfection then the humanity of the music gets kinda lost and the music becomes mechanical, sometimes to the point where, well, you could achieve the same thing with drum machines, synths and guitar emulation so why bother actually playing at that point, really? As for Morbid Angel I do feel that the off kilter timing of the song is deliberate and I do think it fits not only for the song but for the themes the band are using for their artwork, lyrics and so forth. When the lyrics art give this sense of overwhelming Lovecraftian chaos I do think its preferrable that the music also reflects those feelings and emotions so that it works as a whole package instead of the art and lyrics being seperate from the music. Other music of course does this too, whether conciously or not. With Morbid Angel the result is this generally dissonant feeling.

[@DarkLordAzagthoth]

When listening to this song, imaging they're playing on a falling world. Great analysis.

[@progperljungman8218]

Gojira must have taken influence from those guitar chuggs(?)

[@creamyanddreamy4017]

I always figured this sluggishness was intentional as it is similarly use in the next album "heretic". There is a song, "God of Our Own Divinity" that plays with this and there's a singular riff that really highlights this. One rhythm guitar drags alongside the other while playing this ascending melody to then come crashing down and gives me this hellish vibe as if my soul was being dragged upwards towards the heavens, only to be pulled away at the last minute. I feel Trey really encapsulated true horror in his sound when writing like this on his later albums. The imperfection of the timing really adds to this sinister and hellish sound. In contrast to Pete's insane precision on drums, it makes for an intense experience. The contrasting guitars during the verse of that song really add to it's overall feeling as well, with one guitar chugging along and the other trem picking this buzzsaw riff.

[@breidablikmusic2501]

"Gateways to...." is an exceptional Morbid Angel album, but I can see that it is likely to mainly appeal to long-time fans. I would not recommend this as a first listen to the band. As mentioned elsewhere, "Covenant" would be a better pick. As for "harsh harmony" vocals, I hope you will feature Deicide this week. They more or less invented the harsh harmony idea, and the vocal delivery on their two first albums is just sick.

[@jorgeeljuri3434]

Beautiful ❤

[@antonroemer1831]

What kind of analysis of the meter doesn’t mention the time signature used?

[@Justin-xi9ve]

I'm respect your opinion,I've learned to them all my life,they done that on purpose,you would enjoy their tighter, more in grove stuff,but you can't keep trey from shinning in the top ride over the grove,he always has since the eighties,thier all very gifted

[@progperljungman8218]

Getting closer to traditional death. Still not there though...

[@MaaZeus]

Close enough. It is still Morbid Angel through and through.

[@jonathanhenderson9422]

Not sure what death metal is more traditional than Morbid Angel! Maybe if the track had been from one of their first two albums, but other than that...

[@progperljungman8218]

This isn't very old school to me. I'm referring to more raw meat and potatoes and less finesse I guess 🙂. Yeah, older stuff from Morbid Angel would certainly do the trick!

[@craigroaring]

I'd argue that traditional death metal is by default somewhat progressive. After all, Morbid Angel helped develop death metal in its infancy. Demilich being another example of tradition, yet progressive death metal. I'd contrast this to the "meat and potatoes" old school death metal tribute bands getting around today.

[@progperljungman8218]

@@craigroaring Sure, but the aim was to show the core of death metal. The progressiveness isn't unique.

[@illgetaway]

You should try Prayer of Hatred, for me it's the perfect synthesis of all eras. Plenty of Acid and Lava to dissolve humanity.

[@FathersSkateSupply]

If I may make a suggestion/request- could you take a look at powerviolence with bands such as INFEST, Sordo, Chainsaw Squid and a bunch more.

[@Jester1411]

an epic song from an amazing band

[@psalm91.777]

I love this song, for all it strangeness

[@xdrezcorex]

i thought the opposite. i thought the solo was killing until it went all 'slayer'.

