That's it. And unmemorable.

Halfway through my second listen but nothing sticks.

I'd probably still like this even if it was only 'safe' if the songs were better - but on first listen they were just dull and repetitive.

Yeah I'm fucking rocking out hard to this too. Their best since Gateways, every fucking song is a monster. Impossible to pick a favorite right now. Definitely one of my top 10 this year.

I'm sad that my pre-order isn't here yet. Hail Satan anyway though.

Anyone besides me think the album title is stupid? I don't think anyone would actually use that phrase in a sentence. At best it's awkward.

You're in the majority actually, at least here. I gave it another listen last night, album is a grower for sure and now I'm rating it a 3.75 out of 5 skulls. I think a couple of things: people are rating or judging this album pretty quick. I think in a years time, the reviews will be more favorable. Also, people are assuming TREY wanted to go the path of bad industrial/ EBM death last album. I'm fairly certain that was David's idea and Trey just went along for the ride because that's his personality? Just another POV. Lastly, where was all this hate for Heretic? A MUCH worse album than Kingdoms to be sure. In fact, I like the new album even more than Gateways.

I don't think it's a bad title but it's definitely the type of title that you wouldn't expect a native English speaker to come up with.

Well, the moral of this album release is 'be careful what you wish for.' We've got a total meat and potato death metal album from Morbid Angel who since the beginning have been writing albums that have been different to the previous ones and experimenting, trying new things with the genre.

If you take away Too Extreme, I Am Morbid and Radikult from the last album, it is way better than this one in my opinion! The other songs on the album were better written and a lot more memorable and catchy. The production on that album was razor sharp too which gave the songs more life and an in your face sound instead of the muddy, muffled sound on this one. Kingdoms Disdained is not a bad album but not great either, I miss Morbid Angel doing something different like they have always have done. Don't forget, Domination was a pretty big departure at the time but has become a classic since. Apart from the aforementioned 3 songs from the last album the other songs would have fit well on Domination or even Covenant with the likes of Blades of Baal and Existo Vulgore.

I really like "KD". This is how MA could have proceeded after album "G". Evokes cozy, nostalgic warmth in this old deather´s heart. Feels heavy, dark and oppressing. Morbid Angel, you have now stepped out of the baneful shade that "IDI" had cast on you. Welcome back, seniors.

After listening to this about 20+ times I can definitely say this is one of my favorite Morbid Angel albums. It has almost everything I like from the band. I'd put it firmly between F and G in terms of general quality, my opinion of course. I absolutely love the straightforward, no frills tracks on here. Killer riffs all around. Morbid Angel is back and I can't wait to see what they do next!

I'm generally surprised how mixed the opinion of this album is. Like, if you don't like this, how can you like any of the previous Morbid Angel albums? A little bewildering, but whatever. I think opinions will become more favorable over time.

Trey has credits on all of the garbage songs except I Am Morbid and Radikult, and he was pretty open about being influenced by hardcore techno while writing it, while Vincent's tastes were still pretty clearly more in line with Genitorturers. They both let their respective bad ideas go unchecked.

As for Heretic, it has plenty of great songs. The problem is the production and all the filler.

I don't see how this album is "safe" or "streamlined" at all. To me it sounds very creative and original, from a songwriting perspective. I agree with Unorthodox, I think a lot of the naysayers will warm up to this album, over time...

I find the original A/B/C trilogy to have infinitely more imaginative songwriting - sharper, more inventive, more groundbreaking. That's how.

All that this album has done for me is make me want to turn it off. It's awful. The riffs are dull and repetative and the guitars have no balls at all. I get some of the way through it and turn it off so I can listen to the new Cannibal Corpse...which is way better than this steaming pile.

It isn't, anyone saying this clearly isn't putting much effort into their listening. There isn't a boring or "safe" moment on this record, the whole thing swings dick.

Safe? Not really, it's only called safe because it doesn't sound like Illud. But I could definitely see why one would could call it streamlined, it does sound in line with their previous stuff with very few "out there" moments. But with putting effort into listening, you are right, I found the new album to be very subtle in terms of songwriting, and there are many interesting bits, but they don't run you over, you kinda have to look for them. After one listen, for example, I could recall any solo, but there are quite a few good ones.

I think this album is full of interesting riffs. Certainly compared to the bulk of bands in the prevailing DM trends, and that coming from someone who was never a diehard fan of MA's riffage.
I liked it at first and it's only getting better for me the more attention I give it.

