Morbid Angel’s Steve Tucker Swears Up and Down that the New Album Will be Death Metal

To say that Morbid Angel had a bit of a misstep with 2011s Illud Divinum Insanus would be an understatement. With some critics going so far as to compare it to Metallica’s St. Anger, I think it’s fair to have a bit of skepticism when it comes the band’s approach to a new release, especially considering the lineup changes they’ve gone through recently.

All that being said, I firmly believe everyone deserves another chance, so let’s see what they’re capable of this time around before we start rushing to any conclusions.

Here’s what we do know so far:

• They’re currently working on the album at Mana Studios with producer, and former guitarist, Erik Rutan.
• They’re aiming for a fall release.
• This will be their first album with new drummer Scott Fuller (Annihilated) who joined after Tim Yeung left.
• It’ll feature the first appearance from bassist/vocalist Steve Tucker since 2003’s Heretic.
• Dan Vadim Von is the band’s new second guitarist, replacing Thor Anders Myhren (Destructhor) after his departure over a year ago.

Now for the new stuff: Tucker did an interview recently with Metal Messiah Radio. In it, he talked about how they found Scott Fuller, the direction of the new album, lyrical content, the songwriting process, the album art, and whether or not any of their new material will make an appearance during their upcoming North American tour. Bear with me, folks, there’s a lot here.

On finding Scott Fuller:

“Well, first and foremost, it’s Mobid Angel, so you’ve gotta be able to play the stuff. Without a doubt, anybody… If they can’t play the stuff, it’s not an option. So we had to look at the people that were out there that, first of all, had the ability. Second of all, people that were available. We don’t wanna steal a drummer from another band or anything like that. We wanna move forward, [but] we don’t wanna cause an issue for someone else. So, really, we just started to take video… People were sending video samples of ’em playing songs, demos of ’em playing songs. There was a lot of people sending us things. We talked to at least — I don’t know — ten, twelve different people. And then, I guess, in the end, it really came down to… A lot of people all had the ability to do it, and it was just who really was playing the songs closest to what they were meant to be. Morbid Angel has a history of having phenomenal drummers. I mean, Pete Sandoval is the king; there’s no questioning it. Anyone that questions that is kidding themselves. And Tim’s no slouch either. Morbid Angel has had very good drummers, so it needed to be somebody that was able to do the things that were already done as well as the new things. So Scott, eventually, after weeding through people, ended up being the guy that was at the top of the heap, and when he came and he played, it sounded like Morbid Angel. He was able to sound like Morbid Angel and that’s really what was needed. So really, honestly, he got [the gig] by just being the guy that was the most naturally like what we were trying to find.”

On the songwriting process for the new record:

“With the Internet, it’s so easy now to be able to send files to each other, and everyone has some sort of platform that they use to do home demos and things on, so it was pretty easy to send tapes back and forth to each other. We’d send riffs to Scott, for Scott to play ’em, and he’d send ’em back to us, and I would work on my parts. And everyone just sort of individually was working on their parts until it was time for us to get together to start rehearsing for the album. And then we did that — we rehearsed for six weeks — and then we went into the recording process.”

On the direction for the new album:

“Not really. I mean, honestly, when we went into it, it was really Trey and I talking more than anything else. It was really just about writing music — it was just about writing a Morbid Angel album. Nobody said, ‘Hey, we wanna go in this direction,’ nobody said anything. I mean, there’s obvious things there. I’ve said it before — I’m a death metal guy, so, for me, it’s gonna be a death metal album; if I’m on it, it’s death metal. So it was just about making a Morbid Angel album. It was really about coming in with something new, something fresh, but yet it still being Morbid Angel. Really, honestly, we didn’t approach this any differently than any of the other albums I was involved in except for maybe Formulas Fatal To The Flesh, which Formulas, Trey wrote all the music, all the lyrics and things like that. But this was done more similar to maybe Gateways To Annihilation, where everybody had their contribution. Trey wrote a bunch of songs, I wrote songs, Scotty contributed some ideas. There was a lot of back-and-forth. In the end, it has to become a Morbid Angel song. And at this point, I feel that it’s very much a Morbid Angel album.”

Regarding the new album’s lyrics:

“I’m writing all the lyrics. As far as lyrical content, I’d like to leave that until it comes out. We definitely had a lot of discussions and it definitely pertains to the title of the album. There is a general idea on the album that is being put across, and I’d kind of like to just leave it until the album comes out.”

On album title and artwork:

“We definitely have the title of the album and stuff. As far as artwork, no. Right now that’s in the process of happening. We had discussions who we would like to work with and what were we looking for and what weren’t we looking for. And I think we came to a pretty good decision on that, and we’ll see how it happens. We’re hoping that a guy that’s worked with us before is gonna come up with something pretty handy for us.”

On whether or not fans can look forward to hearing their new material during the upcoming tour:

“Yeah, I think we’ll be playing a couple of songs, most definitely. The album won’t be out until after the tour, so we won’t be playing all the songs by any means, but we’re definitely gonna play a couple of the new songs.”

That’s a lot read, so if you’d prefer listening to the interview you can find it embedded below.

[via Blabbermouth]