Altars of Madness

This is treated as the record that moved the measure of extremity up a level. It was recorded in December 1988 at Morrisound Recording in Tampa, Florida, and Earache Records released the 12-inch, MOSH 11, in 1989. Trey Azagthoth's guitar does not only pile riffs up; it brings something close to atonal motion into the speed, and with David Vincent's voice the result does not sound like the thrash of the day or like the other Florida bands. "Immortal Rites", "Chapel of Ghouls" and "Maze of Torment" are where that is clearest. It also matters as a case of the British label Earache taking an American band to the world, and it is counted among the most influential death metal records for redrawing the line of how extreme the writing and the playing could be. The running order here is the 1989 original's as printed.