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2011/06/21

MORBID ANGEL - Illud Divinum Insanus

When in April the first previews for IDI hit the internet rumoring „industrialized beats“ and „harsh techno sounds“ the death metal community was shocked. People started bashing MORBID ANGEL and hating the „I“-Album before they heard even a single new track- except „Nevermore“ that is, this song has been in MA's live set list for some time.

When the album was finally released the death metal community was shocked: Thousands of reviews, blogs, videos with people calling Trey Azagthoth a traitor of the Metal and David Vincent a techno whimp with eyeliner swamped the net. Everybody just felt let down by one of the (former?) greatest bands in the world. Oh yeah, us death metal fans can be more than closed-minded when it comes to new influences in our favorite kind of music.

Now, a few weeks gone you can find more and more people admitting they actually like „Illud Divinum Insanus“. Some of the reviewers are even calling this album the next musical step in death metal. After listening to IDI quite often in the last weeks I decided that for me IDI is not a great MA album, not even a good one. And to be honest it's not the musical experiments that bother me so much- okay, I was shocked when I heard „Too Extreme“ or „Profundis“ for the first time, but I got used to those. But there is too much average on this one: The lame heardthisonebefore intro „Omni Potens“, standard mid tempo death metal songs like „10 More Dead“ or „Beauty Meets Beast“, plus the two most boring songs MA have ever released: „Desthructos vs The Earth“ and „Radikult“ - please NEVER play those bastards live. A couple of good songs like the furious „Existo Vulgore“ or the catchy „I Am Morbid“ are just not enough for a band like MORBID ANGEL.

Is "Illud" really Morbid Angel's "St. Anger"? Or "Cold Lake"? History is to decide about that. As much as I tried to like „Illud Divinum Insanus“ I hope the "J"-album will be back to the roots and back to the quality of their immortal first four albums. Or maybe I should just try a little harder?