MORBID ANGEL - Illud Divinum Insanus - VM's Second Verdict
Submitted by EveryFairyDies on Mon, 13/06/2011 - 4:59pm
I admit to a certain level of trepidation upon agreeing to this assignment – review one of the most eagerly awaited albums, by a band with a rabid following, and give an honest opinion. I decided to avoid reading what all others had already said, and to listen to the album as objectively as possible.
The first word that springs to mind when I started listening to Illud Divinum Insanus is simply “crunchy”. With a pounding drum, tight rhythm, and staccato-like vocal line, it kind of feels like being punched in the face over and over. ‘Too Extreme’, the second track on the album, sounds almost like it’s trying to brain wash you, with its repetitive “we are your new religion” line.
Then we get into classic Morbid Angel with ‘Existo Vulgore’, with a double kick that sounds more like a Morse code machine on speed, rather than a pounding drum of doom. Once I made this analogy, I found it difficult not to notice the drum track when it kept repeating, distracting me from the rest of the track. It’s not so much that it’s overbearing, but it just stands out after you first notice it.
The fifth track on record is ‘I Am Morbid’, which starts with a chanting crowd repeating “Morbid! Morbid!” over and over, instantly snapping one’s imagination into the crowd at a Morbid Angel gig. Naturally, the track is all about what it is to be a Morbid Angel fan, "celebrating Morbid victories". With the ticking double kick pulled back, and overlaid with strong guitar, this song really stands out as a great defying-the-conformists anthem. This one will defiantly become a staple of Morbid Angel’s live set, no doubt.
'10 More Dead’ kept driving me nuts, as there’s a great bit during the chorus, where a deeper voice speaks underneath the vocal line, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out exactly what was being said. However, it sounded really awesome, and I couldn’t help head banging away.
Track seven - ‘Destructos vs the Earth / Attack’. It starts with a marching beat, then you read the track title, and you have to resist the urge to piss yourself laughing. This track is, at the risk of being torn apart limb-from-limb by rabid fans, freakin’ awesome, and brought a smile to my face. Whether this track is meant to be a serious tale of a robotic creature destroying the human race, or some kind of analogy I wasn’t getting, I decided to go with the lighthearted “kill the humanoids” vibe and just let it all wash over me. It kind of put me in mind of Fear Factory’s Obsolete, with its robotic march, it’s antagonistic lyrics of the ways in which humanity has failed, and how, during guitar solos, the drums maintain the steady beat, as though to remind us that even with the creativity of humanity that lies in the guitar solo, the mindless, emotionless drum-robot is always just underneath, waiting for its chance.
While I was slightly disappointed that ‘Nevermore’ didn’t start with “once upon a midnight dreary…”, it does contain a wonderful vocal segment where vocalist David Vincent has to speak quite quickly to get all the lyrics in. It actually works, instead of sounding like a record on high-speed. This track also contains a really interesting repeating guitar riff that gives a kind of swinging feel to it. It’s hard to explain; listen to the track, you’ll get what I mean.
By the time track nine, ‘Beauty Meets Beast’ started, I was beginning to feel that I had found and mined all the hidden gems in this album, and my attention was starting to wander. Then came ‘Radikult’.
This one is… fun. Yes, that’s right, fun. It’s kind of… dare I say, bouncy!? It really strips everything back, making use of pauses and silence, with a faster, more staccato beat. The kind of song you can really mosh to, and which fills you with a great energy from the first second. ‘Radikult’ is one that stands out, as it sounds very different from everything else on this album. Less doom, gloom and horror destruction, and more of an enjoyable destruction. We’re still gonna fuck up your world, but we’ll have fun doing it. The track gets a little strange at the end, with an instrumental and moaning vocal. While I can’t quite figure out how Morbid Angel went from exciting destruction to an almost conquering masters instrumental, I still like it.
Then with final track ‘Profundis – Mea Culpa’, and we’re back to the same style as second track, ‘Too Extreme’, with machine-gun drum machine double kick, giving the song an almost tech-cyber feel, with a chanting moan that starts with voice and is carried into the guitar riff. It’s dark, it’s brutal, and it’s Morbid Angel.
Without the highlights of ‘I Am Morbid’, ‘Destructos vs the Earth / Attack’ and, ‘Radikult’, I would likely have found this album a little boring. The style and rhythm is standard throughout the entire album, making it a little stale. The guitar solos, while clearly expert, seemed almost standard. It felt a lot like Morbid Angel were simply going through the motions on this, their 8th album, rather than pushing the boundaries and searching out news ways of screwing with their audiences' head. It’s an odd mix of entertainment and mediocrity, making it hard to decide whether or not you like it. I like parts of it, and those parts will defiantly be regulars on my play list. The others, well, maybe I’ll hear them when I stick my iPod on shuffle sometime.
Release: June 7, 2011 Track List: Visit: www.morbidangel.com
Album: Illud Divinum Insanus
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