Obituary - Obituary

Angry Metal Guy

Much as I discovered in the process of reviewing Cannibal Corpse‘s last splatter platter after a long absence from the scene due to car accidents, divorce, unexpected children, custody court, and an ex-wife that deserved treatment based on some Cannibal song titles, it seems Obituary ain’t as hip to some folks as they once were. With a career as long as that run-on sentence, a band can be expected to have more ups and downs than a $5 hooker on a Friday and many that go the Forrest Gump distance will fall into more than a few potholes. While Obituary never shit the bed, they’ve certainly tread their fair share of water in the middle years. I’m always confused when a band releases an eponymous album late in their career. Are they are declaring this their definitive release or is it due to a lack of inspiration? If the latter, does that void of creativity spill over into the music or is this, indeed, a mortuary slab so monumental they couldn’t name it anything else?¹

That depends on which songs you judge it by. Opener “Brave” is a speedy little ditty with some surprisingly cheeky guitar melodies. The result is the least I’ve felt like killing myself and the most I’ve felt like going for a hesitant, obligatory middle age run after hearing an Obituary song. Throughout I kept waiting for their trademark breakdown where they take Celtic Frost and throw in some Metamucil and black coffee, but it never came. “Sentence Day,” is another quick pounding, capping off a refreshing one-two combo right out of the gate. It’s not until “Lesson in Vengeance” that things slow down with Tardy articulating like a pundit at the podium straight out of The King’s Speech. I had always kind of assumed he came into Florida from Cuba so it made sense that we had no idea what the fuck the man was growling about. He gargles out the grime but still manages to hold on to his nauseous gnarl. Unfortunately, his decipherable delivery is the most remarkable thing about this otherwise workmanlike song.

As new blood Lord Lucan pointed out in his review of Six Feet Under‘s Torment and our liege lord Steel Druhm indicated many painful times before, sometimes our heroes fall and fall hard. Chris Barnes has become the poster boy for legalization of marijuana, and also a mush mouthed motherfucker who sounds like a grizzly bear with a bad case of thrush, thereby unintentionally spurring the formation of the “Smoking Pot 24:20/7 Will Either Destroy Your Fucking Voice or Make You So Apathetic You Just Say, ‘Fuck It, Good Enough’ With Takes’ International Organization.” Or, as it is known to the layperson, “SPWEDYFVMYSAYJSFIGEWTIO,” which is about as decipherable as Barnes’s lyrics have been the past decade and Tardy’s for much of his tenure. Unlike Barnes, Tardy has retained his edge over the decades like a death metal Pavarotti. By that I don’t mean he’s Italian, fat, or dead. Rather, he has a voice so distinct that you immediately know it’s him. While he has refined his delivery and you can now understand at least 60% of what he says, the downside of being able to understand the lyrics is the realization how banal some of them are. “End It Now,” is particularly mind-numbing despite a monstrously massive middle section, with a whopping baker’s dozen words repeated ad nauseam.

Any creative process draws from a well and at times that well can run light. I can attest to that as a so-called writer. Obituary can still produce vital material as evidenced by “Straight To Hell.” A mid-paced chug comprises the first minute and a half and then things grind to a slow, suffocating sludge before a tastefully sparse and wank-free solo bleeds out all over the floor. The band then reprises the opening riff before launching into a breakdown right out of “The End Complete.” Unfortunately the four songs previous making up the middle stretch of this album fall into a rut, cruising down familiar roads and barely breaking school zone speed limits with the exception of the solo section in “Turned To Stone.” “Ten Thousand Ways To Die” off last year’s combination EP/live release ends things on a low note, and I don’t mean the D tuning. Three vocal lines are repeated over and over for the first two minutes. Throughout the band maintains the mid-pace to the point that I feel like Peter Gibbons trying to get to Initech by the time it’s over.

