Morbid Angel

Although Venom, Mercyful Fate, and Slayer laid the groundwork for death metal during the first half of the 1980s, the style reached its most extreme musical and lyrical expression only when followers such as Morbid Angel emerged toward the decade’s end. The Florida-based band, founded in 1983, joined Death in launching a statewide death-metal surge that soon featured Deicide, Obituary, and numerous additional acts.

Guitarist and principal songwriter Trey Azagthoth has remained the group’s guiding force since its formation, consistently steering Morbid Angel away from prevailing trends. Early albums such as 1989’s Altars of Madness and 1991’s Blessed Are the Sick—the latter widely viewed as a landmark death-metal recording—were made by the lineup of Azagthoth, vocalist/bassist David Vincent, guitarist Richard Brunelle, and drummer Pete Sandoval. Brunelle’s departure brought Erik Rutan into the fold, establishing the longest-running configuration, which produced the 1991 release Abominations of Desolation, 1993’s Covenant, 1995’s Domination, and the 1996 live album Entangled in Chaos before Vincent exited and Steve Tucker took his place.

The Tucker edition yielded two further studio albums—1997’s Formulas Fatal to the Flesh and 2000’s Gateways to Annihilation—after which former Hate Eternal vocalist/bassist Jared Anderson joined. In summer 2001 the band shared U.S. arena bills with Pantera and Slayer on the Extreme Steel Tour. Tucker returned briefly to record the seventh studio album, Heretic, then left once more, allowing Vincent to resume his role. Multiple personnel shifts followed while the group continued to perform live, yet no new material appeared until 2011, when Illud Divinum Insanus surfaced on the independent French label Season of Mist; it remains the sole post-2004 album to feature Vincent.

Vincent’s second departure was announced in 2015, prompting Tucker’s return. Plans for a 2017 tour collapsed over passport complications, leading the band to postpone the dates until 2018 and, in the interim, issue its ninth studio album, Kingdoms Disdained, in December 2017.