MORBID ANGEL — Illud Divinum Insanus (review)

MORBID ANGEL — Illud Divinum Insanus album cover

Album · 2011 · Death Metal

1.5/5 · 2011-06-06
J-Man

Illud Divinum Insanus had the potential to be the comeback of the century. With the return of legendary frontman David Vincent, a brand new signing with prestigious metal label Season of Mist, and plenty of promising press releases, it would seem that Morbid Angel had another death metal classic up their sleeves. I guess I wasn't expecting this. Although I can appreciate the band's desire to be more "experimental" and innovative, Illud Divinum Insanus is honestly a mess. The only positive accolade I can tag on this album is its unique sound; other than that, this is one of the biggest disappointments in extreme metal history. Over the band's long career, I've come to expect high quality releases from Morbid Angel - and this one misses the bar by numerous country miles.

Aside from the fact that the album says "Morbid Angel" on the cover, this hardly sounds like them. They've lost the bite that characterized their classic albums in favor of a polished, semi-melodic, goth-rock, and techno-oriented (yes, you read that right) sound. It's nice to see that Morbid Angel is still pushing the envelope in 2011... but it just doesn't work at all. Songs like the inaptly titled "Too Extreme!", the laughably awful "Destructos Vs. the Earth/Attack", the goth/techno-oriented "Radikult", and the video game-y "Profundis - Mea Culpa" are the worst material Morbid Angel has ever created. There are a few solid death metal cuts ("Blades of Baal" and "Nevermore"), but they still aren't enough to reconcile for the disastrous remainder of the album. At its best, Illud Divinum Insanus is sub-par, and at its worst, I'd consider it unlistenable. Keeping a finger close to the skip button is highly recommended.

The musicianship is clearly professional, but it lacks the bite that made Morbid Angel so great when they first hit the scene in the 1980's. The drumming is often triggered and downright irritating, the vocals are monotonous and lack power, and only a few guitar solos from Azagthoth are noteworthy... quite surprising considering that every solo on Covenant could be considered legendary. Production-wise, the album isn't much better. The awful techno vibe pollutes the sound with an overproduced, polished atmosphere that makes the album even less listenable.

There's really not much more to say about Illud Divinum Insanus. It looks like St. Anger has finally found an equally terrible counterpart to be used as a coaster. This certainly isn't the comeback anybody was expecting... much less hoping for. Morbid Angel has cooked up a disappointment here, and (as much as it pains me to do this to one of my favorite death metal bands) the most I can give is 1.5 stars. This is quite possibly the biggest disappointment in the last decade of heavy metal - Morbid Angel will need to create a really spectacular album next time around if they want to make up for this disaster. And I almost forgot... if you pre-ordered the $200 wooden box set, prepare to feel a bit of buyer's remorse.

more than 2 years ago
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UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

LOL

Time Signature wrote:

more than 2 years ago

There goes that theory....

J-Man wrote:

more than 2 years ago

It may be worth noting that I'm 15. :-P

Time Signature wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I rarely read Metal Hammer - I guess I am out of their target group range, as they aim at people a great deal younger than me (I always tend to find a lot of stuff they write in the mag kind of silly). But, hey, teens like stuff like cop killing and radical hardcore living, so maybe the new MA is very teen friendly..... who knows?

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

"'if they give it a 9/10, then cancel my subscription!' hahaha"

Latest Metal Hammer came in today. Verdict on Illud Divinum Insanus: 9/10

The Angry Scotsman wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Before this album came out a magazine I saw said it would be their most "Controversial" album ever. I thought maybe it would be horrifyingly disturbing, gorey, anti religious, something. Guess it really was because it sucks so bad lol Im not a big MA fan (or of much death metal) but at least their old stuff was classic. This sounds like it may be horrid :(

Stephen wrote:

more than 2 years ago

'if they give it a 9/10, then cancel my subscription!' hahaha

J-Man wrote:

more than 2 years ago

That Hitler rant is definitely hilarious. ;-)

Stooge wrote:

more than 2 years ago

That Hitler rant was one of the funniest I've seen in a while!

The Block wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I was going to buy this to replace my promo copy, but there is no way I will after listening to it a couple times.

J-Man wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I'm a fairly big fan of The Project Hate, and I'd be pretty dissapointed if they released an album of this quality. I'm open to the new ideas MA had on this album... but the execution is really awful IMO.

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Yeah well I´ll make sure to give the album a lot of spins before writing a review.