[@GregsWhiskyGuide]

I am among the ones who suggested this song in particular, and I obviously don't have your technical analysis capacity, so I'll speak about my impressions on it, compared to what I know about the other music they do & other songs from other bands within the genre..I had similar impressions as yours at first listen, I was even shocked by the way it was composed & indeed also about solo placements & sounds, etc...But, after several listens separated in time (so less immediately linked to the "repetition habituation syndrom" as for instance with commercial pop music), I fell in love with the oddities I perceived from this song (ok certainly less than you did). I like the main riff/chugging rythm (which for me is slower than the typical Iron Maiden personified gallop you mentioned), the break & the overall say "Middle-East perfumed sound wise Implacable & Menacing War Machine slowly but surely marching on its Enemy in the Desert", and now I am able to enjoy the solos, even if I don't like their too much unworked sound for me, and I prefer solos 1 & 3 out of the 3 (I disagree about those 2/3 being disjointed from the rest of the music, but I feel them more like a slightly dissonant extra layer on it but strongly contributing to its my enjoyment of the song, and yes again I agree on the second one/or part being useless in fact. Also the weirdiness of the song is reinforced when you have the 30 seconds or so intro with those cicada like frogs sounds...they are coming & going at several times of the song & in some parts even seem to be under everything...and yeah the groove is unique too. Besides, I don't like their debuts which everyone except me praises...I prefer this, in fact (sorry, Brian) it is my favorite track of them, lol...Also one topic not enough covered by many I think is the importance of silence short moments placements in the songs, and I like the silences there too, for instance....Anyway thanks for picking it in this special D.M. week.

[@CriticalReactions]

Thanks for your perspective. It's true that some of the stuff that hits me wrong is something I could appreciate over time and I suspect many people do.

[@GregsWhiskyGuide]

@@CriticalReactions You're welcome, Brian, besides, aside from the technical analysis which is supposed to be objective, all this remains subjective, and matter of personal taste, so I won't blame you or anyone else if you don't like it after 3 listens...and I appreciate than you & yours viewers have some maturity when speaking about music, because in many comments on non-analysis channels, responses to our comments can be quite rude sometimes, and frankly a bit childish & exagerated too (like "this song is the best song of all time", etc..."if you don't like it, you're a...(insult)"). Sure this kind of comments do much less appear under some of the ancient or jazz music I might also listen to ! (so it seems that specific genres also convey specific behaviours, at least sometimes).

[@dimitriid]

Good track: even though this is mid-career Morbid Angel this particular track is a bit more reminiscent of what I was mentioning about early/classic/traditional Death Metal since except for the double kicks this is pretty mid tempo and far more structured than most other Death Metal bands by the time this was released in fact, even the previous Morbid Angel albums. But when it comes to death metal, this I would call close to the meat and potatoes of it: dissonant, aggresive, double kicks pretty much the entire time, playing around with syncopation, super extendeed range guitars and even bass and Tucker here doing a very nice growl without any of the later deathcore influence (That tends to lean far more on fry screaming pitched low instead of this more typical style of growling) Also about the tempo being swingy you're not wrong, but this has pretty much been the case with Morbid Angel since the very first record and is consistently like that and even if you listen to live versions with this line up you can hear them pretty much play it just like this. Something about Trey Azagtoth and Pete Sandoval always seem to have this very elastic feeling where they're almost out of time, but not really and do line up during drum fills and changes for example, it's just kind of what they did. Not that a lot of the late 80s bands (Morbid Angel was there almost from the beginning of the genre btw) were never perfect or playing to a track, but they were never quite this much swingy as I said except for maybe the contemporary but different genre of bands in Grindcore: drummers like Mick Harris from Napalm Death or Ken Owens from Carcass during their grindcore records at least, had almost this exact same swing to them (Just playing well, a heck of a lot faster and pretty much constant blast beats instead) so I do think it's a stylistic choice but hey, it might not be idk.

[@OrthodoxGoregod]

Hi Brian ! Morbid Angel is a perfect death metal flagship. Unquestionable unique and talented musicians. If You want to hear another great band, try SUFFOCATION. My fav. song is INFECTING THE CRYPTS. It is on their first album ( EFFIGY OF THE FORGOTTEN )

[@PatrickSinger1]

Great analysis of the solo and how it relates to the rest of the music! I always struggled to explain why I generally enjoy Morbid Angel but dislike the solos, even though I might enjoy the same solo in the context of a progressive metal or tech death metal song. The limited tonal spectrum in the beginning puts me on a journey that makes the guitar solo seem like it doesn't belong there.

