after i luckily won an ebay auction for an early pressing of the first morbid angel full length "altars of madness", a hunting fever within me broke loose. i fully immersed myself in early nineties death metal. especially in earache records and roadrunner records stuff. the problem is that those first pressings tend to be on the expensive side. so i searched obsessively several sources for metal vinyl on the internet. one option was ebay kleinanzeigen. it is a subsidiary of ebay and is actually for local advertisements but some of the sellers do ship their offerings as well.
so i found this seller from berlin who had a few interestings bits and among them there was "blessed are the sick" from morbid angel. it is the band's second full length and was released in 1991 on earache. after the seller confirmed that he had a first press to offer, we wrapped up a deal and a few days later my copy arrived at my doorstep. musically this album got slower and chunkier in riffs. i really like that. especially the opener "fall from grace" and the title track "blessed are the sick" are unbelievably strong.
the b-side unfortunately can't really hold up to the a-side but three out of six songs are re-recorded material from their 1986 demo "abominations of desolation". the original pressing comes in a slip sleeve instead of the gatefold of the re-issue. i prefer this version because the gatefold shows a picture of the band. mehh, give me some new artwork or something but i don't need a picture of the dudes all over the gatefold inner. the cover artwork looks really sinister and is a painting crafted by painter and occultist jean delville entitled "le trésors de satan" (the treasures of satan). earache records. 1991.
