morbid angel
23:28 Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Morbid Angel returned to the world for the first time since 2003 in 2011 with their record Illud Divinum Insanus. It was a largely industrial metal record with some death metal flair thrown in, and people hated it. Mostly because it wasn't good, and it sure as hell sucked in comparison to everything else Morbid Angel did.
At the time, Morbid Angel was Trey Azagthoth on guitar, guitarist Thor "Destructhor" Myhren, bassist and vocalist David Vincent, and drummer Tim Yeung. In an interview with Altars Of Metal, Vincent called the album very "confused" and said he really could only do his best when it came to vocals.
"Well, record-wise, probably Illud was the most difficult thing that I've done. Yeah, that was a very strange time. That's when Pete [Sandoval, longtime Morbid Angel drummer] had his injury and he was unable to play. We had just worked in a new guitar player and a new drummer. And the writing process was really, really strange — not what I was accustomed to. I did the best that I could with what I had to work with. And I think there's some really, really good performances on the record. Some of the material was just very strange. But again, my job is vocals, and I did the very best that I could with what I had to work with."
In a 2018 interview with Guitar World, Azagthoth admitted that he knew Illud Divinum Insanus wasn't that good and even blamed Vincent for songs like "Radikult". Which also kinda makes you wonder why Morbid Angel would've moved forward with Illud Divinum Insanus if Azagthoth knew during the rehearsals for the record that it was gonna suck, right?
"It just shows how David and I are in different worlds these days. He is, for sure, an artist and great in his own way, but was becoming so very different than what I was into. It was a confused effort and that is why I changed the lineup."
"I already knew the result was gonna be off during rehearsals and recording. Some of it turned out cool, but David made his vocals too loud — like usual — and the rhythm guitars got subdued in the mix. Then David flew to L.A. to finish some vocals with the engineer that mixed the record. And it seems he influenced how the mix was gonna turn out. Before I heard the final mixes for the record I thought it was gonna sound a lot more heavy. But nothing could save a silly song like 'Radikult', which I just tried to ignore. I had nothing to do with that thing."
