Band:	Morbid Angel
Album:	Kingdoms Disdained
Style:	Death metal
Release date:	December 2017

01. Piles Of Little Arms
02. D.E.A.D.
03. Garden Of Disdain
04. The Righteous Voice
05. Architect And Iconoclast
06. Paradigms Warped
07. The Pillars Crumbling
08. For No Master
09. Declaring New Law (Secret Hell)
10. From The Hand Of Kings
11. The Fall Of Idols

When your debut is one of the best metal records ever released, also defining an entire genre, it takes a lot of effort to live up to it through the rest of your career. Morbid Angel have not recorded a death metal album in the last 14 years; they have not recorded a great death metal album in the last 24 years. Kingdoms Disdained is a death metal record through and through. Keep reading to find out if it is great or not.

Morbid Angel's new release finds the band with only one of the members that participated in the legendary A-B-C albums. On the other hand, Trey Azagthoth is Morbid Angel and I guess not many people care much about David Vincent being replaced by Steve Tucker; after all, Vincent's glorious return to the band resulted in the abomination that was Illud Divinum Insanus. Iconic drummer, Pete Sandoval, is once again absent; behind the drum kit is Scott Fuller (Annihilated, ex-Abysmal Dawn) and he is pretty much the main reason why you should listen to Kingdoms Disdained.

The artificial-looking cover artwork, coming straight from a '90s video game and displaying an elderly, gigantic beast resurrecting from the earth's core spreading fire and destruction, is actually an apt visual description of the album's music. Kingdoms Disdained is undeniably brutal and on fire, but it also deeply lacks variety and emotion. It is an offering that comes from an old, once pioneering and massively influential band, which has resurrected only to play it as safe as possible. The music sounds dated and obsolete and the album's bland production goes hand in hand with the generic death metal featured in it.

On a more positive note - and if you manage to disregard the awful, guitar-burying and plastic mix - there are some interesting moments in Kingdoms Disdained, such as the constant tempo and riff changes in "D.E.A.D.", Tucker's bass lines in "Paradigms Warped", the magnificent lead guitar work in the outro of "The Pillars Crumbling" and the dissonant riffing over Fuller's drum orgy in "From The Hand Of Kings". The mid-tempo crushers, "Architect And Iconoclast" and "Declaring New Law (Secret Hell)", might also get you excited in their beginning, until you realise that they lack the necessary juice to keep you pumped up. This is the main problem with Kingdoms Disdained; its only steady characteristic throughout is repetitiveness, with tracks that play out without real edge. Trying to find something identifiable and memorable is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

If the purpose of this release was to clear the stain the previous album left on Morbid Angel's reputation, Kingdoms Disdained should be considered a success. At least it is a decent effort, albeit too often dull and monotonous for its own good. If it is viewed as a release of one of the trendsetting and most prominent death metal bands in the history of the genre though, I am afraid it doesn't live up to the logo on the cover. In all fairness, if said logo wasn't on the cover we probably wouldn't be discussing it at all.

"A shattered ego fallen,
Dismissed and soon forgotten,
Your name will soon be erased?"