I AM MORBIDthe band featuring former MORBID ANGEL members David Vincent (bass, vocals) and Pedro “Pete” Sandoval (drums), along with guitarists Richie Brown (EXMORTUS, THE ABSENCE, TRIVIUM) and Bill Hudson (NORTHTALE, DORO),will perform MORBID ANGEL‘s classic debut album, “Altars Of Madness”in its entirety at this year’s Milwaukee Metal Fest on Sunday, May 19.
The festivities will kick off with a pre-party on May 16 while the main festival will run May 17-19 at The Rave/Eagles Club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The event promises to have bigger headliners, more food, vendors, live podcasts and other surprises.
The festival returned to prominence in 2023 under the watchful eye of HATEBREED frontman and podcaster James Jasta and Sound Talent Group‘s Tim Borroras well as the team at The Rave/Eagles Club, where so many of the original festivals took place.
Fans can use code DEATH5 to save $5 on single-day tickets at therave.com/metalfest.
The daily lineup is now as follows:
Friday, May 17:
BLIND GUARDIAN
KAMELOT
SYMPHONY
DESTRUCTION
MARDUK
HAMMERFALL
METAL CHURCH
INCANTATION
ETERNAL CHAMPION
PROFANATIC
VISIGOTH
UADA
BELUSHI SPEED BALL
NIGHT DEMON
NECROFIER
HELLWITCH
SILVA
ANCIENT ENTITIES
ILLUSION OF FATE
Saturday, May 18:
MR. BUNGLE
TESTAMENT
HATEBREED
KATATONIA
DEATH TO ALL (unique set #1)
DEICIDE
POSSESSED
THE RED CHORD
SOILENT GREEN (meeting)
SKINLESS
MARTYR AD
HEATHEN
DEVOURMENT
INTERNAL BLEEDING
CENOTAPH
CLOAK
EMBRYONIC AUTOPSY
EYES OF THE LIVING
Sunday, May 19:
SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL
AVATAR
IN FLAMES
I AM MORBID (“Altars Of Madness” set)
DEATH TO ALL (unique set #2)
LACUNA COIL
PALEFACE SWISS
BLEED FROM WITHIN
EXHUMID
IT DIES TODAY
ALLUVIAL
CASKET ROBBERY
VIOGRESSION
ERRORS OF HUMANITY
AMERAKIN OVERDOSE
BEYOND THRESHOLD
In October 2022, I AM MORBID parted ways with guitarist Kelly McLauchlin (POSSESSED, DIABOLIC, UNHOLY GHOST) and replaced him with brown.
brown made his live debut with I AM MORBID at the Shout Fest in Colombia.
I AM MORBID‘s spring 2022 European tour marked the first time Sandoval and Vincent played together in 12 years.
Sandovalwho now lives his life as a born-again Christian, was forced to leave MORBID ANGEL in 2010 after undergoing surgery for a prolapsed disc.
Vincent told Invisible Oranges in a December 2013 interview that Pete had “found Jesus,” which meant that Sandoval and MORBID ANGEL were no longer “compatible.”
Sandoval you have spent the last few years recording and touring with TERRORIZERwhose latest studio album, “Caustic Attack”was released in October 2018 via The End Records.
Three years ago, Sandoval released an instagram video in which he addressed some of the most commonly asked questions regarding his time with MORBID ANGEL. He said: “I’ve been asked about who’s my favorite singer or which era is my favorite one — the era with David Vincent or with Steve Tucker. Well, I wanna tell you that I love both eras. I had fun. I had a great time working with David Vincentand I had a great time working with Steve Tucker as well. So, from ‘Altars Of Madness’ [1989] to ‘Heretic’ [2003], they’re all masterpieces for me. We worked hard [on] those albums. So I’m telling you my answer that I don’t have a favorite album, I don’t have a favorite era, I don’t have a favorite singer — I love ’em all. I had a great time in both eras with every album.”
Sandoval added: “And as far as the album released in 2011” — referring to MORBID ANGEL‘s controversial “Illud Divinum Insanus” LP — “please don’t ask me any questions about it, because I have no comments about it — no comments at all, man. I stay what I am, I did what I did, and I am so happy and grateful that I “did what I did with these guys.”
In a 2011 e-mail chat with Brazil’s Som Extreme, Sandoval was asked for his opinion of “Illud Divinum Insanus”which incorporated industrial and electronic elements into MORBID ANGEL traditional death metal sound. “No comment! I don’t play on that album,” he wrote. He was then questioned about what he thought he would have done differently on “Illud Divinum Insanus” had he played on the record. “More exreme deathgrind metal and less DJ, boring awful typical I care less industrial experimental same as everybody boring bull!” he said. “This is not what MORBID you have been all about! …Hmmmmmm, and I really care less…!”
Vincent left MORBID ANGEL in 2015. He has since been replaced by a returning Steve Tuckerwho previously handled bass and vocals on MORBID ANGEL‘s “Fatal Formulas To The Flesh”, “Gateways To Annihilation” and “Heretic” LPs.
In a May 2019 interview with Jorge Boots of the “Global Metal” radio show, which airs on the Portuguese public TV and radio broadcaster RTP, Vincent said that he had every right to perform MORBID ANGEL‘s classic songs with I AM MORBID.
“Times come and life works the way that it does,” Vincent he said. “And there are times when… It’s like a marriage — sometimes they don’t always work forever. But that doesn’t mean that the children that we’ve had together, that I don’t still love my children. Although Trey [Azagthoth, MORBID ANGEL guitarist and sole remaining original member] and I have some irreconcilable differences, that doesn’t in any way preclude me from still having the love and the passion for all of my children.”
Asked what he has to say to people who insist that he should not play MORBID ANGEL‘s early material without the other members of the group’s classic lineup, David said: “There’s examples of this very situation… I mean, when ozzy [Osbourne] left BLACK SABBATHthat didn’t stop him from playing ‘Paranoid’ every night, even though he didn’t write the song. All of the songs that I’m singing I wrote. So I don’t really understand that. But different people become attached to different things. And they have their opinion and I have mine. And I don’t really consider this kind of negativity. I don’t have it in my life.”