Realization: most of the positive comments about this album could be applied to any Nunslaughter album!

I do too.


After first listens (way less than 20), no way.


I must give it more listens.

a little disappointed - like an album full of fillers - nothing bad but great either

Sounds like the fans got what they wanted. This is shaping up to be their "Redeemer of Souls".

Trey's got plenty of great riffs here, but Tucker and Fuller sold me on the album. Tucker's vocal performance is utterly fantastic, and Fuller does a great job at remaining faithful to the Morbid Angel canon while still having his own flair.

MA can't win man, they just can't win..

I, for one, could never be bothered to get hold of Blessed... due to these very reasons.

I'm listening to Kingdoms Disdained this morning again. Something about this album has got its hooks in me and hasn't let go. The battering ram approach to this album is something else; I'm usually looking for lots of weird, otherworldly passages and odd sounding riffs interspersed with their old-school approach to death metal song writing. Instead what I hear this time around is a more focused and concise effort--others might say safe or pedestrian--but to me there is a lot to like and there is a great deal of subtlety to the song craft here. You won't be blown away by any mind blowing brand new approach to music but I think experiencing this album as a whole and truly being open to what it offers will be a pleasant experience if you're a Morbid Angel fan. I hear echoes of Formulas and Gateways both on Kingdoms Disdained; probably more of the latter than the former but they are there. Trey is going more for a sledgehammer approach than that of a slithering serpent, which might be unusual to hear but I maintain that he has had these kind of riffs since Covenant; they were just more balanced with his typical chromatic and odd-timed riff attack.

I'm not trying to get into a debate with *anyone* over how they feel about this album, so if you disagree with any of that it's fine with me and I hope no one feels the need to try to prove themselves over my words. If anyone wants to talk about the music just to enjoy the conversation I'll be happy to oblige but I don't want a contest of wills over who is right or wrong. Kingdoms Disdained will likely get a lot more rotation from me in the next coming weeks and I'll solidify my thoughts on it even further.

Fave tracks are probably Garden of Disdain and Paradigms Warped, for now anyway. \m/

Tucker era and Vincent era to me sound kind of distinct. I'm a huge fan of AB and to a lesser extent C but the Tucker stuff is hit or miss.

They could. Trying to remember the band once were.


I gave it another one.

There won't be much more.

I think it's a pretty solid album and I don't think it's really safe and pedestrian. If you want safe Morbid Angel, look no further than the regular death metal tracks on Illud. Kingdom is obviously not their best, but it's not their worst either.

If I had to rank them all :

Covenant
Altars
Gateways
Formulas
Kingdom*
Blessed*
Domination
Heretic
Illud

*Could be switched around depending on current mood.

Well it doesn't help that two of the negative reviews on this site are from Illud apologists.

It's serviceable. Trey still has a few cool riffs to throw at us. But it's definitely doesn't strike me as amazing. It's not coming anywhere close to cracking my top 10 for the year.

Also, the drums sound awful in some parts. "D.E.A.D." in particular.

I think the album is horrendous. Riffs lack memorability, song writing lacks vision. Awkward stops for the members to count instead of transitioning back in, too many unmemorable riffs per song. Stylistically trite groove riffs and even stuff that sounds like a metalcore band would pass off as interesting when it's not. That one bonus song that sounds like an Ilud outtake.

Worst part is the drums. Mechanical in production and execution. Double bass under every fill, repetitious fills that overpower everything. Drums are jarring and headache causing throughout.

I rank their discography this way:
Covenant
Blessed
Altars
Formulas
Domination
Heretic
Ilud (for the 4 good songs alone)
Gateways (chug chug chug and 8 minutes later)
Kingdoms

Listening to this more, Kingdoms Disdained is probably going to be in my top 10 of the year. This album fucking rules and every listen just reveals more and more to me that I like about it. One of the best death metal albums to come out in 2017, period. The riffs are monstrous and catch my ear in spite of its crushing, no-nonsense approach. I think the song craft is on point here with a lot of subtle shifts and turns in the rhythm and percussive changes to help bridge transitions between sections, and the drumming is top notch which compliments the relentless guitar attack perfectly.

