Shows: 1337
Earliest: Nov 3, 1985
Latest: Apr 22, 2023
[
WikiPedia] Morbid Angel is an American death metal band based in Tampa, Florida, formed in 1983 by guitarist, primary composer and sole remaining original member Trey Azagthoth, vocalist and bassist Dallas Ward, and drummer Mike Browning. It was one of the first bands to incorporate guttural vocals, up-tempo blast beats, multiple tempo changes and a dark atmosphere. Morbid Angel was also the first death metal band to experience mainstream success in connection with being signed to Giant Records in 1992, heavy rotation of its music videos on MTV, and having the music video for the song "God of Emptiness" shown on an episode of Beavis and Butt-Head. The band's first three albums – Altars of Madness (1989), Blessed Are the Sick (1991), and Covenant (1993) – are considered death metal classics.
British music magazine Terrorizer ranked Altars of Madness first in its list "Top 40 greatest death metal albums". Decibel magazine rated guitarist Trey Azagthoth as the number one "death metal guitarist ever". The band's songs are complex in arrangement, owing to the technical skills of both Azagthoth and drummer Pete Sandoval, the latter of whom also played in grindcore band Terrorizer. According to Nielsen SoundScan, Morbid Angel's third album, Covenant, is the best-selling death metal album of the Soundscan era with over 150,000 units sold, and the band is the third-best-selling death metal act in the United States (after Cannibal Corpse and Deicide up until 2003 with sales of over 445,000).
The band's original lyrics, when helmed by Vincent (and Azagthoth and Browning respectively) focused mostly on Satanism, occultism and blasphemous subject matter, but from Formulas Fatal to the Flesh (1998) onward, via Azagthoth's influence, the lyrics moved toward ancient Sumerian gods. Much of this is a nod to the Simon Necronomicon, which was influenced by Sumerian mythology, author H. P. Lovecraft, and a fascination with the Roman Empire, and during Steve Tucker's tenure they took on more anti-religious and barbaric themes, namely the strong overcoming the weak.