[@gillaliglaou2840]

can you share the songs we'll have for the week?

[@progperljungman8218]

There's one more from the poll votes and then the last two are randomly selected from the patron suggestions list (one/patron). Only this time there's a third place draw between three suggestions... You'll get either Bolt Thrower, Immolation or Gojira tomorrow. I myself suggested an Entombed song (that still might get randomly selected for thursday 🙂)

[@gillaliglaou2840]

@@progperljungman8218 he already did bolt thrower and gojira aren't very representative of the death metal sound (if they are even death metal to begin with)+he also reacted to them before so I hope immolation wins.

[@gillaliglaou2840]

@@progperljungman8218 also, good pick going for entombed. hope it's from their debut.

[@MaaZeus]

Holy crap I hope Gojira is not going to be picked. They are NOT a Death Metal band, not by a long shot. Bolt Thrower has already been listened so I hope it is either Incantation or Entombed (hopefully Left Hand Path).

[@progperljungman8218]

@@MaaZeus Left Hand Path was my entry to the poll yes. But didn't score enough to get a spot through votes.

[@satarello]

and his reaction when Trey soloing :)

[@user-yq7gf8rx8r]

Morbid Angel👍👍🔥🔥🔥🤟🤟🤟

[@jeroenkoster1366]

Everything is intentional of course. It's Morbid Angel.

[@annodomini1991]

Hum.. odd choice. This is from 2000 with another vocalist, i wouldn't call it a classic like their early stuff but it's not bad. Stil waiting for late 80's early 90's death metal (traditional death metal).

[@MrLextune]

I have enjoyed some of your other reactions, but you really missed the boat here. I will give you the benefit of the doubt mostly, since you are obviously not obligated to understand, or enjoy, Morbid Angel at all, but several times you talk about the song "teetering on falling apart", which I must point out is ridiculous. The syncopation that's happening with the two guitars is perfectly clear. The drums alone are basically a click-track, and the guitars over them are actually beat perfect. Every bar. Like a machine, (as one would expect from a studio recording). The weird part is that their interaction with one another, and the drums, is not even particularly complex rhythmically. The barlines are not blurred at all. It's just a ridgely executed, relatively simple, syncopated rhythm, and yet you still feel like the song is teetering? As for the solos; it's not that they had "no regard for anything going on around them", it's just that you failed to see what they were regarding. This is not just a clever turn-of-phrase, this gets to the heart of music itself, and why/how some people can percieve beauty and structure where others only hear chaos. It is entirely possible that you could never hear what makes the solos great. Even if I took the time to illustrate their melodic, rhythmic, harmonic, (and even timbral) connections and interconnectivity with the rest of the song. You just don't like it, and that is fine. Not everyone likes Schoenberg either, (or later, even more atonal composers), but that doesn't validate critics who think he's just "noise", or "random sounding notes with no regard". Morbid Angel is demonstrably not for everyone, (they literally used to sell a shirt that said "extreme music for extreme people"), but you should avoid dismissive rhetoric like this. If you just say "I don't get this music", other musicians (who do get it) won't see you in the light that I just saw you in.

[@666ssn666]

He doesn't understand the intention and philosophy of MA but I don't think he was unfair when explaining his thoughts on the song. He didn't outright dismiss it or anything. He just doesn't get why it is the way it is.

[@donavonhoward114]

I don't get what this dude is saying. The riffs are right on time, and it goes along perfectly with a click track. They did this entire album with a click track. As for the solo, there is one melodic solo that is perfectly in time, and the Trey solo is playing with time bending, and weaving in and out. It's a little bit of a blues philosophy for the Trey solo, but done with wide intervals and tapping, along with a lot of blue notes that land out of the key, but he ends inside the key. This stuff is better than anything any technical death metal band could do. It's not some crazy clean solo, or riff, but it's anything but sloppy. I have been playing guitar for over 20 years now, and I have listened to a lot of sloppy music, and this isn't one of them.

[@_bats_]

Where is the playlist for this week coming from? I'm actually a huge fan of this album - it's probably my favourite Morbid Angel - but that's far from a popular opinion and this is completely different from the sound that made the band famous and is most loved. That's two for two odd picks so far this week.

