Kingdoms Disdained, the ninth album from Florida death metal legends Morbid Angel, centers around the destruction and recreation of Earth, of a god stripping their creation from humans. In 2015, guitarist and sole original member Trey Azagthoth was facing the apocalypse of his own band, most notably vocalist and bassist David Vincent, who left to pursue a country music career in Austin. 2011’s Illud Divinum Insanus, the sole record from Vincent’s reunion, was so widely panned that it plagued their momentum long after its release. One could argue that the 2013 anniversary tour for Covenant, Morbid Angel’s 1993 breakout record, was as much about downplaying Illud as it was celebrating a classic. Vincent played the rockstar extrovert to Azagthoth’s shred nerd, and while his voice was in pristine shape, his ’80s metal theatrics stood in odd contrast to Azagthoth’s more serious approach.
Vocalist Steve Tucker, who first replaced Vincent in 1997, returned to the band following the mass exodus. Tucker’s delivery is lower and harsher, and his albums with Morbid Angel—1998’s Formulas Fatal to the Flesh, 2000’s Gateways to Annihilation, and 2003’s Heretic—accommodated. They picked up the speed and Azagthoth’s soloing went into further tripped-out, outré directions. Kingdoms follows the same path, although instead of making Morbid Angel more brutal than ever, it sets them back on course following a disastrous experimentation.
They rediscovered what they do well across their career and doubled down on it. “Piles of Little Arms” recalls both “Heaving Earth” from Formulas in its speed and macabre, almost black metal-like passages similar to those from their debut Altars of Madness. “The Pillars Crumbling” takes the more intricate stylings from Covenant and injects it with adrenaline, finding a sweet spot between both eras of the band. Even the tracks with groove holdovers from the ’90s—“The Righteous Voice” features a slew of tantalizing string bends, and “Declaring New Law (Secret Hell)” resembles sped-up Neurosis—they’ve never felt this alive or urgent.
With a fuller production and a renewed partnership with Azagthoth, Tucker sounds even deeper and gnarlier than he has in some time. Drummer Scott Fuller replaces Tim Yeung, and like his predecessor, he brings a technical, polished performance. It’s a contrast from classic drummer Pete Sandoval, who grew out of a more traditional approach, blasting with a more natural swing. Kingdoms is so blindingly fast that, most of the time, it works, though there is a slight sense that Sandoval’s touch could have served just as well. Azagthoth ran the risk of turning Morbid Angel into a faceless tech-death band by replacing Yeung with a younger, less recognized talent, but he and Tucker are dynamic enough forces that Morbid Angel is, well, Morbid Angel again.
Kingdoms is focused for a wandering spirit like Azagthoth, and yet it’s also pretty conservative by Morbid Angel standards. There is a tiny nagging sense that you want Azagthoth to fully freak out, to unleash a solo that would actually open a portal to every parallel universe over a drum pattern no man nor machine could pull off. Still, it is wonderful to see Azagthoth has again embraced lava, his term for his soloing. “My solos are not about technique,” he said. “They're about lava. About feeling without knowing.” As such, his lead work is both guided and free-flowing. His solo at the end of “Voice” dips into ever-sinking pools with brief spikes in ecstasy; “For No Master” sounds like if ravenous birds knew how to cry like Penderecki.
It’s been an especially fruitful year for death metal—Morbid Angel’s contemporaries Obituary and Immolation put out their strongest albums in years, and there is a slew of younger bands paying homage to classic forms with their own twists. It’s fitting that Morbid Angel’s new record provides a redemption narrative for 2017’s death metal bloom. Given our collective state of affairs, an album of “acid terror” where the all-knowing creator destroys us with bizarre guitar solos and double-bass drum doesn’t sound so absurd.
