MORBID ANGEL Guitarist Talks About Songwriting Process For New Album

Luxi Lahtinen of Metal-Rules.com recently conducted an interview with guitarist Trey Azagthoth of Florida-based extreme metal veterans MORBID ANGEL. A couple of excerpts from the question-and-answer session follow below.

Metal-Rules.com: You have been working with the follow-up to the "Heretic" album. What kind of process has the creation of new MORBID ANGEL songs been like? Would you consider writing new MORBID ANGEL material as one kind of psychological warfare for yourself personally, in the deepest abyss of the mind when getting into this writing and composing mood?

Trey: Hmm, for me it's just an adventure, exploration. Seeking new things to inspire me and from that the riffs and parts come. Listening to different types of music and also just observing things in life. I get ideas from all sorts of things. As for when they start flowing, that's kinda random. I can certainly just play guitar and make new things, but are they really flowing and exciting?? This takes time and can be frustrating. I don't feel I'm on a clock, so it will all happen when it's to happen...

Metal-Rules.com: You have been soaking up more of hardcore styles into the sound of MORBID ANGEL during the past years. How do these styles influence you and your songwriting process in general? How much do you generally incorporate influences from other music styles into your songwriting? Is the writing of new material one kind of mental process for yourself to make everything click the best way in the songs in general that you could be happy and pleased as long until the album comes out?

Trey: Yes, I like this type of music. Even if it's not made with real drums and a guitar, it still has energy and the basic elements of music. Melodies over a beat. I listen to it as it comes out of the speakers and see where it takes me. Music, for me, is like a ride. When I'm moved by something, then I start getting ideas of something I can make. Even sometimes the music I listen to makes me see images and then from those images I see my own notes and beats for my new music. I can listen to all sorts of stuff, be inspired and then make something from that inspiration and it does not sound anything like the source.

Metal-Rules.com: We talked briefly at Tuska festival in Finland last summer right before your gig — and when I asked from you about this new MORBID ANGEL song called "Nevermore", which you also played at Tuska festival, you described the song being sort of a mix of the "Heretic" material and old school. Can also the rest of your new material be compared to the material on "Heretic", added with this vibe from old school's direction?

Trey: This new record will be new — like all the others. It will be its own flow I think. It will have bits inspired from other records we made I'm sure. People have their own way to see things, for me I really like where the music went on "Gateways" and "Heretic", the sick polyrhythms over swinging beats. I love this flow, and it's still quite unique to what other bands make as for music. But then such things are present on earlier records as well; the sick polyrhythms over swinging beats. Just in a different overall way, I guess. I will certainly use more of this with the new songs but also use straightforward, in-the-face stuff. Music, for me, is a ride; it is to take people places, and I like to make all kinds of rides with what I do.

Metal-Rules.com: What's been the hardest part for you in creating all these new MORBID ANGEL songs for your new record? You have told that you are always striving for some sort of perfection with your songs, so do you think that your constant strive for perfection is kind of restrictive factor for yourself to come up with the new songs for the band if there's some certain time frame set for this process?

Trey: Well, I don't think I will write all the songs myself, I like to have David [Vincent, bass/vocals] and Pete [Sandoval, drums] contribute whatever ideas they have. David will write most, if not all the lyrics, I think. I want to make music that have imagination and feeling. I want it to move the body in other ways instead of only headbanging.

Read the entire interview from Metal-Rules.com.

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").