HYLI Vol XXV: Morbid Angel and Protomartyr
Andy is on a death metal grind with a Florida band and Patrick sends Andy some more post-punk, this time from Detroit
It is I, Patrick Haynes, here doing the intro again. How have my friends been doing? Basketball is over for the summer and now idk how to fill my evenings. How about listening to music. Y’all listen to tunes? I recently “discovered” the band Dillinger Four and, listener, it’s incredibly my shit. I moved to Gainesville, FL - where I met my co-writer Andy - from Chicago in January of 2012. There’s a song on the last Dillinger Four album supposedly (I’m not looking at the lyrics) about Gainesville called “Gainesville,” and the band is from Minnesota. We love dudes from the Midwest writing About Florida around these parts. Hope y’all have a good week.
Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness
Andy: Wow. Look at me. TWO weeks in a row without black metal (Patrick: this is pathetic, even for you). You’re welcome. DID YOU KNOW that Florida is the death metal capital of the world? You did if you read Vol. VII where we talked about Death (Patrick: loved it). See, you have fun and learn a little something each week with us. Morbid Angel is out of Tampa and dropped this sucker of an album in 1989 and it’s considered essential to the genre. Florida boy Chuck Schuldiner of Death was a big influence for this record and you can really tell (Patrick: truly, can you?)(Andy: You can. Open your inner eye).
In the early 90s, around the same time that black metal bands were stabbing each other in Norway (Patrick: and being Nazis), death metal started to really see its commercial success in America with Death, Cannibal Corpse, and Morbid Angel. This is really the only Morbid Angel album I actively listen to. Hope You Like It!
Patrick: It’s a bit of a stretch for me to say Altars of Madness is “new” to me. I’ve heard the album once or twice before. I’ve heard other albums by Morbid Angel before. Who gives a shit. This fucking rocks so we are gonna Talk About It.
This basically, to me, seems closer to Metallica (Andy: Metallica is thrash find a new slant) with more intensity in the vocals than Death or any of the other death metal bands Andy has shown me. The guitar playing is straight-up Kirk Hammett shit. The pinch harmonics? They fucking rule. The riffs? Great and fast as fuck. The tone? Gnarly. Man, I’m all about “Trey Azagthoth” and his playing.
“Chapel of Ghouls,” is my favorite here. Most of this album sounded “fresh” to me, as it has been a few years since I last spun this album. But I immediately recognized “Chapel of Ghouls.” Just undeniable vocals from David Vincent and insanely good drums from Pete Sandoval. I love the drums so much. Just a dude beating the shit out of some skins. I Liked (Loved) It.
Protomartyr - Relatives in Descent
Patrick: Protomartyr fucking rocks. If you look at a picture of this band, it looks like an insurance salesman hanging with some youths, like a live-action version of the Steve Buscemi “how do you do, fellow kids” meme. That’s so good. I love a band that you look at them and it doesn’t make any fucking sense (Andy: explains last week as well I guess).
This album, Relatives in Descent, really opened a door for me. I liked some post-punk, going back to like the shit from the ‘80s in England, like Joy Division or Bauhaus, blah blah blah. Everyone who knows the term “post-punk” knows those bands and it’s boring to talk about them (Andy: I don’t know post-punk or the band Bauhauhah). Did you know that a universally praised band is good? Wow, so deep. Protomartyr was the first “new” post-punk band that really hooked me back into the genre. I have a feeling that Andy will either love or hate Joe Casey’s vocals, because he is a fickle one who is difficult to pin down with “weird” vocals. I, personally, cannot get enough of them, much like I cannot get enough of the riffs crafted by guitarist Greg Ahee. It helps that, with a genre so often associated with darker tones occasionally bordering on atonal, it’s refreshing to hear songs where, even with basically spoken word vocals, there is still a ton of melody. The track “Male Plague” is one of my favorites of the last decade. Hope You Like It.
Andy: Is there some reason I’m so interested in comparing this to last week’s album from Idles (Patrick: I told you they’re the same genre)? Did Patrick say something that I ignored and my subconscious picked up on (Patrick: please read my texts)(Andy: make me)? Whatever, that is what I did. This album was tough for me. Some days I was like really vibing with it and others I felt like it was weak trash. On all days I did not love the vocals. They didn’t do much for me. I didn’t love being like…talked at (Patrick: so whisper screaming about Satan is fine but simply talking is a line crossed, got it)?
The drumming was the most engaging thing on this album for me. The whole thing was a little all over the place for me. Normally I’m into that but I wasn’t for this? I’m not sure why. Maybe it feels like it isn’t really picking a lane? Like, commit to being wacky or being normal (Patrick: why the fuck are you asking me SO MANY questions this week, just make a statement???). I can absolutely see why people are into it, it just did not click with me. I guess this album made me more appreciative of last week’s Idles album. I Didn’t Really Like It (Patrick: you are so annoying)(Andy: 😜).