MORBID ANGEL - Illud Divinum Insanus - VM's First Verdict

Morbid Angel - there is nothing more I could say that has not been said about this band. They're practically a household name for metal heads worldwide, and anyone that has not heard Altars of Madness has to live under a rock. Illud Divinum Insanus is Morbid Angel's 8th album, this first since 2003 and their first album to include both David Vincent and Destructhor since their masterpiece Domination from 1995 - so it's not hard to imagine the potential this album had.

Illud Divinum Insanus is a pretty cool name for an album. In the lead up to the album's release, despite the awesome album title, the fans did their usual complaining about song titles, and forecasting the album's potential crap-ness. With titles like 'Too Extreme!' and 'I am Morbid' I do see their point slightly, but I see this sort of shit from "fans" of bands all the time. Look at Opeth's new album and the amount of slack they seem to be copping from their most apparently "die hard" fans. My point is, people often read into things a little too much prior to even hearing a release.

With that out of the way, Illud Divinum Insanus is very much what I would call a hit and miss album. It features a pretty pointless [yet cool] intro. Pointless because it builds up quite epically only to lead into the song 'Too Extreme!', which has been described roughly as cheap off-cuts of a bad Static-X song. Now, Static-X are a pretty entertaining band, and I find that statement is pretty cruel toward them.

Despite these first two setback songs, the album also features some awesome Morbid Angel tracks. 'Existo Vulgore' being one of them, complete with blast beats and extreme double kicks, it is a sigh of relief for the album, and while not the best Morbid Angel song out there, it is certainly preferred over songs like 'Too Extreme!'.

'Blades for Baal' continues with the awesome and gets the hopes up that this will be a really good album. This song features everything you'd expect from these guys, and pulled off in classic fashion. 'I am Morbid' then kicks in to further crush the listeners' dreams of having a good new album into oblivion. Complete with a crowd chant intro and some pretty cheesy lyrics, I think the speculators could have been correct about this song, and perhaps the album. Though, '10 More Dead' isn't a half bad song, the album isn't really getting much better.

'Destructos Vs the Earth' continues the trend of bad songs. The thing that sets these "bad" songs apart from the rest of the album is the very uninspired drum beats, for one. Another is the simplistic riffs and repetitiveness of the songs. They also seem to have completely different production values to the better tracks, with the guitars down and bass up in the mix. 'Nevermore' and 'Beauty Meets Beast' are more exceptions from the bad that this album seems to deliver. But at the same time, there's a vocal style that keeps appearing [the deep tenor style that you hear in the opening track] which absolutely kills it. If there was some form of variety with it other than just "aaah" or "waooh" it might be okay, but there's nothing else to it.

The next track, titled 'Radikult', would be best described as an extreme rock song. The repetition of a lyric that sounded much like "Kill a cop", just leaves no words that can be used to describe the disappointment that this song invokes. It features some pretty cool lead guitar parts and a few awesome riffs, but a lot of it is the same simplistic stuff that I'm sure many fans hoped they'd never hear from Morbid Angel. Ever. And if you think it cannot get any worse... well, I bet you weren't prepared to hear that it does.

Now, Morbid Angel is generally classified as Death Metal, and that's what their fan base would surely be expecting of this album. Well, the final track, 'Profundis - Mea Culpa', seems to be the final nail in this album's coffin. It sounds like a horribly bad adoption of gabber and metal. I cannot fathom what the band was thinking trying this. The only band I've heard that can pull of this style off and still sound awesome is The Berzerker. I'm all for bands experimenting and trying new stuff, but there's a certain line they should not cross when releasing an album under their name and it seems that the guys in Morbid Angel failed to see that line, or just ignored it.

Regardless, Illud Divinum Insanus is not totally un-listenable, but it is definitely not what anyone would have expected from a band of this caliber. I'm not going to say the band is dead, since the album still contains a shine of hope for any future releases sounding like the Morbid Angel we all have come to know. Hopefully this album was just a minor stumble backwards for the band.

Release: June 7, 2011

Track List:

1. Omni Potens
2. Too Extreme!
3. Existo Vulgoré
4. Blades for Baal
5. I Am Morbid
6. 10 More Dead
7. Destructos vs. the Earth / Attack
8. Nevermore
9. Beauty Meets Beast
10. Radikult
11. Profundis - Mea Culpa

Visit: www.morbidangel.com