I think it is fair to say that this is the most controversial extreme release of the year. There seems to be polarising opinions and it has to be said that many of them are bristling with indignation and negativity before the album has been released. Songs and samples are all over the place and I have no idea if the full album has actually been leaked. I can say that promo copies have an annoying ringing sound every 45 seconds or so, placed to stop it being pirated and this is far more annoying (although I appreciate the necessity of it) than the music itself for me.
One thing I have to say is that bands do change. I am not going to cite loads of examples although I have to wonder how many people who loved In Flames ‘Lunar Strain’ are even going to want to hear ‘Sounds Of A Playground Fading’ after all that band have put us through. Of course as far as Morbid Angel are concerned it’s a lot more serious than that! They are considered leaders and pioneers of the death metal scene and have solidified that position since forming way back in 1984 and unleashing ‘Altars Of Madness’ on an unsuspecting world back in 1989. As they continued to rise and release alphabetically ordered titles where that order was the only constant to their chaos, they brought out some of the best albums the sub genre has to offer, including some of mine and many others favourites (a fact that is for many uncontested). Nobody can criticise the group’s relevance and stature that is for sure.
The big turning point was when Dave Vincent their singer and bassist left after the excellent slimy ‘Domination.’ For me his replacement Steve Tucker, never really filled his boots and although I certainly picked up Formulas and Gateways etc the band was never quite the same again. We witnessed Dave Vincent back in the fold live, complete with eyebrow raising PVC garb but as they were playing the classics we were on the whole placated. Now we get the band’s first album in eight years and the first with Vincent back on vocals with new material in 16. It is time for the shitstorm to hit the fan, or maybe the fans to hit the shitstorm. The RIP Morbid Angel facebook page which sprang up seemingly overnight is just the tip of the iceberg from what I am seeing and I have also been amused at the record company delivering opinions from other luminaries within the scene praising the album and defending the band.
It is quickly evident that things have changed and Morbid Angel have not done what a group such as Autopsy have this year, with their return album. Things are the same but also different right down to the cobbled together Latin song title that still takes us down the alphabet, although perhaps in a fashion as nonsensical to scholars as the babblings of Dimmu Borgir titles to those with a basic grasp of English. I guess it’s impossible not to mention Evil D’s time in his wife’s band The Genitorturers, playing a different type of music with serious industrial leanings was always going to influence him, but why you cry did he have to let it seep under the skin of Morbid Angel, why indeed? Well if you look back they have never really been to coin a cliché that formulaic and you may remember the rather excellent Laibach mixes of ‘Sworn To The Black’ and ‘Gods Of Emptiness!’ However I am 600 words in and not pressed play yet so I better cut to the chase and tell you what to expect.
‘Omni Potens’ (ha to the wordplay) beefs it up, flexing muscles like gladiators squaring up in the arena, it is a fitting austere intro. Then comes the first curveball ‘Too Extreme!’ It’s like the band are taunting their audience and asking them to define what is extremity knowing that they are pushing the boundaries of their own acceptance. A gabba sounding bombast hones in and it is really machinelike. Sandoval is out injured and Tim Yeung recorded drum tracks but they strike as robotic here and along with the juddering bass riffs the industrial elements are really pushed to the front. ‘This is your one warning’ intones Vincent before opening throat and pushing rhythmic vocal thrusts forward. This is extreme as in a futuristic Terminator extreme, it’s like KMFDM and Ministry and the ‘new religion’ is one that is apart from the memory of those Laibach mixes quite alien to the sound one would have expected. Of course lurking are the Azagothian guitar weaves but as yet his and Destruchtor’s parts are not the focus. If you have not turned this off in disgust, prepare yourself for a Fear Factory drum intro and more standard guitar chaos as the furious ‘Existo Vulgoré’ does tip hats towards the past and is probably one of the songs that will have the purists thinking the last one was just a bad dream. It’s precisely delivered and bolstered by a really hefty mix (as is the whole album). If every track had this rage and fury of this and ‘Blades For Baal’ which cuts to the quick at a formidably mental pace with some deftly handled solos, I doubt there would be many detractors.
The mischievous monkeys have more spanners to throw in the works though and one can only groan at song title ‘I Am Morbid’ wondering if the group are seriously going out their way to drown us in their own ‘Cold Lake?’ Crowd chants (it’s almost We Will Rock You ala morbid) and rolling drums and bass groove slow it down. You wait for a death grunt but just get a standard mid-paced number which, with the lyrics is totally tongue up cavity and a real misnomer that will have you either laughing or crying (or laughing then crying when the joke wears off). Yep it’s far from the group’s strongest moment and although a solid enough number that would have me slamming fist down if it were by your average band, it is one where pairing it with this group’s legacy is no easy task. It kind of makes me think of Danzig and Immortal getting together and recording a joke cover song for a Christmas release! ’10 More Dead’ does not do much to install faith and devotion. The riffs sound fine although formulaic, Vincent’s vocals are on the whole trite and backing gang shouts unnecessary. When it does pick up the pace it sounds cumbersome and uncomfortable and even with the trademark spiralling guitars flowing through it, there’s a spark missing.
So what does the title ‘Destructos Vs. the Earth / Attack’ suggest, Japanese monsters stomping over buildings and crushing them to dust? Yep that’s kind of what it sounds like. Militant drums and cleaner enunciated vocals complete with some off key female parts boost this one along, again it’s far from fast and sounds a bit like a different band. I’m not quite sure what one but again it’s like a serious band having a laugh and doing a novelty number. The sledgehammer heaviness and distinctive guitar shred as the song gets to the second part has it winning me over with its Foetus, meets Fear Factory and Albini beating tribal stomp. Scrap metal being mangled is akin to the drum approach of ‘Nevermore.’ It loosens up and goes back more in line with olden days, the riffs and roars here have much more balls to them and it actually goes as far to have a meaty memorable chorus.
If you have been hearing about a rap song well it’s no doubt ‘Radikult’ or radish cult as the aforementioned Facebook group have called it! Killer salad aside it does jump out after the going through the motions number ‘Beauty Meats Beast’ with its annoying woahing vocal delivery. Bit of Godfleshian snare sound at the intro and then this grooves away and probably confuses a group’s die hard audience more than any other song in extreme metal history! I like it, it’s infectious and daft but having said that it aint quite right at all. ‘Hardcore Radikult’ it may well be and it would have been discussed till the cows come home if they had slipped it on as a single b-side, putting it on the album seems a step too far. It’s like ant music for ant people but for Morbid Angel fans it’s a case of trying another flavour and leaving a very sour taste in the mouth! Going out with more synthetic sounding gabba wrecking bombast, the snarling ‘Profundis - Mea Culpa’ finalises an album that has either had you redefining the way you conceive one of extreme metal’s most famous bands or leaving their past glories as a distant memory.
As far as I am concerned there are parts of this album I like and others that I really don’t. I guess I am in the lucky position of really appreciating and loving industrial music as well as Morbid Angel themselves, so although a surprise, this has made some sort of jaded sense to me. Is it as good as albums A-D? Don’t be silly, this is one writer not making a suicidal journalistic career statement like that. Does it deserve to exist in the pantheon of Morbid Angel’s releases? I think so! Would I give it a mark out of ten, thankfully that is something I don’t have to do here.
As to where the band goes next, will it be forward or back in time? Apparently they have been only playing a couple of stronger tracks off the album live along with lots of old classics so don’t dismiss them at festivals. However if you are a real diehard fan and shelling out for the wooden triptych fold out box there are words for people like you, Insanus!
http://www.morbidangel.com
http://www.season-of-mist.com
Pete Woods
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