[@_bats_]

The "modern metal" you're referring to is just kind of sugary mainstream metal with easy-to-digest melodies and harmonies. I feel like almost every sort of music you listen to that's intentionally challenging and not immediately gratifying is not really your cup of tea! The odd rhythmic choices in this song are intentional, the dissonance and subsequent discomfort of the guitar solo melodies grating against the riff's melody is intentional. I know I'm coming across as a snob in this comment but I have to admit it can get a little frustrating when you criticize styles of music you don't like for doing the things they are very intentionally aiming to do.

[@CriticalReactions]

The themed suggestions come from Patreon. I take every single suggestion for a theme and pop it into a poll that gets voted on.

[@psalm91.777]

Its middle eastern music feel, because of the subject matter,

[@psalm91.777]

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

[@jarunia17]

The leads in this one made me think of Mithras, I'm thinking they took some inspiration :D I don't think you reacted to them yet, maybe someday, they are a bit on the heavy side haha

[@Ruija27]

Death metal got started in the late 1980s. "Proto-death" would be trash metal developments and other records earlier in the decade. By the turn of the millennium everything is in place, subgenres have emerged.

[@cbn6635]

Not even Morbid Angel at their prime (their first 3 albums are unmatched), but the combination of Dave's clear growls, Trey's twisted riffs and solo's and Pete's brillant drumming is a dead giveaway; no one sounds quite like Morbid Angel (though many have tried...)

[@tinplatedave]

They absolutely meant for this song to sound that way on purpose. They started getting into this sound on their previous album Domination. I believe that's why their original lead singer David Vincent left the band, because they were going in a musical direction he didn't want to go. Not saying their albums from this time are bad but they don't have the same crisp and clear sound they used to. Original singer David Vincent was in a Death Metal super project called Vltimas more recently that showcases the technicality that Morbid Angel was known for. Great reaction man \,,/

[@xxjohnhoukxx]

Please react to an older morbid track.

[@mooninites3]

It's so perfectly ugly. It was all on purpose.

[@ruthuhl1969]

It's true, many of Treys Solos just leave the song completely, but that's maybe about how his mindset is about his music. I have some problems to understand all of that and sure am not the only one, but I guess that's not his problem 🙂

[@devilxking2]

I think it really works on Summoning Redemption because it perfectly contrasts with Rutan's solo.

[@Kraakesolv]

Not my favourite MA album, I think the older albums with the OG crew is the bestest for sure.

[@pentagruelhexagasm]

death metal by nature is supposed to hit you sonically sideways up the head and often grows on those susceptible to its influence with repeated listens. morbid angel are masters of this old school twisted dark death metal, just weird for the sake of weird; this is raw analog cryptic shredding, tech and prog but primitive cause of their background; these guys come from the old school and they became more and more eccentric; their playing reflects it, they're like a top level thrash band pushing the rudiments to its furthest reaches like anit-groove, they are playing fast but it sounds slow, its ugly and unrelenting. fucking lovecraft-ian abomination metal.

[@thegrimner]

This song is a better descriptor of Death metal's broad strokes, but not a good descriptor of Morbid Angel and what makes them unique. Not a terrible song, but a bit pedestrian by Morbid Angel's usual standards. At their best, they're able to recreate the crunch and relentless double bass textures with some really twisted riffing that churns and twists onto itself. It's aural molten lava, and you'll see bits of this on the layered bits of the song and at certain bits during the solo. They're also usually pretty tight, which makes me think the looseness in this song is a deliberate choice. They were kind of obsessed with swamp imagery at this point. But at their heyday, they were considered one of the golden standards against which most death metal was compared to. Karl Sanders from Nile said on interviews he actually felt intimidated and put off starting his own band until he found a way to put his spin on things, and Nile's convoluted riffing is very indebted to Morbid Angel's "molten" sound. There's still something to this that I would not hesistate to compare favourably against most tech death, though.Death metal is already a genre that is generally lacking in emotional range, and making it sound even more soulless doesn't do it any favours. As an aside, hearing you comment on how much you want to hear harmonizing and layering of harsh vocals is yet another reason why I'm surprised Cradle of Filth never made it into the channel. Cruelty and the Beast ticks a lot of your boxes on paper: it's a thematically cohesive album that isn't afraid to go a bit outside the box, it's black metal in form but has a very spacious and clear production (especially in the remastered version), it's a point of convergence between black metal's thrashy and symphonic influences, and Dani's vocals, which were previously occasionally grating when he switched to higher registers, are here tempered and layered over booming spoken word, whispers, and lower register growls, showcasing his ranger, all of it complimented with some soprano singing. That album and Midian are known for being most people's gateway into the more extreme genres of metal, and would probably have made your understanding of it a lot easier when you were fiinding your footing.

