There’s a fascinating psychology to a true failure of an album. And I’m not talking about how The Sound of White Noise pissed off Belladonna-Anthrax fans or whatever. No, I mean your St. Angers, Cold Lakes, your Unspoken Kings: albums whose defenders are more often than not defending just to be contrary. They’re usually made by bands with some renown and a fan base that — if not sizable — is devoted enough to know a blasphemously awful album when they hear it. There are so many points where the band’s handlers and/or hangers-on could have stopped them and said, “Wait, you’re not being SERIOUS about this, are you?” But either the band were so resolute in their belief that the album was a risk worth taking or were surrounded by a bunch of wincing Yes Men that it still comes into existence anyway, completely un-self-conscious and without a shred of self-awareness. There’s a beauty to those records, albeit a beauty that exists in terrible, regrettable art.

And although Morbid Angel haven’t been immune to Trey Azagthoth’s pretentiousness over the band’s multi-decade career, personally, I didn’t see an album like Illud Divinum Insanus coming down the pipe. Like Cold Lake and The Unspoken King – creative rock-bottom moments for Celtic Frost and Cryptopsy, respectively — it’s ill-calculated to an unfathomable degree. But unlike those albums, which on top of being terrible had a whiff of being sell-out moves (hair metal for Celtic Frost, mall-grade deathcore for Cryptopsy), Illud Divinum Insanus is a passion project for Azagthoth and Dave Vincent (back in the band for the first time on record since Domination). This is an incredibly personal record that they’ve decided to hang the Morbid Angel name on– a name that’s not just sacred in death metal but among the most respected in metal as a whole- – and have subsequently turned the band from a name synonymous with greatness to a name immediately followed with the statement “Just stick with their older stuff” if mentioning them to the uninitiated. Illud Divinum Insanus isn’t just terrible: it’s magnificently dreadful. If the last Six Feet Under album is a mentally ill guy holding a cardboard “REPENT” sign on the street, the new Morbid Angel record is that guy who cashed out his pension to buy ad space for the “THE WORLD IS ENDING ON MAY 21, 2011” hysteria.

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It’s bizarre and unreal to contemplate a new Morbid Angel record without famed drummer Pete Sandoval, the eenventer of deh blazt beit. Even onetime Morbid Angel guitarist Erik Rutan of Hate Eternal gave it a passing mention last week to Axl and I in our interview. But alas, the drums on the forthcoming Illud Divinum Insanus are the domain of Tim Yeung and his excellent hair, though we can be reasonably certain of Sandoval’s involvement in some measure. Whatever, cuz Morbid’s radness is evident in Amazon’s clip of new jam “Nevermore” regardless of the absence of their ace skinsman. The shit JAMS — all 30 seconds of it. Now, the clip listed as the Combichrist remix of “Destructos Vs. The Earth” on the other hand …

–ADF

Morbid Angel’s Illud Divinum Insanus comes out June 7 on Season of Mist. Fuck yes.

Thanks to tipster Ashley Lee!

Hard to believe that there hasn’t been a new Morbid Angel album during the history of MetalSucks, but we’re finally getting one this summer. It’s called Illud Divinum Insanus, which, according to this dorky Latin message board (you really can find anything on the internet), a) means “that divine, insane thing,” and b) is poorly conjugated (apparently it should be insanum, not insanus). And I know that there are people who are bummed that Pete Sandoval doesn’t play on the album (the always-excellent Tim Yeung, finally freed from the constraints of Divine Heresy, has stepped in for Sandoval, who is still recovering from back surgery), but this the first album to feature David Vincent since Domination, so, y’know, ya take the good ya take the bad ya take ‘em both and there have the new Morbid Angel album.

ANYWAY, here’s the album artwork. I have almost no idea what the crap is going on, but I’m digging it anyway.

And here’s the art for the first single, “Nevermore,” which I actually think is even cooler than the album art. I guess “hands” are going to be a big theme here…

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Last month, I got the following e-mail from reader Ceth Carter, regarding the fact that Tim Yeung is currently operating as the drummer for Morbid Angel while Pete Sandoval recovers from surgery:

“Do you think its possible to have a real Morbid Angel album without Sandoval? I know David Vincent and Steve Tucker have been back and forth and it has worked in both cases and even Erik Rutan has been in and out but I can’t imagine a Morbid Angel record without Trey Azagtoth or Pete. Tim Yeung is as amazing as they come on drums but it doesn’t sound right. Any insight on this?????”

Well, Ceth, I know how Sergeant D. feels about Sandoval, but, no, I do not have any insight on this. However, I do have the below video of Yeung playing a new Morbid Angel song at a drum clinic recently. So maybe you could watch it and see what you think? It sounds pretty promising to these old ears, but I think you have a lot more invested in this emotionally than I do.

Soooo… what do we think?

-AR

[via Metal Injection]

I interviewed Joe Payne once, and as far as I could tell from our brief time together, he’s a nice guy, so I feel bad making fun of him.

But I’m gonna do it anyway.

The former Nile bassist has spent the past three-odd years in Dino Cazares’ Divine Heresy, a band I assume we will never hear from again. I know there was never an official break-up announcement, and for all I know, the other members of the band do not believe DH to be dead. But let’s be real here — with all due respect to Tim Yeung and company, Dino IS Divine Heresy, he’s the reason anyone ever paid attention to Divine Heresy, and without him, there is no Divine Heresy.

And right now, Dino is preoccupied with Fear Factory. And I don’t foresee him not being preoccupied with Fear Factory for some time to come. So even if Divine Heresy ever do return, it most likely will not be anytime soon. Especially since Divine Heresy aren’t even listed on Century Media’s artist page right now (the band released both of their albums through that label), which is probably not a good sign of new music to come.

And this fact makes the statement Payne released to Blabbermouth last night baffling:

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Gene Hoglan: The Atomic Clock. What he can do to an otherwise ordinary or bland riff is beyond explanation. He is an ARTIST first, world’s greatest metal drummer second. Plus… confidence and a circular groove. How many times while writing with a drummer have you heard them say “There should be no drums there, it’s what the song wants”… Never?

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I was never a big Fear Factory person so someone please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but did anyone ever really care about any of the members of that band who weren’t Burton C. Bell or Dino Cazares?

I ask because after about a year of speculation that the original Factory would be reuniting, it’s been announced that, yes, Bell and Cazares will now be working together again – but as a new band with a different, still to be determined name.

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