special introductory
paragraph!
Slowly We Rot
Cause Of Death
The End Complete
World Demise
Back From The Dead
Frozen In Time
Xecutioner's Return
Obituary is from Florida, where death happens because so many old people live there.
Death metal! Heavy guitars! Ridiculously gruff
shouted (or more like "phlegmed-up") vocals that are about fifty trillion
times too loud in the mix! Slow parts interspersed with fast parts with no
real congruity between the two! Lots of guitar solos! Evil song titles
like "Internal Bleeding," "'Til Death," "Gates To Hell," "Suffocation,"
"Bloodsoaked" and...umm... "Stinkupuss"? This is what death metal sounds
like. Some of the parts are great little mean chord sequences. Other parts? Not as great, kinda predictable.
By far the worst part is the vocals though. As in most death metal (and,
quite frankly, most metal!), they ruin the fun of the cool evil music by
just being laughably stupid and irritating. At least Obituary were silly enough to have just the singer say a bunch of nonsense, since that's all it would've sounded like anyway even if he'd bothered to write lyrics.
Erm.. well, about the album. I don't really listen
to this stuff as much as i used to, but what really
appealed to me back then was the sheer rawness and bestiality
of the whole thing. John Tardy's
vocalings, while totally incomprehenisble since he does make
up a bunch of the words or growls, are
straight from satan's sewage tunnel. And there is a nice
change in speed with the songs.. fast ones, slow
ones, mid tempo all accompanied by ghoulish fucking
guitarwork, garlic hammer smashing on ur face
sounding drums , and Tardy screaming for a blood flavored
slushy. Yep! A classic death metal oldie if
there ever was one. gawd.. death metal oldie? i'm
getting old!!
There's nobody like a death metal band to come up
with a really awesome sick twisted fucked up riff that kicks your ass all
over Gettysburg, then play it for exactly 14 seconds before replacing it
with a predictable, worthless collection of plodding chords that don't do
anything. And Obituary are KINGS of this shit, sucking in your interest
every single time before kneeing you in the testicle of love with some of
the most g-nowhere jick-jick-jick midtempo slop you'll ever
hear in my life. Vocals? Still hideous. Just awful, moronic yelling.
Subject matter? Still gory, as far as I can tell -- "Body Bag," "Chopped In Half"
and the only song I like on here all the way through ("Dying"! Great song!
Great action verb!). What the hell is wrong with death metal bands that
they feel the need to ruin all the good parts with equally lengthy bland
parts? Are they just trying to
fill all the songs with lots of different time signatures to seem more
intellectual? Or are they too dumb to realize that one of the keys of
memorable songwriting is using at least the SLIGHTEST bit of editing and/or
repetition?
Slowly We Rot - 7.5
A heavier mix, seems like. Vocals are slightly
less annoying, the impression is given. Lots of kickass speed metal bits,
it appears. A bit more enjoyable riff repetition, one surmises (especially
during the awesome coda in the title track!). Still too many bland slow
parts shoved in there for no reason though. Why the hell did I buy all of
this band's CDs anyway? Oh that's right! I have a chemical
imbalance.
Okay, they've finally streamlined their sound to
the point that even I get it! These songs are all slow and trudgey,
like classic Black Sabbath. Very heavy, of course -- thick chord sequences.
But with enough repetition and few enough parts in each song (generally a
verse-ish part, a chorus-ish part, repetition, a middle part perhaps at a
different speed, then back) that the songs actually draw me in and make me
think, "Hey! Catchy!" Definitely their turning point into accessibility. Not all
the riffs hit the Mark (Prindle) though, and it's awfully slow-paced from
egending to bin, so don't expect to be banging your head an awful lot.
Unless your neck gives out halfway through the album and your head is
just dangling onto your chest as you run back and forth across the apartment
staring at the floor, screaming.
Despite my grim expectations and strong reservations, this CD ended up filling
me with excitations and Sunkist Orange sweet sensations! The songs are
extremely straightforward, heavy as hell and
b-b-b-b-catchy! The tracks rotate nicely
between speedy tight thrash, midtempo Sabbathy headbanging and
sludgey fudgers but only a few times in each song instead of 52 billion times
like on Cause Of Dearth. The singer is still pretty annoying but his
voice isn't 108 times louder than the music like on Cause Of Bad Breath,
and the riffs are just COOL! Very bizarre chord sequences and the occasional
creepy note run -- and you know the record she's gonna kick ass
straight from the getgo because the opening track, "Threatening Skies," is an
awesome speedcore song! As a matter of opinion, certain parts of the record
even remind me of late-period DRI, wherein the simple repetition of a
not-initially-catchy-at-all guitar riff breeds a happy familiarity resulting in
the ultimate enjoyment of the track at which you are gazing with your ear.
