MORBID ANGEL — Formulas Fatal to the Flesh (review)

MORBID ANGEL — Formulas Fatal to the Flesh album cover

Album · 1998 · Death Metal

4/5 · 2022-07-26
UMUR

"Formulas Fatal to the Flesh" is the 5th full-length studio album by US, Florida based death metal act Morbid Angel. The album was released through Earache Records in February 1998. It´s the successor to "Domination" from 1995 and features two lineup changes since the predecessor as lead vocalist/bassist David Vincent has been replaced by Steve Tucker, and guitarist Erik Rutan has also left. No replacement was recruited to fill Rutan´s shoes, so all guitars on "Formulas Fatal to the Flesh" are handled by Trey Azagthoth. Completing the new trio lineup is drummer Pete Sandoval.

While "Domination (1995)" introduced more adventurous and slightly abstract songwriting ideas to Morbid Angel´s old school death metal sound, "Formulas Fatal to the Flesh" is for the most part a more fast-paced, raw, and brutal release, and the creative songwriting ideas aren´t as dominant here as on the predecessor. Although there are a couple of heavier and slower paced tracks featured on "Formulas Fatal to the Flesh", the pace is predominantly very fast and the atmosphere frenetic bordering the chaotic. Tucker brings a more one-dimensionally brutal growling vocal style to the table, than the more varied and disctinct sounding Vincent, and while Tucker definitely gets the job done and done well, he isn´t a growler which stands out.

The album features 14 tracks and full playing time of 51:21 minutes. There are several shorter instrumentals on the tracklist though, so it´s not all 14 tracks which are "regular" death metal tracks. Most tracks are new original material written for the album, but the band have also opted to re-record "Hell Spawn" (retitled "Hellspawn: The Rebirth" here) which is a track, which was originally featured on the 1986 demo album "Abominations of Desolation" (an album which saw an official release in 1991) and they have pieced together the 9:44 minutes long "Invocation of the Continual One" from various unused songwriting ideas from the early days of the band. "Invocation of the Continual One" is a quite an interesting track, featuring some old school Morbid Angel style riffs, and a brilliant heavy mid-paced closing section, with Azagthoth playing a long solo on top.

The album features a powerful, detailed, and overall very well sounding production job. The sound is not quite as dark as the sound production on "Domination (1995)", and to my ears it´s a sound which suits Morbid Angel well. The material are generally well written and powerful death metal, but a few more hooks would have made the album a more varied and effective listening experience. I´m fully satisfied with the instrumental delivery of the music, and as mentioned above the sound production, but the songwriting simply is lacking memorable moments and Tucker generally isn´t able to deliver catchy vocal phrases like his predecessor often excelled in doing. It´s overall a slightly lesser release than the preceding releases by the band. With that said "Formulas Fatal to the Flesh" is still a high quality death metal release and a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.