Drummer TIM YEUNG Talks About New MORBID ANGEL Album

Sick Drummer Magazine recently conducted an interview with acclaimed extreme metal drummer Tim Yeung (DIVINE HERESY, ALL THAT REMAINS, NILE, HATE ETERNAL, VITAL REMAINS),who is filling in for Pedro "Pete" Sandoval for MORBID ANGEL's upcoming album and tour. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Sick Drummer Magazine: Do you know exactly what the situation with Pete is? Is it looking to be short term or something that will have an effect on him from here forward?

Tim: He is having issues with a couple discs in his back and had to have surgery. He had the surgery and I was told it was going to take him 8-12 months to fully recover and heal, to where he can play comfortably again. I mean, he can play a little bit, but nothing extended or over 30 minutes or so. Man, I really do wish him a full recovery, you know! It sucks... but for now, I'm going to take over the duties and fill in for him, which again is a huge honor for me.

Sick Drummer Magazine: I know a lot of the MORBID fans are, of course, die-hard fans and there's nothing wrong with you coming in and doing your thing, but here's one that will surely be on people's minds. Was the album written and the injury stopped the progress, or are you writing with them? People are going to ask, why didn't they wait for him after so long since their last album.

Tim: I was actually wondering the same thing! I guess in their situation they have taken like eight years off and they really need to get an album out. They were planning on doing the album around this time with Pete, but with him being injured and them needing to get the ball rolling on the new record, they decided to stay on track with the scheduling they had in place. It's unfortunate timing, but there's also the new label and touring to consider. They were trying to work with Pete on the new material, but he was in a lot of pain and it was just not a good idea. So with the intention of staying on track with the record and making sure Pete got better, they decided to move forward and get the album done however they could.

Sick Drummer Magazine: You just got home from a month with the band in Florida. How much time was spent practicing, writing, hanging out? What was it like?

Tim: It's been really great! The first time I went out was last October, right before a DIVINE HERESY tour that was starting out in Tampa, Florida. So I flew out there and we hung out, got a vibe for it all, talked a lot, jammed and everything felt really good. I know their entire catalog of music, so we picked a few songs and just went at it. The talks were good, the jamming was good and it turns out we all have a lot in common, with music, cars and racing, etc. I just spent the month of March down there and we would sometimes end up hanging out and talking for an hour before we even played anything. So all in all it was a great experience and I'm glad everyone is so cool. It's tough sometimes working in an environment where not everyone gets along, so no need to worry about that in this situation.

Sick Drummer Magazine: What can we expect to hear on this record? Will it be all "Pete"-sounding tracks or will it be MORBID ANGEL with Tim Yeung on drums... what are we going to hear?

Tim: With MORBID ANGEL being somewhat notorious for putting out different-sounding records, this record will again be unique. With Trey's [Azagthoth, guitar] writing and everything, there are actually some electronic songs, for those who don't know there will be a good handful of electronic tracks. They are still dark, still aggressive and there are some other songs with blast beats as well. There are songs they wrote with Pete that I really want to keep the vibe on too. Pete being one of my main metal drumming influences, it's going to have that vibe regardless. As far as me sounding just like Pete Sandoval though, that's obviously really hard to do. I will try to keep similar fills that Pete would do, but adding to that my own flavor, which has been encouraged. I really want to end up with a happy medium, 'cause it's important for me, too, as a huge fan of the band. I mean, everybody has their own sound and approach to drumming that creates their signature sound, so it won't sound just like Pete, but it's still very fast and aggressive, and it will kick lots of ass.

Read the entire interview from Sick Drummer Magazine.