I'm somewhere in the middle on this album after about 3 listens in full. It's definitely not a bad album, but it didn't blow me away. The first listen I liked it, the second listen I found it dragging a bit, and the third listen I liked it again. So I think you have to be kind of in the mood for it's style, which as people have said, it's a straight-forward streamlined sledgehammer of an album, which is actually unexpected by Morbid Angel from the years 19whenevertheyformed to 2010. This is kind of the album I would have guessed though post-Illud and plus-Steve Tucker.

Definitely sounds like a blend of Formulas and Gateways, without question. That's exactly it's blend. As if they superimposed both albums overtop of each other and mixed with a blender.

They're trying to do some Portal shit on DEAD

Honestly i feel like people are being too critical. This is a killer death metal record. Exactly we all hoped for. Yes i could nit pick at everything but I am just happy that Morbid Angel are back. Lots of killer riffs. This is what i wanted last time around.

Only complaint is that there arent enough lead guitar work or guiter solos.

Yeah I'm missing those as well. The ones that are present sound really cool but it's not enough, damnit! I'm digging the stripped away sound for this album. We have their entire discography to listen to so I'm more than okay with this one being something a little different also very familiar at the same time. I do hope they bring back some more of the weirdness on their next one, though.



I don't know. I mean I obviously really enjoy the album but it's perfectly fine if others are underwhelmed or outright hate it. I think a lot of Morbid Angel albums are polarizing to at least some degree. To each their own.

In the end, I have nothing to disagree with if you just don't like what you hear. However I will say something when others bring up things that are just outright objectively false, such as the comment about "non-stop double bass drumming" and "too many start-stop transitions". Yeah, there's a generous amount of double bass, but it's *way* far from being non-stop and no, every fill does not have them. This is death metal, after all. And the other one, there's like maybe two or three of those on the whole album? They aren't even poorly done, it helps break some of the monotony and pacing of this relentless album and there are *many* other transitions aside from those. And I also completely don't get the metalcore comment, but then again I don't really listen to metalcore so I wouldn't even know. I'm not here to argue over opinions though.

got this today, and upon the first listens, I'm majorly disappointed. apart from the mixing issues (drums/guitars), this is so damn unmemorable it hurts. of coursen this is "better" than the weird moments of illud, but that's not a great achievement in itself. definitely worse than gateways.

Agree on all points. I think what happens with bands like MA (JP/IM are the best examples) is that people judge them on the classic material and the pass mark for new material is consequently set too high/judged really harshly. I've been listening to this quite a bit. Enjoyable though would be better with more solos.

Had the cd on repeat a couple days now. I should preface my comments by saying I've been a fan since 1992. I prefer David, but I respect Tucker. My impressions of this album are mixed currently. This is not your father's MA. This is over the top brutality start to finish. I live for drums but this production has them way too up front in the mix and they bury every thing else. Very similar to Hate Eternal. Erik Rutan is overrated as a producer. This album has the same muddy sound as Fury & Flames. The songs themselves are missing the finesse of years past and almost indistinguishable. Finally, my main issue is...what happened to Trey's solos? I can't believe how little he does on this album solo wise.

Great points here. The brutal aspect of some songs surprised me as well. I sat down to listen to the first few songs with low expectations, given the negative criticism I'd heard, and given that I find Heretic and Illud very off-putting. The first three songs are fine, but nothing spectacular. I was going to turn it off, when "The Righteous Voice" came on. The blistering style grabbed my attention. I ended up listening through the whole album without intending to. Oddly, the strongest songs are in the middle, from "The Righteous Voice" through "For No Master," while first few and last few songs nothing special. I'll obviously need more listens, but I think I'll come to like it even more. I definitely hear the echoes of Formulas and Gateways. One thing I like about Kingdoms is the mix of fast, aggressive pacing with slower, "doomier" (or at least mid-paced) stylings like on Formulas and Gateways.

I'm not in love with the album title, or some of the song titles ("Piles of Little Arms" is just silly), the artwork is blah, and it seems odd to me that they didn't release any singles or stir up much buzz about the album. Also a December release just seems like odd timing. I'm guessing that some people's judgment might be influenced by some of the non-musical aspects of the album, and assumptions that Morbid Angel were no longer capable of releasing decent albums because of previous gaffes.

I was similarly surprised by the release of the new Obituary album. Never much into that band, but the new album blew me away. Maybe it's all just too entirely subjective, but I've tried to listen to any new album as if I've never heard the band before, whether I love, hate, or find myself indifferent toward them. Of course, the new Mastodon does nothing for me, despite my strenuous attempts to like Mastodon because so many others tell me I should.