It's a real good album, I like it a lot. It represents two years and we've grown a lot. We've learned a lot about songwriting, what works and what doesn't and how it all comes together in the studio. I'm real happy with it, it's a nice solid package that represented the band at the time. It's what it is, it's sick.
- Morbid Angel interview, No Glam Fags #6, 1992
MORBID ANGEL recorded Blessed are the Sick during January and February with Tom Morris at Morrisound, and released a few months later - on this day in 1991 - through Earache. Classic unholy death metal.
We had a certain amount of room on Alters... and we filled it. People complained. Where's "Abominations" so we put it on there. On this we did "Thy Kingdom Come" we had decided when we did Alters... that we would save it for the second record. "Unholy Blasphemy" is a brutal attacking death metal song. There weren't any others like it on the album so we redid it. "Ancient Ones" had a nice lead exchange in it that wasn't in any of the other songs and we were looking for something like that. We have different speeds and feeling on this record. The first record is similar to a lot of things in the genre now. It seems like death metal is a light switch it's on or off and it seems that when you put on an album it's like turning on the light it's the same speed and intensity till you turn it off. It's one emotion-non stop. We tried to add more texture, moods, feelings. It's kind of like a little roller coaster ride.
It's time building up from the beginning in speed, momentum, age, breathing, a baby out of the womb, a growth pattern, more and more intense. Aging, getting older, louder, faster, even more intense and then it falls, it falls into grace.
- David Vincent / Morbid Angel interview, No Glam Fags #6, 1992