It ends with a rap-metal song though. And this world, as you know, would be
better off without rap-metal songs. Which reminds me of a fantastic rhyme I made up last night - let
me know what you think of this: "If you're black/You smoke crack!/If your name
is Chong/You've got a small ding-dong!/Racial stereotyping/That's the life for
me!/Polacks can't screw light bulbs/And Puerto Ricans drink their own
pee!" You know, maybe there is something to this whole "no way in hell
are we going to sign you to a record deal, Mark Prindle" trend.
So I'm on the phone with my intermediary the other day when suddenly I think to myself, "Man, I could really go for a collateral trust bond right about now." So I cut the conversation shorter than the Morningstar Rating System, hop in my trusty tangible asset, and drive on down to see my financial adviser. As I enter his office, the first thing I notice is that he's replaced his Fortune 500 calendar with a grimy poster of some long-haired heavy metal urchins like you might see roaming the halls of the Bolsa de Madrid. "What's this?" I enquire. "Suddenly you're a fan of death benefit metal?"
"I'm truly sorry, Mr. Prindle," said my financial adviser. "I fully intended to prepare a letter of intent re: my closing purchase of the new Obituary CD, but I feared you might think I was doubling up imprudently."
"No no, that's fine," I replied, wondering how long the poor bastard's mind had left before I'd have to gift him a crown loan. "Your current ratio is fine, so I guess we can write this up as an interest deduction."
"You should really hear this new CD, Mr. Prindle," he continued. "I personally enjoy it, yet I foresee a major capital loss in these wayward gents' near future."
As my wife was on her option cycle, I decided to stick around for a while and give it a listen my own self. First of all, it goes without saying that I was a bit shocked about the band's rejection of its profitable Last In, First Out (LIFO) strategy. Why gather in the stops now? Did they have some guaranteed investment contract with Roadrunner that I hadn't read about? No way. After just a few songs, I could already tell that the label had issued them a giant Not Held order.
My financial adviser was right -- I too would have picked up this disc had I not somehow overlooked its notice of sale, and I too would have fallen voluntary victim to its moral suasion. But crikey, talk about an imbalance of orders! I haven't heard this many midtempo chord sequences in a row since Rudimentary Peni's last exploitation of the loose credit policy! I sure hope Roadrunner didn't issue a nonrecourse loan, because I can't imagine ANY death metal fan liking this album. It's as simple, repetitive and unenergetic as early Black Sabbath -- just chord, chord, chord part followed by other chord, chord, chord part and back. Occasionally the guitarist will play a note-driven riff, but these two or three moments hardly count as guaranteed replacement cost coverage insurance. Talk about a single country mutual fund!
Now see, I - ME, that is - I like when bands come up with unique chord sequences I've never heard before - that's why a tune as tame as "Insane" doesn't send me crying into my Form 10-K's. But this music is so monolithic, basic and midtempo, how are old fans - naturally expecting a round lot - going to react to a registered Obituary bond that turns out to be a closed-end fund? Will the 2.5 thrash-speed songs ("On The Floor," "Stand Alone" and the middle half of "Lockjaw") be enough to squash their sneaking feelings that the tape is late? Will they be willing to listen to the disc enough times for it to begin providing an unearned discount? Maybe I'm just nuts, but I swear that this whole project reeks of 'Nonqualifying Annuity,' regardless of Roadrunner's involvement.
The bottom line is that most of the songs are too rudimentary and soundalike to love, but they're also too easy-and-fuzzy-on-the-ears to hate -- unless, of course, you're looking for classic, challenging, ass-kicking Obituary-style death metal. My advice is to check online to see if you can secure interim financing of a few MP3s and listen for yourself. But don't be surprised if you choose to direct your money supply towards a normal trading unit (e.g. the new Nile disc, Morbid Angel's back catalog) instead.
Seriously though - why on Earth is this CD so midtempo, simplistic and inoffensive? And why are all the songs in the same exact key? Is it intended to be heavy metal for old fogies? I'm willing to enjoy it this ONE time, but if it becomes a trend, I'm really going to have to think about ending my mutual association with this band. Someone take out a municipal improvement certificate, quick!
In conclusion, Frozen In Time? More like REGRESSION ANALYSIS in GOING-CONCERN VALUE, if you ask me!
