The "Feel Sorry for the Fanatic" record in my opinion still is one of our best albums, but it's just not Death Metal and we probably should not have released it under the name Morgoth.
Releasing that album was the right decision at that time. I actually don't see a reason, why an album release always should sound the same or very close to the previous. I mean it still sounds like Morgoth but you have to listen more closely and more often to it. When I want to listen to "Master of Puppets" I listen to it and I don't complain, why Metallica don't sound like 1986 in 2012. Time goes on. Already on "Odium" we tried to add something different and fresh to our style. Pity it just was too early to release such an album. But a lot of fans told us that meanwhile as they grew older, they like the album. A sort of 'fan-band relationship' should be a compromise, not some one-way channel where the fans can expect to get always what they want to, or even make demands from a band. A band is no computer. When Slayer released "South of Heaven", everyone was annoyed - same with Kreator's "Endorama". Both are awesome records though.
Sebastian Swart / Morgoth interview, Metal Crypt, 2012
MORGOTH released their third album, Feel Sorry for the Fanatic, on this day in 1996 through Century Media.
Feel Sorry for the Fanatic is a departure from the original death metal sound they had developed since their first demo in 1988, influenced by bands like KILLING JOKE.
At that time it was a natural developement for us. We wanted to try something new, and we wanted to go a step further. Unfortunately the fans were not ready to walk this way with us. Today I can understand this reaction, because the stylistic change from Odium to Feel Sorry was just too drastic.
Harry Busse / Morgoth interview, Bonavox, 2016
Not long after the release MORGOTH split. The band reformed around 2010, released their fourth album Ungod in 2015 and in 2018 announced the band had split for good.
...the split up was after the Feel Sorry For The Fanatic album, a lot of fans didn't like the album, it was very different from the stuff we had done before and I can totally understand the fans of Morgoth, it was so different and not what you would expect from Morgoth, but we just...to that time we had problems in the band, it was a hard time to even write the album and everybody was at totally different directions and stuff... Actually, I still like the album, the songwriting...
Marc Grewe / Morgoth interview, Metal Paths, 2012
...back in the day [fans] hated the album because they didn't expect something like this, but it's kind of another songwriting on this album as well, but I can totally understand the people that don't like it, I don't feel sorry for the fanatic. Back in the day we went on tour for the album and on the tour we already knew it wouldn't last anymore, after the tour we just split up.