Morbid Angel - Covenant

A strangely produced album to me, it actually took quite a while before I could appreciate this album for what it contains. First off, it's a killer album, not as loose as Altars nor as experimental as Blessed seemed, but more direct and powerful. I HATE the snare sound though, every hit sounding like wood on paper, really just bugging the shit out of me for a long time. I would listen and shelve, listen and shelve for a couple of months, then one day it just stayed in my player, and I swear, it was played straight for 10 hours, and then, I got it. The fact that Trey is the solo guitarist here is not coincidental to the entire stripped down feel of the album. Solos remain, of course, but the emphasis appears to be on powerful speed, balancing everything out. So, maybe the production job is actually brilliant, but everything does seem flat, midrangey and compressed to me, much like Rasmussen's other albums, which I'm sure is the intent, Flemming being considered a master producer. So, I'm left with might may be my favorite Morbid Angel album to hear, a testament to my belief that most good albums need much more time to absorb and understand.