MORBID ANGEL: Australian/New Zealand Dates Announced

Legendary death metallers MORBID ANGEL have announced their first Australian tour in 13 years. The band will also play one show in New Zealand. The dates are as follows:

May 30 - Transmission Room - Auckland, New Zealand
Jun. 01 - Billboard - Melbourne, Australia
Jun. 03 - Capitol - Perth, Australia
Jun. 05 - The Metro - Sydney, Australia
Jun. 07 - The Arena - Brisbane, Australia

Tickets go on sale on Monday, January 27.

MORBID ANGEL guitarist Trey Azagthoth recently spoke to Revolver magazine about the band's upcoming album, which will mark the Florida-based group's first release to feature vocalist/bassist David Vincent since 1995's "Domination".

"We played the new song 'Nevemore' [see video below] on the last tour and that kind of shows where our heads are at," he said. "I'd say it's like an assemblage of all sorts of stuff from the catalog and some new influences. I listen to a lot of hardcore [techno] music now — the fuckin' serious, artistic stuff, not that crap you hear at the clubs. That stuff has impact and it's really extreme. Even if there's no guitar in it or no real drums, the energy coming out of the speakers is amazing."

When asked who's going to be producing the album and what label it will be on, Azagthoth replied, "All I can say is, when it's ready, it's going to be extreme and outside the box. And, hopefully, the songs will inspire people to look deeper inside themselves for 'the stuff' and to tap that potential that we as human beings have."

Fan-filmed video footage of MORBID ANGEL' performing the new song "Nevermore" on December 21, 2008 at the Melkweg in Amsterdam, Netherlands can be viewed below (clip uploaded by "letthemetalflow").

MORBID ANGEL played its first show with new touring guitarist, ZYKLON's longtime axemeister Destructhor (a.k.a. Thor Anders Myhren),on June 22, 2008 at the Hellfest in Clisson, France.

Although MORBID ANGEL's upcoming album does not currently have a name, its title will likely begin with the letter "I", in keeping with the band's tradition of titling their albums in alphabetical order beginning with 1989's "Altars of Madness", and continuing through "Heretic".

"A lot of people around the world have come up with titles that they thought it would be," David Vincent told Norway's "Tinitus" radio show in an interview that aired in June 2008. "There is no title yet — we've not decided on it. We've not decided whether it's going to continue following the alphabet or not. So anything that you hear or read on the Internet is totally speculation by anyone."

Regarding Destructhor's addition to the band's touring lineup, Vincent said, "We had a fairly long audition process. We looked long and hard at this. We decided when we began this process that it was gonna be a unanimous decision. We had several people [apply for the job] — very good players from, really, all over the world — and we got a video from Thor — the same video that we asked from all the different players; the same two songs — and some people didn't get past the initial discussion stage, and then some people went on to the next stage and it ended up that the band unanimously felt that Thor would be the best guitarist for the band."

MORBID ANGEL's current lineup is rounded out by drummer Pete Sandoval.