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Genuinely perplexed by this album. It varies from maddeningly catchy industrial stomp like Too Extreme! and Destructos to some decent death metal. Add a bucketload of brilliant solos, and a sense of gleeful adventure that makes for a very entertaining listen, and you have this album! This is the first album I've heard in - well, ever - that had me really unsure as to whether it was good or bad. It's hardly brilliance, but it just works as entertainment in a way that I've never come across in Death Metal before. I'm glad they went for something wacky like this rather than just releasing an album full of songs like Nevermore, because it's caught my attention and interest far better. It could easily have been Heretic part 2. What? Fuck off. That's the easy route. That's not what I listen to the underground for.

Whatever you think, this is not in the same league as St Anger or Unspoken King, this is a ballpark all of its own. People screaming betrayal have clearly not listened to the brilliance of some of those solos, and besides have no sense of humour at Morbid Angel releasing disco-death-metal songs about cults. Morbid Angel! Yes, I'm sorry that they've not released another album as good as their first few, but I'm glad that Death Metal can still surprise and delight and confuse me like this. It'll take a lot of listens before I agree with Jake's score - at the moment, I'm still convinced that there's a lot of stuff here that just doesn't work, however much fun it is to listen to - but I can certainly see his point.

Meh.. Morbid Angel should retire

I appreciate the partial backing, Zad. I deliberately avoided reading any advance opinions until after the review was submitted--hoo boy. I didn't expect it to be popular, but I didn't expect it to be thrown in the bin with St. Anger/Unspoken King et al either. The thing is, I can't stand industrial, but it only took a couple of listens for me to decide that it works when Morbid Angel does it, and I'm not quite sure what's in it that spoke to me so much more easily than to others of similar genre preferences. But anyway, I expect that my enjoyment of this one is gonna lead to my being called a faggot by many dudes over the years.

i feel a more hardcore feel to dave's vocals they lack the power they used to have but are still very comprehensible
and the album apart from having a few moments i feel the songwriting is really stale and they only have one or at best 2 decent ideas in the more "industrial" songs and the traditional death metal song don't really come of as being great

I'm rather amazed at how vicious the hatred is, this is nowhere near as bad an album as St Anger. It's certainly a wacky direction for Morbid Angel, and one that will piss off a lot of their fans - I'm the opposite to you, I love Industrial, and think Morbid Angel have done a cack-handed job with it, like they ALWAYS have done after Domination with keyboards. But you're right - something about this just works, and is infectious enough to work as entertainment. Is it actually good? I have no idea, like I said.

I should add that some of these lyrics are abysmal as advertised. "We are your new religion, no religion" is the kind of thing an awful fourteen-year-old comes up with and is REALLY proud of.

I created a profile just so I could comment on this post. I applaud you for listening to the album and reviewing it on your own terms, as opposed to the legions of death metal fans who have already made a judgement on the album before even hearing it. I have to say that I expected the worst after reading the early reviews, but it is not anywhere close to as bad as people act. The musicianship, for the most part, is top tier, as always with morbid angel, and I would go so far as to say that the album has some of Trey's coolest solos yet. Hats off to you for having the balls to express your own opinion instead of jumping on the hate bandwagon. While not perfect, especially in the lyrics of a few tunes, it is still a much better album than most critics act. I have to say kudos to morbid angel because, for better or worse, its better for any band, in my opinion, to explore and not stick with one simple stagnant sound (especially in death metal). In the end though you are right, be prepared for all the mindless death metal automatons to call you an idiot for liking the album and having an opinion of your own.

I remember Mayhem came out with the Grand Declaration of War and everyone hated it. I personally think it's a masterpiece. I haven't heard this yet, but I will give it a proper listen before I judge. Sometimes it just takes awhile to get into something. Those are usually the music you go back to over and over.

I.....I can't find the courage to listen to it....
At one time, I loved this band so much...OMG None So Vile is STILL so much better than so much Death Metal I hear today....
But now.....

Sometimes I wish bands would just stop. Or if they're going to do something 'different,' start a 'side project.'
*sigh* what are you gonna do?

This is one of those records I'll wait to hear in someone else's stereo. Honestly, I don't have a good feeling. Not even gonna go to Youtube and listen to the 'hot tracks' like I usually do after reading a review that interests me here....

None So Vile was Cryptopsy but I knew you were talking about Blessed Are the Sick

Really want to hear this. I need to listen to more MA.

i like the good rating you gave it, it definatly deserves it, most morbid fans cant except change in a band. Yeah maybe some of the lyrics aint that great, but you cant expect an album to be perfect.

I've only heard 3 songs off of it so I can't talk about it yet. I'll need to give this a proper listen at some point though.

This is mostly trash, except a few decent tracks and some good solos. 45/100.

Thanks for the appreciation! (to bloodpet as well.) Glad some others are enjoying this.

Its a piece of dogshit infinitely worse than Heretic or any of their weaker songs on any of their back catalogue. The rating should reflect the quality and thereby bea zero. Its hard to believe this came from the same band that gave the world Covenant and Altars of Madness.

Do you guys realize that, every time a metal band tries to evolve (aka change its sound), it gets nothing but reprobation, insults and accusations of "selling-out"?Doesn't that mean that most metalheads are in fact conservatists of the worst kind?
I've never been a fan a MA (Altars in quite nice, though), but since this album gets dissed by so many closed-minded idiots, I'll give it a shot.
Thanks for the heads up Jake and nice writing too.

I've never been a Morbid Angel fan either, but this isn't the album that's gonna make me one. I've got nothing against experiments (I like Endorama, I like Grand Declaration Of War, I even like Morgoth's Feel Sorry For The Fanatic to a certain extent), but this album is shit.

There is evolution (like, say, Ulver) and then there is this.

I knew the 'open-minded ones' would be the ones name-calling and whining about the 'dumb metalheads', while the dumb metalheads just gave their honest opinions.

So, here's the thing: while I'm pleasantly surprised by and very grateful for the appreciation a couple of folks are giving this review (I was sure I was gonna get flamed hard), it's really too bad that this kind of Controversial Album Event always leads to the kind of thing you're talking about. Every time this happens there's entirely too much name-calling on both sides. I do think that a large amount of the resistance to this kind of thing comes from knee-jerk conservatism or dumb ego-stroking posing, BUT it's not at all fair or cool to say that everyone who trashes this album is doing those things. I also don't think The Annoying Frenchman and the other pro-IDI voices in this thread mean to cast their aspersions that widely, but that's sometimes hard to make clear. The bottom line is that when Metaldom starts firing back and forth with "poser" and "faggot" and "sellout" and "dumb metalhead" we all kinda look like idiots. Part of the reason I spent so many words on this review (my longest yet; not quite sure why I feel so compelled to keep track of that) is because I really want to encourage taking a deep breath and cutting that shit out.