Dead metal - A review of Morbid Angel's Kingdoms Disdained

There are bands which protect their integrity and realize their full artistic potential by broadening their horizons in spite of disappointed fans, negative critics and lukewarm sales figures. These bands might have to stand their ground to face the negative external influences but at least these band members don't have their ass stuck in their manager's butt and don't feel like vomiting when they look at themselves in the mirror in the morning. Integrity is worth more than any fame and money in the world.

Only few bands have carried the torch of this free-spirited approach throughout their careers. Many of them have tried out different things in experimental phases but decided to keep things safe in their late careers which is acceptable at that point. This is the case for many famous bands from Iron Maiden over Judas Priest to Metallica. The only band I could think of that still surprises with each new record and does what it feels is right for it would be In Flames. A German proverb says: the more danger, the more honor. It means that if you get massive negative feedback, you're doing something right because you're moving people in one way or another.

Morbid Angel have done exactly that. The band had already experimented with industrial music in the nineties but the band's last output Illud Divinum Insanus was a radical step forward to cover new ground after eight years of silence. Obviously, capitalists, critics and fans passionately despised this output but it seemed to be the right release for the band at the right time.

Six and a half years later, the previous release turns out to be only a storm in a teacup. Kingdoms Disdained is the band's mea culpa and represents a solid loss of credibility. Morbid Angel has gone through numerous line-up changes during the past few years, almost doesn't play any songs from the last record live anymore and desperately tries to go back to its technical death metal roots on this bland, repetitive and soulless output.

Kingdoms Disdained isn't particularly bad or good, it's actually worse because it's painfully average, exchangeable and predictable. Generic grunts meet senseless blast beat patterns, worn-out riffs, uninspired guitar riffs and powerless bass guitars. To suggest an illusion of diversity, overtly fast passages are occasionally interwoven with chugging mid-tempo parts. This kind of music might have been emotional, exciting and original three decades ago but today any amateurish high school death metal group comes around with more interesting ideas. Not one single songs sticks out among the eleven new tracks. In a few years, nobody will remember any of those tunes as even the band's most faithful fans will always prefer the idealized old days due to some misplaced nostalgia reminding them of the days when they still felt young, wild and free and weren't wearing suit and tie at their office from nine to five before coming home to their distant wife and spoiled children.

Grow some balls and listen to something exciting once in a while. Morbid Angel's new coaster is everything but exciting. The band should stand its ground and do what it thinks is right instead of playing charades among band members to assemble a group of exchangeable yes-men without any own artistic vision that copy their idols of yore in the case of the drummer and guitarist or themselves in the case of the two older members. Kingdoms Disdained is a headless assimilation to nostalgia. This isn't death metal but dead metal. Shame on you. This faceless release only deserves the most average rating possible.

Final rating: 50%