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I have to admit, I was never especially fond of Morbid Angel's first two albums, however "genre-defining" they may be. Although "Blessed are the Sick", in particular, had its moments, it seemed too often that the band had spent the whole time in the studio showing off their speed and technical prowess and only wrote the songs at the last minute, resulting in many throwaway tracks and boring, soulless riffs. But on this album I think they get it right.

Although fast most of the way through, "Covenant" has real dynamics, catchy riffs with a hint of Slayer about them and a fine vocal performance by David Vincent. Best of all, though, is Trey Azagthoth's guitarwork. Now we all know about Azagthoth's ability as a lead player, but personally I'd never been overwhelmed by his riff-penning abilities. Here, however, he proves me wrong. Conclusively. And of course the solos are spectacular, "Rapture" in particular has a solo that most lead guitarists would sell their souls for. Another interesting thing here is a couple of slow, sludgy numbers like "World of Shit" and "God of Emptiness" that break up the blasting and make a pleasant change of pace.

So in short, this is an album I would recommend unreservedly to death metal fans, and indeed might be a good place to start for newcomers to the genre.