Morbid Angel - Gateways To Annihilation

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1. Kawazu - 00:36
2. Summoning Redemption - 07:17
3. Ageless, Still I Am - 05:18
4. He Who Sleeps - 04:05
5. To The Victor, The Spoils - 03:43
6. At One With Nothing - 04:34
7. Opening Of The Gates - 05:16
8. Secured Limitations - 04:39
9. Awakening - 01:22
10. I - 03:50
11. God Of The Forsaken - 03:50

Total playing time - 44:28

Fact: Morbid Angel rules--it's science, look it up. Yet somehow, in the face of irrefutable scientific evidence, I managed to overlook Morbid Angel's "Gateways to Annihilation" for years. It could be because it features Steve Tucker on vox, and the first Steve Tucker album I heard ("Heretic") was laughably bad. It may also be because it's toward the back of MA's alphabetical discography, and I was too caught up in the dick-stomping A-D albums to make way down the line. Either way, I'm making an admission of faggotry, because "Gateways" is fucking amazing.

On their first three albums, Morbid Angel proved that they could play really, really fast. On their fourth, they proved that they could slow it down and get a little grimey. What "Gateways" represents is an apolcalyptic, tormented union of the two styles. Take for example, the 3-hit combo of "To The Victor, The Spoils," "At One With Nothing," and "Opening Of The Gates"; the first shows the speed, the second shows the sludge, and the third is what happens when the first two have sex, don't use protection and decide not to abort. It's got super-chunky rhythms, courtesy of Eric Rutan, mind-bending Azagthoth riffs (duh), 808-style bass drops that would make Kanye jealous, and 220+ BPM hyperblasts from Pete Sandoval that are absolutely gut-busting (which were apparently quantized on the recording without his knowledge). This song is worth the download alone and really is a microcosmic representation of the album as a whole--it's creative, evil, brutal and powerful as fuck.