Of all the elder statesmen of death metal, Morbid Angel was a band I never really understood. Sure, I’d heard Altars of Madness, but my fresh ears were put off by its thin production when more thickly bludgeoning was to be had. The more immediate violence of bands like Cannibal Corpse and the unearthly foulness of Demilich and seepage of Autopsy ensnared my growing tastes, and each return to Morbid Angel left me feeling cold and empty. One day, everything changed when I encountered the subject of today’s retrospective in a record store, adorned in what I still consider some of Dan Seagrave’s most entrancing artwork. It was the artwork that made the difference, and on impulse I purchased the CD, only to spend the drive home with it, having my gateways opened in a manner that ensured they could never be closed again.
While I’ve since come around to the band’s older works, Gateways to Annihilation still represents the apex of the Morbid Angel sound. Steve Tucker’s vocals took on much more personality than his more neutral, gravely sounds on Formulas Fatal to the Flesh, with a much more confident, bestial roar. The eternal avalanche of Pete Sandoval’s drumming was given proper thunder, bringing weight to the sludgy, psychedelic dirges of “To the Victor, the Spoils”, to say nothing of the street-certified death classic that is “Summoning Redemption”. Taking the spirit of the crawl found within Blessed are the Sick and running it through a much trippier lens gives Gateways as radiant an individual identity as any in the Morbid Angel canon, and the power of the production is chief among its traits.
From a songwriting perspective, Gateways to Annihilation manages a difficult fusion of speeds, at once sounding doomy and menacing without ever slouching on its actual BPM and deathly ferocity. “Ageless, Still I Am” pulls an earworm of a lurching chorus and one of Trey’s most triumphant leads, while “Opening of the Gates” features one of Steve’s most “shout-along” verses he’s yet penned. “God of the Forsaken” returns to a taste of the Altars assault, and everywhere you turn speed is fused with menace and pacing in a manner which illustrates all the comparisons in the band’s history to lava. Speaking of lava, Trey’s solos take on a unique flavor, even by his standards, using prolonged notes and string bends as much as raw shredding virtuosity. His extended run across “Secured Limitations” should have been a setlist staple a long time ago, and curious listeners trying to understand how the idea of psychedelic sludge can work in death metal should start here for an illustration. His solos always manage to elevate the music, rather than distract by virtue of their “look how fast I can play” skill, and here they reach new atmospheric heights as they shift with impeccable seamlessness into piercing high-range scales and anguished tones, somehow hypnotic in their beauty without ever touching on anything approaching common, sing-along melodies.
This paradoxical nature is what grants Gateways to Annihilation its contender status as one of Morbid Angel’s best works. While the Vincent era albums each had an equally firm mission statement, those statements were clear and simple, from the riff fest of Covenant to the grinding bounce of Domination. But Gateways to Annihilation finds its identity in the flawless fusion of its disparaging elements, rather than merely shifting focus on each one in turn. Plenty of death-doom hybrids exist, but Gateways defies this label while drawing heavily from these ingredients in equal measure. It’s objectively one of the slowest albums in the Morbid Angel canon, challenged (and arguably usurped) only by Blessed are the Sick, but you’d be looked at curiously if you called it a doom-adjacent album. The melodies come forth with piss and vinegar, but never descend into a wankfest of finger flexing. The drums blast away with uncompromising brutality, but their weight and might only make the slower portions crawl and ooze that much more powerfully. This auditory alchemy is enthralling, wielding the headbangable and the stargazing in equal measure, and each new listen reveals some new nuance or detail, letting songs unveil themselves to you for the first time all over again.
Over the years since I first heard it, Gateways to Annihilation has cemented itself as one of my favorite death records of all time. From the opening croaking of the frogs in “Kawazu” that triggers my homesickness for Florida, it captivates and brutalizes with an even touch. I owe this album to finally solving the mystery of Morbid Angel and ultimately catapulting them to one of my favorite founding fathers of the genre. But though I’ve learned to appreciate the gourmet buffet riffing of Covenant, basked in the otherworldly atmospheres of Formulas Fatal to the Flesh, and enjoyed deeply of the alien soloing of Altars of Madness, none of them come close to capturing the mood and presence this album creates. If you haven’t listened to it in a while, celebrate its upcoming 26th birthday and give it a spin. You never know what might be waiting for you, just beyond the gates…
Now their gazing eyes have turned…
Turned to see us laughing…
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