MORBID ANGEL — Illud Divinum Insanus (review)

MORBID ANGEL — Illud Divinum Insanus album cover

Album · 2011 · Death Metal

1.5/5 · 2011-06-13
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Illud Divinum Insanus is the eight full-length album from acclaimed Death Metal band Morbid Angel. Released in 2011, the album marks their first output since 2003’s Heretic and the first to feature David Vincent among the band’s ranks since the 1995 album Domination. Is the band back with a bang? Well kind of, just not in the traditional sense of the phrase; more like the album has caused a storm and the bang in question is the sound of the accompanying thunder, because it’s just impossible to ignore the literally huge backlash that Illud Divinum Insanus has already received from many reviews written prior to this one.

The main problem here is that although there is much about the album that is Death Metal, there are several tracks on the release that are layered with Industrial tones that sound several worlds away from what fans of Morbid Angel are used, particularly in the tracks Too Extreme!, Destructos Vs. the Earth/Attack and Radikult. The inclusion of tracks such as this must be so unexpected to anyone who has listened to albums such as Blessed Are The Sick, or Gateways to Annihilation that they’ll be left, at best, scratching their heads in puzzlement, or at worst, turning into a raving jackal and writing obscenities on YouTube, to notice that as part of the whole package, it seems to me that there is more Death Metal here than anything else, such as the tracks Blades for Baal and Nevermore, although some of those Death Metal orientated tracks lack the sort of intensity that I expect to hear from the genre, such as in I Am Morbid and 10 More Dead.

As it is, Industrial cuts aside, Illud Divinum Insanus isn’t actually the outright monstrosity that the uproar surrounding it would have you believe. Sure, it doesn’t really sound like an album I’d expect Morbid Angel or a band like them to produce, but it’s not outright terrible in itself. Take the Morbid Angel name off this and I bet it would get a fairer hearing. Though I do admit, with the band flitting between Death Metal orientated tracks and Industrial ones when listening to the album in one hit it sounds like you’re playing random tracks from two different records by two different bands. Varity is all well and good, but this is just too extreme. That pun wasn’t intended by the way, but it gets me thinking that maybe they included a song called Too Extreme! to warn of this very thing.

This said, my overall experience of Illud Divinum Insanus isn’t overwhelming positive either, although I certainly found it more listenable than I expected it to be. The best for me amongst the bunch is Blades for Baal, which I actually found to be a pretty strong Death Metal track. Beauty Meets Beast isn’t too bad either, making up the best of the rest, but the general reason why I can’t be more positive is that some of the other Death Metal parts of the album come across as generally uninspired and downright boring. I’m open-minded to bands experimenting and changing direction as well, but the inclusion of Industrial stuff does not work for Morbid Angel. Respect to them for trying something different, but seriously, Destructos Vs. the Earth/Attack is completely silly, and Too Extreme! is a strong contender for the worst song I’ve heard this year.

Bad tracks aside, there is also the downright pointless aspects of the album to consider. The first track, Omni Potens, is the clearest example of this. The synth ideas here are nice enough, if they were cut down some into an intro track, and at two and a half minutes this stands as a bit long for an intro. This is also coming from someone who generally hates intro tracks, but what can I say, I’m trying to give the piece a fair go. But yeah, this track wouldn’t be missed if it had been left off the final product. It’s completely genius though when put up against the disgrace that follows it, which is aforementioned Too Extreme! Too Extreme! is made even worse by the fact that it goes on for over six minutes. Actually all of the longer tracks on the album (Destructos Vs. the Earth/Attack, Radikult) could use some serious trimming down; zero seconds each sounds appropriate.

As a whole, because of the inclusion of some really pointless and terrible stuff, Illud Divinum Insanus falls short of even the mid-range of mediocrity. It has its moments but ultimately this is going to stand as a major disappointment to Morbid Angel’s established fans. Those who enjoy Industrial Metal may take some more enjoyment out of it than most, but overall I really can’t recommend this one. Usually if I scored an album at around this score I would dub it as fans only, but such doesn’t really apply here. It is worth this score based on what merits it has, but I guess that’s going to be small consolation in the long run.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven, scoring 3.9/10)