Morbid Angel - Kingdoms Disdained

How I only caught news of an impending Morbid Angel release a few weeks ago shows how preoccupied I am, because any Morbid Angel release is certainly something to anticipate, even as few and far between as they’ve been lately. With their last record with Steve Tucker in 2003, Heretic, being an awkward, unsure jumble of timid riffs and uncalled-for eccentricities, the metal world for the most part hoped that with David Vincent’s return on 2011’s Illud Divinum Insanus would be the rejuvenation Morbid Angel needed to make more raw, cosmic death metal, and boy were we wrong. Kingdoms Disdained finds Morbid Angel back with Steve Tucker again trying to make up for what has been referred to for the six years since its release as Morbid Angel’s St. Anger. I never thought Steve Tucker was the weak link in the band when he was in it, and this album’s much needed redemption of the terrible pitfall that was the dumb and brutish Illud Divinum Insanus reinforces my belief.

Kingdoms Disdained is in many ways, a more polished version of what Hereticshould have been. At a well-adjusted and digestible length for material such as this, the album is primal but clinical, crushing but controlled. With the recruitment of new percussionist and new guitarist as well, the freshness of the ideas, and of the anger as well, being poured into the album is noticeable, though the comparison to the band’s classics is not even close in terms of iconic sounds and motifs (and is possibly an unfair comparison).

The album’s fitting low-register opener ushers in a barrage of damnation and divine fury with Steve Tucker growling, justly, like he’s getting the second chance of his life, and the assault of blast-beat riffing takes only the few pauses between songs all the way until the bestial closer. The difference that sets Kingdoms Disdained above Heretic is the sense of focused directionality each song takes on. The no-nonsense approach the band took here could arguably be considered the safe approach, but after the industrial disaster that preceded it, I don’t blame them for wanting to reestablish their authority in the realm of death metal.

The very obvious weakness is the album’s homogeneity as a result of its few tempo changes and few memorable riffs. But this album makes clear that strength and explosivity were its objectives, which were certainly achieved. I can already hear these songs accompanied by the drop of deadlifted barbells and the clanging of metal on metal after heavy, brutal back squats.

Overall, it’s probably not something that’ll go down as a modern classic for the band, but definitely a smashing of the danger sirens as a statement that the band have regained their bearings. It’s an especially triumphant moment for Steve Tucker and his new compatriots, who have proved that Morbid Angel can still reign without waiting around for David Vincent. Hopefully this is the restart of a more productive and maybe more attention-demanding Morbid Angel.