Morbid Angel Release New Song “For No Master”

Talk about old school: the new Morbid Angel album, Kingdoms Disdained, comes out THIS FRIDAY, and they’re only just now releasing a second single. That’s so unusual in this day and age I’m almost surprised the song didn’t arrive with an introduction from Riki Rachtman.

Does this marketing strategy make sense or not? On the one hand, there are Morbid Angel fans who are gonna buy the new Morbid Angel album no matter what, so there’s no need to try and entice them with actual music; on the other hand, fewer pre-release singles means fewer chances to win over younger fans (especially those who only know the band from the Illud Divinum Insanus debacle); on the other other hand (the first foot?), the whole thing will be on legal streaming services as soon as it’s released, so if you’re not concerned with first week sales, there’s really no rush to attract new or on-the-fence fans.

What do any of my ramblings about marketing have to do with the actual music on Kingdoms Disdained? Well, this: if the new single, “For No Master,” and the first single, “Piles of Little Arms,” don’t sell you on the album, a third or fourth single probably wasn’t gonna close that deal. And I suspect someone on Team Morbid Angel knows this, because the band hasn’t even bothered to take a promo photo with its latest line-up. That can be achieved in about five seconds if you can arrange for all four band members to stand in front of one wall and face the same direction.

In any case, Kingdoms Disdained is very much a Steve Tucker-era Morbid Angel album. It’s good! It’s not great. It’s an excuse to tour and be a legacy band. So it is what it is.

Find out what it is with “For No Master” below. As I said, Kingdoms Disdained comes out this Friday, December 1