Morbid Angel | ‘Illud Divinum Insanus - The Remixes’

It’s over 2 years ago now that Mr. Azagthoth posted a lengthy rant on his Myspace page, regarding the Metal scene as being “closed-minded” because he couldn’t understand why most metalheads wouldn’t enjoy hearing Jungle, Industrial and Terrorcore DJs play alongside Morbid Angel on the same bill.

Many reading may remember Digby Pearson’s attempts at convincing people that extreme electronic music had a place on the Earache label and his failed foray into that territory. Trey’s mentality mirrors Digby’s these days – If you’re into extreme Metal, then you should be into all forms of extreme music no matter what genre. It’s a black and white statement, utterly void of any sense.

It’s intriguing that Morbid Angel are determined to stick to their guns with this album, and indeed with Season of Mist behind them. It’d almost be admirable if it what was presented wasn’t so mind- boggling. Is there some kind of joke the rest of the world isn’t in on? Is Trey just trying to force a point that we should like the same stuff he does?

We all know David Vincent is willing to fall on his cartoon trident, saying things like “we do crazy stuff, ’cause we crazy” and claiming that fans that dislike the newer tracks live “aren’t extreme enough.” It’s difficult to take a man with waxed-pointed eyebrows serious enough as it is.

Trey and Evil D clearly feel that time will tell with the album, often citing ‘Blessed Are The Sick’ and how it was panned back in ‘91 by certain critics for being slower than ‘Altars of Madness’.

Fast forward from there a little to 1998 with the release of the Vincent-less ‘Formulas Fatal To The Flesh’. The album is a return to a more organic, rough and dry sound – the antithesis to the clinical and digital soundings of ‘Domination’ which Trey pans for sounding too fake and industrial, vocalising his disdain for the “mundane” lyrics Dave penned.

2011 and Dave is back, the sound is even MORE clinical and digital than ever before and Morbid Angel are scripting, “I’m morbid/Morbid and sordid.” Perhaps all that gazing at the vibrant colours of Sailor Moon marathons down through the years has finally done in Azagthoth’s judgement.

For all of the highly obvious and plentiful faults riddled throughout ‘Illud Divinum Insanus’, mostly everyone with any real objective sense would agree that there were some tracks much worse than others. Namely ‘Too Extreme’, ‘I Am Morbid’, ‘Destructos Vs. The Earth/Attack’ and the much reviled ‘Radikult’.

So let’s put this into perspective: We have twelve remixes of ‘I Am Morbid’, six remixes of ‘Too Extreme’, four remixes of ‘Destructos Vs. The Earth/Attack’ and four remixes of ‘Radikult’.

That’s a total of twenty-six remixes worth of tracks that have been largely ill-received out of a possible thirty-nine, so we’re not exactly off to the best start with the tracklisting.

The whole thing is over three hours long, spanning two discs, and includes eight downloadable bonus mp3s.

I’m honestly not sure how many of the artists involved in this project even listen to Morbid Angel, if they were assigned tracks to remix or if they chose what they wanted to do themselves. It was interesting to discover that one of the better originals, ‘Existo Vulgoré’, had been remixed a grand total of 3 times – 2 from artists that are in someway involved in metal (Xytras of Samael and Mulk).

Remixes of metal recordings in theory is fine, but a majority of these are the worst Morbid Angel have ever produced let alone the worst of ‘Illud Divinum Insanus’. Can any of the respective artists participating make anything substantial from these awful tracks?

In regards to the multitude of ‘I Am Morbid’ mixes, Laibach have another go after their decent but ultimately lazy work on MA’s ‘Sworn To The Black’ and ‘God of Emptiness’ way back. They’ve put a bit more of an effort in for this one but it’s just very subpar. Malakwa’s take is a poor Breakcore remix with distorted kicks in abundance as is typical of the genre, and somehow makes Dave Vincent’s vocals sound even more annoying.

Adrian’s, Tamtrum’s, Dead Sexy Inc’s and The Processus’ attempts will have you rocking back and forth with your head glued to your hands,. The only plus side being that the latter act highlights the hilarious atrocity of the misheard “GREAT BIG RUBBERY WORLD!” near its beginning.

DJ Ruffneck’s take will leave you utterly speechless. It’s like repeatedly smacking your head off a desk in a vain attempt to get rid of your pulsating migraine. I guarantee anyone would be feeling pretty fucking morbid if they manage to make it to the end of this one; I know I do.

There’s a silver lining however, albeit faint. Black Lung deserve props for making a genuine attempt. Their Techno mix is dynamic and they’ve been clever enough to keep most of the nonsense of the original under quarantine, but it’s still very average.

‘Too Extreme’s remixes are forgettable. Mixhell’s (Igor Cavalera and wife’s project) interpretation is plodding at best while Metallyzer’s and Miss Construction’s unsurprisingly banal. Synapscape and Brain Lesiure’s are generic EBM floorfillers automatically tainted by the woeful lyrics. HIV+’s version is just an absolute mess.

‘Radikult’s are harrowing. If you thought the original was bad, just wait ’til you hear Evil Activities version. It’s a shit, bottom-of-the-barrel Gabba remix of a shit, bottom-of-the-barrel song, conjuring up images of a bunch of topless, Ibiza-nightlife loving wankers, “banging hardcore radical,” reaching for the lasers while chewing the insides of their faces. Be sure to have a WKD on hand and sunburnt skin for the full experience.

Punish Yourself Vs. Sonic Arena’s ‘Destructos’ is also somehow more embarrassing. I can imagine Evil D nodding his head back and forth to this and having a satisfying, spine-tingling moment from marching around his living room wearing a satin bedsheet as a cape.

Nachtmahr’s version is another lazy and basic floorfiller and we’re already familiar with Combichrist’s at this stage, no doubt being how Morbid Angel would’ve wanted the original to sound in the first place.

Mulk’s take on ‘Existo Vulgore’ is hilarious and oddly endearing. It manages to successfully make Morbid Angel sound like a drum machine-driven grind act, complete with pitchshifted vocals and everything. At only a minute long, it’s an insane sonic attack but not something you’ll be bothered to revisit after maybe a listen or two for novelty purposes.

For all of the bad on this release, there are some good points, but they can be likened to shuffling through dog turd and finding a quid somewhere in there. I found myself enjoying Igorrr’s quirky ‘Remixou Morbidou’ and you can tell that a lot of fun was had in its arrangement. Tim Skold of KMFDM fame also does a very good job with ‘Mea Culpa Profundis’.

The glaring problem is that out of thirty-nine tracks, I only found myself being truly appreciative of three of those in total and one of them was because “it isn’t as bad as the other stuff here.”

Now for the big question: Just who is this whole thing aimed at? People exclusively into EBM/Industrial/Gabba/Dubstep aren’t going to care about Morbid Angel any more than exclusive Metal fans are going to care about those genres. Is this designed as the groups attempt to help make their fans more aware of electronic music, or fans of electronic music more aware of the group?

In fact, the realistic demographic is so small that you’d really have to query the logic behind this release. Discerning Goths and Techno/Dubstep lovers have a wide array of their own music to listen to and discover. They’re not going to be interested in this trash, and rightly so.

I don’t think anybody in their right mind should listen to this from start to finish unless they, like me, are reviewing it. If any of you reading are going to review this for another website or magazine, I wish you all the luck in the world. Be sure to take regular breaks every 3 tracks or so and make an appointment with your GP in advance for the antidepressants you’re going to need.

Interested in electronic music? Don’t start here.

0.3 / 5 – Ricardo Angelone ::: 13/01/2011