Azagthoth with his B.C. Rich “InstaGIB” Ironbird Would you rather die in bed or in a nuclear holocaust?” asks Morbid Angel guitarist and primary songwriter Trey Azagthoth in...
Azagthoth with his B.C. Rich “InstaGIB” Ironbird
Would you rather die in bed or in a nuclear holocaust?” asks Morbid Angel guitarist and primary songwriter Trey Azagthoth in the middle of an interview about the band’s new album, Kingdoms Disdained. It’s just one of many odd and abrupt comments or utterances he makes during the conversation.
“I’d rather be like those people in the movie Deep Impact that stand on a beach waiting to be blown away by the tidal forces,” he continues. “Not one of the snivelers who commits suicide or tries to hide from all the fantastic events and amazing things coming for everyone to experience. It’s a good death.”
The analogy is cryptic, for sure. It also makes a certain amount of sense—especially for Azagthoth, whose enigmatic explanations sometimes defy logic. Not this one. Kingdoms Disdained is a furious, apocalyptic, go-for-broke record on which Morbid Angel’s co-founder prioritized speed and skewed technical rhythms over electronics or atmospherics. It’s the kind of all-in release that conjures images of Tibetan monks igniting their fuel-soaked robes or cult followers gulping the Kool-Aid in their final act of pure devotion.
Old-school Morbid Angel fans would accept no less than that kind of commitment after the mid-paced, industrial-tinged and largely disappointing 2011 album Illud Divinum Insanus. After all, this is one of the main bands that put Florida death metal on the map in the mid Eighties. For Kingdoms Disdained, Azagthoth relied on instinct, writing quickly and recording over several months, as opposed to the five years it took to create the band’s last album.
He said goodbye to longtime front-man David Vincent and reunited with ex-Morbid Angel vocalist and bassist Steve Tucker, who has been in out of the band twice