[@CriticalReactions]

I wonder how I'd respond to Cradle of Filth. I 'discovered' them prior to the channel since they where headlining a concert where I was interested in the opener. I heard 2 songs on youtube and decided it wasn't for me -- I left the concert after the opener 😅. Based on that description though I think I'd like 'em.

[@thegrimner]

@@CriticalReactions they've been on a bit of a decline, as is to be expected on a band that must have had at least three full lineup changes, but on their hey day, they were at the crossroads between german thrash gallups, harmonized melodic guitars, extreme vocals and gothic horror influences. Vocals can be make or break, though the album I mentioned was when they began to tone down the shriekiest bits by layering them pretty heavily with either deeper growling, spoken word or whisper.

[@luisvaldebenito-595]

Hello reactions Los jaivas song arriba quemando el sol

[@JacobNates]

You should check out some of the newest Revocation album. Best Death Metal album I've heard in a while. Lessons in Occult Theft / Strange and Eternal are two amazing songs

[@ComputerUser9277]

Please stay away from Gojira this week, they are not death metal!

[@mycity7590]

The first two albums are death metal. The 2 one is a bit wierd tho.

[@nomadr1349]

it is not a matter of liking or disliking, it is just all plain wrong what this guy is saying. It is what a half-knowledge makes with you.

[@666ssn666]

It's amusing how some music theory guys seem to box themselves into narratives instead of further expand their creativity and concepts.

[@danfrancis2707]

Treys solos are outside of the dimension of the song. He's a big fan of Lovecraft.

[@TNS-AudioMastering]

hmmm, I disagree.... if this song was played with a perfect on a time line structure it would be very sterile and lifeless.. listen to other morbid angle songs they are a tech band with a trippy feel. its not for everyone... btw you can not claim the drumming is not on time, definitely the time back bone.. But interesting take you have here..

[@TheCyberMantis]

Covenant is Morbid's best album.

[@devilxking2]

Formulas is the peak of the band imo

[@jasonlauritsen5587]

Hahahaha sloppy, listen to other songs and see that they are amazingly tight and perfect and this disjointedness is whats written for the purpose of disturbing you

[@jamesknighton8658]

This is not for you.

[@dimifisher7942]

The riffs on this song are similar to unseen creepy crawling things, they have this crawling effect if you pay close attention and especially if you listen in a really good sound system, everything is done by intent, nothing is random with Morbid angel, and by the way gateways with its unique ugliness spawned Portal, check them out

[@Nickwritespoetry]

Not MA’s best work… by a long shot. MA experimented even more on their first 2 albums, believe it or not. Those albums sonically sounded better, meatier. While this song belongs to one of the groovier albums of their catalogue, it’s lacking a lot of the genuine creativity that the first two albums had that brought forth death metal in its heyday.

[@mooninites3]

Steve Tucker supremacy 🤘 if you want a video with David Vincent, shoulda voted on his patreon

[@johndunne3609]

This is embarassing . It’s chirping Frogs. The song is a complete repetitive snooze fest. 1 tone Tucker babbling about what? I love the David Vincent era. After him they became embarassing

[@devilxking2]

Tucker era Morbid Angel is incredible, watch any live shows from 98-04... blows David Vincent out of the water.

[@AlphaNovemberTango]

Archaic oriental scales. The ancient instruments in old times used very low tuning. Morbid Angel is summoning the anicent pagan scales. Nice to see a reaction from a qualified musican.

[@cthunder8502]

One of my fav Morbid Angel albums!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[@michaeljensen8211]

A life without DEATH METAL is no life. Morbid angel is FUCKING great.... 🤘