Angelcorpse - Of Lucifer And Lightning (2007)

I completely missed out on Angelcorpse during their original tenure ('95-'00), but had always heard that albums like, 'Hammer of the Gods' & 'Exterminate' were true classics of the death metal underground, but for whatever reason I never got around to checking them out...

Three years ago when, 'Of Lucifer And Lightning' was released I got my chance to hear the recently reformed Angelcorpse and initially I didn't care much for this album and that was largely because of my fascination with the black metal genre, but during the latter half of 2010 I found myself backing away from black metal and diving for death metal. After pulling this album out once again I found myself head banging in a mad fury to this brutal band, which I had wrongly ignored.

I've been told that the older Angelcorpse is a mixture of black/death metal, but here on, 'Of Lucifer And Lightning' I hear a death metal band that seems to be drawing a fair amount of inspiration from the older works of Morbid Angel. With a great amount of technical riffs, killer solos, pummeling drums, blasphemous lyrics and raspy semi-understandable growls we have nine brutally intense songs, which clock in for just thirty six minutes, but warrant replay value again and again.

I've read some reviews of this album and the opinions seem to be rather mixed, but having not heard any of the bands previous outings I guess I have nothing to compare it to, but you know what I don't care, songs like, 'Hexensabbat' or 'Saints of Blasphemy' are utterly brutal fast paced and dare I say catchy death metal songs, which have kept me coming back for more and more. In fact, I pretty much like the whole album and I'd have to say if you favor Floridian style death metal, Morbid Angel or are a fan of the bands past works you really can't go wrong with this one.

Unfortunately just two years after this release Angelcorpse packed up and called it quits again, but like all hungry musicians the members continued on in different bands.

In the end though I look at the album art work once again and I say to myself, "Is this what its like to eat the body of Christ?"