Morbid Angel - Heretic

I just want to clarify before we begin, Morbid Angel is one of my favourite bands. EVER. From the day I heard Where the Slime Live they’ve had a special place in my heart. For those who are not metalheads, or have been living under a rock for the past two decades, Morbid Angel are a death metal band from Florida, and they are awesome. They also have a nifty gimmick of naming all their albums in alphabetical order. I had discovered them after the release of Gateways to Annihilation, and I truly believed that this band could do no wrong. Yes, the fake live CD was kinda silly, but still had a place on my shelf. So when I heard that Morbid Angel was releasing a 7^th album, titled Heretic I giggled like a little schoolgirl. And when it came out, I got it. Or rather, somebody got it for me, which should tell you how much I was raving about it.

And then I took a listen to it. And another listen to it, and then I put on Covenant to wash the foul taste of bile from my throat. It isn’t that the musicianship of the band has dropped; tracks like Drum Check prove that. It’s just that Morbid Angel have run out of ideas. Born Again has the EXACT SAME SONG as Secured Limitations off Gateways. I tried to like this album, I really did, but I failed.

So, what exactly is wrong with Heretic? The first part of the album is standard death metal fare, and the second part contains more ambient tracks than a goddamn Vangelis album. So let's talk about the first part of the album. The slowness that seemed epic on Gateways is now just plain boring. The drumming has degenerated into a double bass trigger-fest that makes me annoyed. The vocals are uninspired and fade into the general monotony. Trey Azagthoth decides that he likes rasping along, and does so at every opportunity, even when it's not appropriate. The song Enshrined by Grace is probably the best of the lot, and that sounds like some second rate Morbid Angel clone band. Actually, that's what the entire album sounds like, a tribute album to Morbid Angel. Done by brain-dead fanboys lost in their own “incredible technical skill”.

The wankery gets worse on the second part of the album. First you get Drum Check which is 3 minutes of Pete Sandoval playing the drums. (And Jesus Christ, can that man play. Which leaves you wondering why he can't do the same on the actual songs). Then you get Born Again, which as I mentioned before is Secured Limitations without the vocals. Then, just in case you feel that you haven't suffered enough, you get silent tracks interspersed with Trey Azagthoth playing "ambient" pieces. What the fuck, Morbid Angel. You were my favourite band, and then you broke it. Of course, the wankery doesn't end there. For more fun and games, one has to read the liner notes, which span approximately 3 pages, and discuss such incredible concepts as "paradigm shifts" and "religion is bad". It seems that in Heretic, Trey's ego finally ran away with him. I don't want to hear about paradigm shifts. I want to hear awesome songs about Cthulhu and killing and stuff.

So, it is with this in mind, that I pretend that Heretic didn't happen, and carry on listening to earlier albums, back when Morbid Angel had creativity and the balls to play awesome music. What terrifies me, however, is that they are releasing an album during the year, and I am giggling like a little schoolgirl.