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Hey Uh... a Small Child Gets an Arm Ripped Off in This Morbid Angel Video

Visions of esoteric Sumerian death gods and buckets of gore accompany this track off the veteran death metallers' new album, 'Kingdoms Disdained.'
Photo courtesy of Morbid Angel

Believe it or not, in a bygone era before the advent of the lyric video, there was a time when it was actually fun to watch a music video. For metal musicians in the late 80s and into the 90s, the gold standard was to not only create a killer song, but to release an equally vicious video to accompany it with the goal of landing on MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball. A legendary band like death metal titans Morbid Angel—who surfaced in the late 80s and are veterans of the now defunct TV program—remembers what it means to tell a story through film as well as music, and that's what they've done on their new Nader Sadek-directed video for the track "Garden of Disdain."

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Morbid Angel released their ninth full-length album, Kingdoms Disdained, at the tail end of last year. The record was heralded as a much-needed homecoming to their classic death metal sound after the critical misstep of their electronic-tinged previous album, and saw iconic vocalist and bassist Steve Tucker return to the fold in Dave Vincent's stead. Much like Morbid Angel’s own rejuvenated death metal sound, the clip for “Garden of Disdain" brings a renewed thrill to the art of the music video.

“My intention is to create a visual parallel to the song; a theme which repeats, yet within the loop-lay textures are controlled twists and turns,” Nader Sadek, the video’s creator stated. “It was a bonus that I had the opportunity to use Sumerian iconography as well as obscure symbols of the pre-ancient past such as the Merkaba, a galaxy-roaming vessel."

Tucker echoed Sadek’s excitement surrounding the video, saying, “Nader does some of the most interesting and dark visual art I have ever seen. We were excited to work with him and see our musical ideas put into such amazing visuals!”

"Amazing" is certainly one way to describe Morbid Angel’s new video. Other appropriate descriptors include "visceral" and "unsettling,"as Sadek’s use of Sumerian imagery in conjunction with Morbid Angel’s lack of restraint in storytelling creates a gore-ridden narrative packed with space travel, flesh consumption, and human dismemberment. Watch “Garden of Disdain” now, if you dare.

Catch Morbid Angel on tour with Origin, Dreaming Dead, Hate Storm Annihilation
5/07/2018 Slim’s – San Francisco, CA
5/08/2018 Ace Of Spades – Sacramento, CA
5/09/2018 Regent Theatre – Los Angeles, CA
5/10/2018 The Glass House – Pomona, CA
5/11/2018 The Rebel Lounge – Phoenix, AZ
5/12/2018 Tricky Falls – El Paso, TX
5/13/2018 Historic El Rey Theater – Albuquerque, NM
5/15/2018 Come And Take It Live – Austin, TX
5/16/2018 Trees – Dallas, TX
5/17/2018 Scout Bar – Houston, TX

Cody Davis is bleeding out on Twitter.