Death metal legends, Morbid Angel released their 9th studio album, Kingdoms Disdained worldwide on December 1st 2017. Kingdoms Disdained reunites guitarist and founder Trey Azagthoth with bassist and vocalist Steve Tucker to create a world beating apocalyptic soundtrack. Most recently the band unveiled an incredibly detailed boxset version of the album which is also available now, we talk to current Morbid Angel vocalist Steve Tucker about the latest release and more.
RP: Hi Steve how’s everything in the Morbid Angel camp?
Steve: Oh man everything is going good! We are just getting ready to do some shows in support of the album in the next moth so everything in the Morbid Angel camp is just starting to fire up and we’ll be rehearsing here in the next few days.
RP: Awesome so how does it feel to be back on the team with Trey Azagthoth?
Steve: Honesty it feels oddly normal. I mean we went out and did some shows last year and I have to say that I expected it to feel a little stranger than it did, I mean by the time we did the show we’d already recorded the album and done our parts for the album so we’d spent months together hanging out writing songs and so by the time we started doing shows it seemed normal like we never stopped doing it.
RP: Cool so the time that you were away did you remove yourself from music?
Steve: No man I did a bunch of things that at the time I just couldn’t tour or anything. I had things going on that just took me home but I did projects, I did some stuff over a period of two or three years for example the “Nader Sadek'” project it took a couple of years to develop into what we wanted to do. It was petty interesting working with a visual artist and creating music and seeing them create film to go along with it, it was a pretty fun process man. Then I had a band for a little while called War Father, I did a couple of albums with that and that was fun. It’s death metal man, for the first album I was going for something over the top, for the second one I did a little more in your face death metal, just really honestly I got to play with a bunch of people that were my friends over a period of about eight years or so, it was a fun time man!
RP: Sure so can you tell us a little bit more about the new box set and who came up with the idea to put something like this together? I’ve had a look and it looks pretty amazing.
Steve: Man they sent me one and it pretty much blew my mind! I’ve never really purchased a box set that was of this quality, everything I’ve ever got as a box set was much cheaper then what the labels put together for me, it’s absolutely amazing. I don’t know who’s idea it was to do this box the way we did it, I know the artist we worked with on this album Ken Coleman, it was his idea to wrap the entire thing as one image. When you pull the top off you see the same image, the negative and then the book that’s on the inside. I mean it’s a solid spine, it’s a really nice box set. The pin that comes with it is really nice, the felt that you lay the vinyl on is very nice, everything about it is spectacular, it honestly blew my mind. I have to say we are on this label now called Silver Lining and every album I’ve done in the past I’ve walked away with, I wish this was a little better or that was a little better but not this album man. Everything these guys make is of the highest quality, I mean they care more then anyone we’ve ever dealt with and I appreciate it. I mean dude, I don’t want to sell junk to fans, what you receive with this label is top class.
RP: Sure if your going to put something out, put it out at the top end?
Steve: Man if you’re going to do it, do it right, exactly.
RP: Sure so “Kingdoms Disdained”, what would be your favourite track or is that difficult to call at this time?
Steve: At this point in time only because we are working on a video for it, the track “Garden Of Disdain” is my favorite track from the album. I just think it’s a nasty, creepy crawly song and like I said we are doing a video for it and the video is dark and disturbing, I think it’s a great song. At every single point almost every song has been my favourite on this album, it really just depends on what kind of mood I’m in. I remember when we had finished tracking and we sat and listened to it all in a row I remember thinking that’s an emotional rollercoaster, that’s insane! There’s a lot of diversity on the album.
RP; My favourite track would have to be “Paradigms Warped”, for some reason it took me back and it has a really gnarly groove and it just carries.
Steve: You know that’s a weired song, it has some really complex shit on there that most people wouldn’t realise was there. I mean some really disharmonic harmonies, one string is bent, the other is not just causing some really alarming sounds. It puts me in that vibe of everyone jamming in a garage for the first time and everyone is kind of in tune but they’re not, it’s kind of bad ass. That’s the vibe we got from that song but it’s intended to be slightly off the whole idea of being warped you know?
RP: Awesome so can the Morbid Angel fans of Australia expect to see you at some point?
Steve: Man I hope we can get there at some point. I’ve never stepped on the continent so I really want to go to Australia, it’s really the one place I want to go to that. I’ve never gotten to go, everybody has told me it looks like it could be possible to go to not only Australia but that entire part of the world.
RP: Awesome well you guys are always welcome to come down!
Steve: Cheers!
RP: So if you could be remembered for one song what would it be and why?
Steve: Oh man I’m really not sure. I’d probably have to say if it were only one song it would be
“Summoning Redemption” or “Ageless Still I Am”, one of those two songs. Lyrically that would be what I’d want to be remembered by.
RP: Do they stand out as personal favourites?
Steve: It’s not even that, if someone could only have one song I’d want it to be a monster. I’d want it to represent me as something large and monstrous so it would be “Ageless Still I Am” or “Summoning Redemption”.
RP: Cool! One last question, are there any bands currently that are making you sit up and take notice?
Steve: Actually I think the most amazing thing out there is a band from Australia called Portal. I think those guys are doing things that are horrific, the songs, the sound, the structure, it’s gnarly dude. I’ve never heard anything like it, Portal don’t think like anyone else and I think it’s fucking amazing!
RP: Thanks for your time today Steve!
Steve Cheers man!
