Morbid Angel / YMMV

Audience-Alienating Era: Heretic was regarded as this when it was released due to its awful production, poor songwriting, and large amounts of filler. And even the few fans who like Heretic despise Illud for its ham-fisted attempts to be "eclectic" in its sound and David Vincent's inane lyrics.
Broken Base: For such a beloved band, there's a lot of divisive opinions:
- There's either no more albums after Covenant, Domination, Formulas Fatal to the Flesh...
- Let's just say Morbid Angel fans have a habit of picking pretty much every album they've put out to call it the "pre-suck album". The only one most fans will agree on is Altars of Madness.
  - Additionally, was Steve Tucker a respectable replacement for David Vincent, or did he participate in the downfall of Morbid Angel? Replace "Vincent" and "Tucker" with "Brunelle" and "Rutan" and you've got an identical situation there. The very warm reception that he got when he announced his return to the band and Vincent's departure in 2015 suggested that the fans have finally embraced him, however.
- Definitely averted with Illud Divinum Insanus. Just about all of the fans-even the ones that like the extremely constested Heretic-agree that it's awful.
- Kingdoms Disdained. Decent return to form, or a cynical cash-grab?
Critical Dissonance: Illud Divinum Insanus was almost completely trashed by both MA fans and death metal fans. However, it's gotten some good critical reviews (Allmusic even giving it a 4 out of 5), and while some have been less than stellar, no professional critic has treated it the same way the fans did.
Fandom Rivalry: Between Vincent and Tucker fans. Vincent fans see Tucker as an utterly generic and disposable frontman coasting off of Vincent's name and reputation who should have just declined the offer to rejoin in the 2010s and let the band die, while Tucker fans see Vincent as a washed-up joke with a ruined voice and a truly cringeworthy aesthetic and stage presence who is peddling a cover band because he was nothing without Trey and has to rely on the nostalgia dollar to get people to care about anything that he does on his own.
Fanon Discontinuity: Almost all Morbid Angel fans would like to believe that Illud doesn't exist. When reminded that it does exist, they aren't happy about it; it's commonplace for "Existo Vulgore" and "Nevermore" (the two songs from the album that they still play live, and even the latter has mostly disappeared from setlists) to be met with silence and a complete and utter lack of fanfare live.
First Installment Wins: Altars of Madness, their first album, is widely hailed as one of the greatest metal albums of all time. As for the rest of their albums, most Death Metal fans will embrace Blessed are the Sick and Covenant, but every other album is divisive at best or Fanon Discontinuity at worst.
Franchise Original Sin: The elements of industrial music that were widely derided in Illud Divinium Insanus? They were already present on Domination, but in the background. While they were also present on Formulas^note, the band's first album with Steve Tucker, they weren't expanded upon as much in comparison to Illud; it's possible that had David Vincent stayed with the band, they could've gotten even worse. By that point, David Vincent was burned out on death metal, and the fact that he quit to join his wife in Genitorturers was a pretty accurate reflection of what he was into at the time.
Gateway Series: As one of the most popular and respected bands in the genre, they are often one of the first bands newer death metal listeners (particularly ones into more old school genres like thrash) try to see if they like the genre along with other staples of early death metal like Death, Cannibal Corpse and Carcass.
Once Original, Now Overdone: Pete Sandoval's drumming doesn't really stick out that much today, but his drumming paved the way for technical, blast beat-driven extreme speed drumming in metal. Tim Waterson, a drummer formerly recognized as being one of the fastest drummers ever described him this way in 2007: "There are a lot of guys faster now, but he's still one of the tightest when he plays."
Replacement Scrappy: Tucker was this in his initial run, but the years have been kind to him and most fans at least like him; when it was announced that he was returning and Vincent was departing in 2015, the reaction was very positive. Myrhen and Yeung are straighter examples; some of it may be due to the fact that they played on Illud, but most people just don't like them and view them as competent but boring. When they announced that they were leaving, few people lamented the news. Also played very straight with Vadim, who has had a great deal of difficulty with performing at the level required live.
Sacred Cow: Altars of Madness has grown into this, widely hailed as one of the finest albums in any genre of extreme music even after thirty years later. While almost all of their other albums are home to at least some minor criticisms, any criticism of Altars tends to not go well even in the wider metal fandom.
Signature Song: "God of Emptiness" and "Immortal Rites". "Ageless, Still I Am" is the signature Tucker-era song.
So Bad, It's Good: Illud most certainly has its share of fans. You just won't find too many who are devoted Morbid Angel fans as a whole.
Stuck in Their Shadow: Could be said to be the case for Tim Yeung. He is an immensely skilled drummer in his own right and is also one of the biggest names in death metal drumming. Unfortunately for him, Pete Sandoval practically wrote the book on death metal drumming, and when you have to fill the shoes of someone with a legacy like Pete's, you're going to be overshadowed no matter what. Surprisingly subverted with Scott Fuller, as he has been received rather well by the fanbase, and the general consensus seems to be that he's a far better fit than Yeung.
Vindicated by History: In his initial run, fan opinions of Steve Tucker were lukewarm at best, and he left right as they were finally starting to warm up to him. After the disaster that was Illud, the fanbase's opinion of David Vincent steadily went south, and by the time that Vincent left again in 2015, people had been calling for Tucker to return for some time. Popular opinion of the Tucker-era albums had become far more favorable as well; many fans had even started to call Gateways one of their best albums, and even Heretic was rediscovered as an album that had some truly great songs in between the filler.
Win Back the Crowd: While no one has called Kingdoms Disdained the greatest Morbid Angel album of all time and plenty of people wouldn't even call it the best Tucker album (most will point to Gateways), the general consensus is that it is still a great comeback that, while maybe not exploring any particularly esoteric new territory, has done a substantial amount of work to repair the damage done by Illud.

YMMV / Morbid Angel

Edit Locked