Death metal has been done to death and since Obituary are pioneers of the genre, they may have the right to be derivative of themselves, but ten albums in, some fresh air would do this rotting corpse well.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Relapse Records
Websites: obituary.bandcamp.com | obituary.cc | facebook.com/obituaryband
Releases Worldwide: March 17th, 2017

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The Guardian 80

(Relapse)

Their biggest “hit” is called Chopped in Half and they have spent more than 30 years exploring the depths of sonic depravity: Obituary are simply the living embodiment of death metal’s gruesome spirit. Plainly intended to be definitive, their 10th album stays true to the scything, mid-paced attack that had such an impact on fledgling extreme metal in the late 80s, but in contrast to 2014’s Inked in Blood, this is no perfunctory delivering of familiar goods. Latest recruits Kenny Andrews (lead guitar) and Terry Butler (bass) have brought renewed focus to both songwriting and sound: the former’s blistering, old-school solos are uniformly stunning and Butler’s chemistry with drummer Donald Tardy lifts the likes of breakneck opener Brave to levels of intensity that Obituary haven’t reached for years. Meanwhile, slower fare such as End It Now and It Lives bring guitarist Trevor Peres’ unerring grasp of groove and dissonance together with some of the sharpest and most insidious hooks these legends have ever brandished.

Pitchfork 76

Of the bands that define Florida death metal, which also strongly defines American Death Metal as a whole, Obituary remain a beacon of consistency. Beginning in 1984 under the Executioner moniker, Obituary built their sound around stripping the Gothic cobwebs off Celtic Frost’s mid-paced riffing. They let the guitars become a humid swamp, thick and airy. Singer John Tardy defined death metal vocals by getting as guttural as guitarist Trevor Peres’ rhythms, removing any last vestiges of thrashy snarling. Obituary have been held as models for keeping it simple, and for fans, the idea of a new album from them can seem predictable. But their self-titled 10th record proves Obituary don’t suffer for sticking to their identity.

Peres and drummer Donald Tardy remain at the heart of Obituary and feed off each other in a way few death metal bands do. Peres sounds more mangled when Donald speeds up, and already thick riffs feel impenetrable as his drumming slows. As such, Peres’ low, groveling guitar tone is more flexible than it seems. Obituary begins with two faster numbers, “Brave” and “Sentence Day”—affirmations that they’re not giving up anytime soon. Both are busy for a band who prefers to let a groovy riff sink in, and John in particular lunges with a youthfulness that rivals the band’s heyday in the late ’80s and early ’90s.

Some of Obituary’s best work has come from letting flashiness creep in. In 1990, for example, Cause of Death had its sludge punctured by James Murphy’s divebombs and neoclassically-influenced soloing. That album contained their most developed songwriting in terms of leads. Likewise, thanks to Ken Andrews’ lead work here, Obituary is their most energetic record since reforming in 2003 (they originally disbanded in ’97). On “shredder” records, the disconnect between the fireworks of the guitarist and the tepid rhythm section can be jarring. But Peres and Donald’s strong foundation keeps that from happening.

Andrews can also bow to death metal tradition, as he does with the spaced-out, Death-like leads in “Kneel Before Me.” Meanwhile, “Sentence” ends with a one-man guitar battle, as Andrews heralds not just the dueling harmonies of Judas Priest’s Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing but also Slayer’s chaotic interplay between Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. He’s not just versatile; he sounds like he’s genuinely excited. And that exuberance doesn’t arise from nowhere—Donald and Andrews were once members of Andrew W.K.’s backing band.

This record honors all of Obituary’s history by not compromising. Its reliability is peppered with unrest. Obituary ends the opposite of how it began—slow and yet somehow impatient. “Straight to Hell” recalls the dim flickering-light riffs of 1992’s “The End Complete,” resulting in a seediness that’s constantly promised in death metal and rarely achieved. “Turned Into Stone” centers their Celtic Frost worship, a more gradual unsettling than some of the record’s faster pillages. With these contrasts, Obituary show they’re keenly aware of dynamics in a way most bands could stand to afford. In 2017, the challenge for a veteran metal act is to not relentlessly innovate, but to mine any small new parts of their sound. Kreator and Immolation have proved successful in this regard already, and Obituary, while sticking closer to their roots, have also proven their vitality here.