Expanded two CD edition includes bonus live album Juvenila. Altars of Madness is the debut studio album by Florida-based death metal band Morbid Angel. It was originally released on May 12, 1989. The album was recorded in December 1988 at Morrisound Recording in Tampa, Florida. The album is one of the earliest examples of death metal and is considered to have helped pioneer the sound along with Possessed’s Seven Churches in 1985 and Death’s Scream Bloody Gore in 1987, and set a new precedent for heaviness and extremity, both musically and lyrically.