REVIEW: Too Extreme! Non-metal fans react to a live performance from Morbid Angel.

What happens when we ask non metal fans to react to Morbid Angel? The song selection is a live performance of “Nothing Is Not”, recorded in Buffalo, NY at Town Ballroom on March 6, 2019. “Nothing Is Not” is from the 1998 album Formulas Fatal to the Flesh. Video credited to unARTigNYC. Watch the full video here.

Salomena is from Belgium and Maxim is from New Caledonia, which is a special collectivity of France. Both countries offer extreme metal bands of merit. Gojira hail from Northern Basque Country in France and their music straddles the divide between technical death metal and groove metal. They are a popular band and have even featured in Rolling Stone. Aborted are from Waregem in Belgium, they perform vicious death metal and the singer Sven de Caluwé has featured in our sister publication, the Scars and Guitars podcast. They produce a unique array of merchandise, such as this beach ball.

Meg is a busy mother of two young children. She was once offered a role on the celebrated children’s TV show made for Network 10 and its subsidiary channels, Totally Wild. When Morbid Angel’s principal songwriter and guitarist Trey Azagthoth appeared on MTV’s Headbangers Ball as a presenter for an episode in 2004, the feedback was mixed. It was the last prominent public appearance sans guitar from the mysterious guitarist, and he now leaves interviews to bassist/vocalist Steve Tucker, who has also featured on the Scars and Guitars podcast.

Liv is a university student, and her observations are intriguing because she used a lot of non-verbal cues. She preferred to study the video. Trey spent years studying the guitar as an adolescent, following his inspirations Eddie Van Halen and Jimi Hendrix. As far as can be factually verified, he didn’t attend a formal learning facility such as a Musician Institute or a Conservatorium. An interview with Trey’s mother Janelle is on the cards, so hopefully, she can shed light on how he honed his unique technique.

Brianna is also a university student and made many comments about the musicianship on display in the video. If there is a unifying trait that fans of extreme metal can agree is present in Morbid Angel’s music, it is the extraordinary musicianship. The band once featured Terrorizer’s drummer and percussionist Peter Sandoval who has already featured in The A List. As brilliant as Trey is on guitar, Peter is revered by drum aficionados for pioneering the blast-beat drum technique. This article in Rolling Stone goes some way to explaining Peter’s contribution to extreme metal.