Review Summary: An inglorious song-burst of tragedy and pain.
One really has to wonder what some bands want from their fans, let alone their fame. When we last saw Morbid Angel, they were in a bit of a slump with 2003's Heretic. While the album had it's own perks, it showed the band growing a little stale in the creative department, especially considering the legendary statuses of past efforts like 1993's Covenant and 1989's Altars of Madness. After 8 years apart, one would honestly think that a band like this one would make a solid return to form and get back to basics... and yet, to say that this is not the case is a massive understatement.
First of all, the line-up is a tad different from the last couple of releases, bringing back David Vincent but with no Pete Sandoval (!) this time around. Considering that David Vincent was in the classic golden-era of the band, it was expected that he and Trey Azagthoth would get the creative juices flowing again and create their good-old death metal. And what do we get? An industrial/quasi-darkwave/bone-headed metal album???
It's safe to say that if the material presented here was on a Marylin Manson or Rob Zombie album, it wouldn't be considered too bad. On the other hand, having Morbid Angel try to experiment with this kind of work is certainly in vain. Just one look at the songtitles could be enough to show how bad and corny the quality is; We've got songs like "Radikult (what the f*ck is a Radikult?)," "Destructos Vs. the Earth/Attack (which now has a dance remix... ugh)," and "I Am Morbid (wooo, clever!)."
For the sake of remaining glass-half-full here, I'll mention some positives that warrant the 1.5. YES, there is some death metal buried within the sh*t-mound here. Among the most noteworthy songs on the album are "Blades of Baal" and "Nevermore," both of which display the band's signature riffing and powerful guttural growls. Unfortunately, even these songs tend to sound like pale imitations of better tracks Morbid Angel made in the past, and sometimes they lose their way and eventually the music has a bit of a bland quality.
Now for the rest of this album: As it's been seen with the general diversity of the albums I review on this site, it can be said that I like experimentation. If you don't experiment, you don't know if it's going to work or not, right? Morbid Angel took this concept and escalated it to a new level that most bands wouldn't have the balls to even attempt. Unfortunately, it's a failed experiment in this case, as cheesy industrial work isn't exactly their strong suit. Also, in certain areas, it seems that the band are trying to imitate Devin Townsend, what with the wall of sound and forced humor; However, where Townsend revels comfortably within this territory, Morbid Angel simply sound like they're trying too hard here, and suffer as a result.
One other thing: If there's one song that has to be mentioned over ALL the others on this album, it's Radikult. This song is simply one of the worst imitations of industrial metal out in the market today, from the cringe-worthy vocals to the drums which sound like a kid with mental retardation pounding on a keg. Even the "sinister" build-up at the beginning is weak, trying too hard to have a darkwave-influenced sound to boot. Overall, the song pretty much sums up the numerous flaws plaguing the album.
The last thing I'd like to bring up; the vocals. David Vincent's voice sounds about as unappealing as James Hetfield did on Metallica's St. Anger. Also similar to that album's vocals are the chanted "Hey Hey Hey" shouts and the bone-headed caveman-sounding grunts. David Vincent used to have such an intimidating voice back when Covenant was released in 1993, but now he sounds like he's attempting a mix of nu-metal and thrash. He simply adds to the disappointing quality of the record rather than improving it.
All in all, this album provides a few lessons: 1. Don't try to "modernize" music with genres that don't fit in your style; 2. Actually tell fans before you try something new (the singles preceding the album were the death metal ones); and 3. Try to freshen things up with a little diversity, or the album will become riddled with banality as this one is.
Please do not buy this.
For this album, Morbid Angel are:
David Vincent – bass guitar, keyboard, vocals
Trey Azagthoth – guitar
Destructhor – guitar
Tim Yeung – drums