Granted I don't listen to Obituary all that often, or in fact at all, ever, but I could've sworn they started out as a death metal band. Even looking back at my shitty reviews of their earlier records, I can see the tell-tale signs of death metal in my descriptions: "Slow parts interspersed with fast parts with no real congruity between the two," "a really awesome sick twisted fucked up riff that kicks your ass all over Gettysburg... for exactly 14 seconds before replacing it with a predictable, worthless collection of plodding chords that don't do anything," "trying to fill all the songs with lots of different time signatures to seem more intellectual."
As such, I'm quite curious about what caused them to so drastically change their sound around the time of Back From The Dead. Were they all in a horrible, debilitating accident or something? This music is so simple. It's as if they woke up one morning and decided, "You know what? Death metal's too hard. From now on, let's just write one part and play it six thousand times." I'm not complaining - after all, I'm the one who was so angrily bitching about them cramming too many forgettable parts into the same thing. But I do find it fascinating.
Like its immediate predecessors, Xecutioner's Return is full of thick, fuzzy, heavy guitars playing songs comprised of two or three different chord sequences, until the chord sequences run out and the album comes to an end. Some of these chord sequences are unorthodox, others less so (and thus less interesting), but it's amazing how effective the constant repetition is in helping the riffs grow on you like a welcome boner. Yes, similes truly are the heart of our literary tradition here in America. As Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote in his defining novel, "The scarlet letter is a simile for my penis on that lady's blouse. From now on, imagine it that way."
The first two songs are nearly identical (yet GREAT!) high-speed thrashers, but after that they return to the midtempo metal that has been their Soup Du Jour (or "soup with ice cream") for the past decade. Unfortunately, they then get even slower, clogging up the second half with three uncompelling doom metal tracks that would've been better merged into a single dull epic to leave space for more great fuzzy blasters like the Melvinsy '70s pop-stomper "Second Chance," oddball plod-stop-plodder "Bloodhost," and bouncy, swinging "Drop Dead."
If you heard the last Obituary album and thought, "I could do that," you were right. But just because you could do something doesn't mean that Obituary shouldn't do it. What, do you want them to stop using soap just because you can do it? They'd be crawling with ticks by now! Or eat? Oh god, EAT!
I am now 34 years old, and still TO THIS DAY have a recurring nightmare that I'm in high school, it's Exam Time, and I haven't been to two of the classes all semester so now I have to somehow read and learn two entire textbooks over a single weekend or I'll fail and won't be able to graduate. Please understand that in real life, I haven't stepped into a classroom of any sort in the past THIRTEEN YEARS. So get with the program, brain asshole! Or at least put some naked girls in there.
You know, like in real high school. Remember Naked Social Studies? Aww I fucken LOVED Naked Social Studies!
Ahh...
I havn't listened to an Obituary album in about fifteen years, but I
recall reading somewhere that John Tardy simply made up lyrics on the
spot, at least on the early records. For example, during the title
song on this album, I am almost positive that he sings, "Volleyball?
Join me! Slowly We Rot," as the chorus. Perhaps that's why they don't
publish the words; if you ask me, a lyrical invitation to play
volleyball with Obituary would rank among Death Metal's greatest
moments.
You've got to be fucking kidding me!!!! I don't know what your about, and i don't want to seem disrepectful. If Death Metal isn't your thing let some one else
write the DM reviews.
This is my favorite Obituary album... it has the riffs and the atmosphere that brings a smile to my face and warm feeling down there... anyway, I think this their masterpiece. "Infected" and "Body Bag" explode out my speakers like James Hetfield's liver on his first day in detox, and the cover of Celtic Frost's "Circle of the Tyrants" rules too. It's also got James Murphy (also in Death, Testament, Disincarnate, Cancer, Konkhra, and a bunch more) contributing his shredding before Allen West rejoins on the next album. My Obituary ratings...
Cause of Death - 8.5
The End Complete - 6.5
World Demise - 7.5
Back from the Dead - 7
Anthology (best of) - 8 (it's not bad for a compliation, really...)
The very first death metal album i bought. Was very new to me
at the time. Guitars tuned so low,
sounding like slow motion diaherrea. And the vocals.. the vocals!!
John Tardy's great great ancestors must have been raped by ogres,
orks or goblins. Cuz his range in the lows is
god-like.. or ungod-like, whichever. And the songs just totally
defy regular song patterns. You
know, such as the usual verse, chorus, verse, then chorus,
bridge, solo etc?? .. . This album is more like
verse, verse, puke, solo, verse, vomit, croak..etc.
Take the number "In the End Of Life". Starts out with a
cryptic like riff.. and then Johnny goes into a droning
growl fest as if he was godzilla trying to squeeze an
oversized terd outta his ass.. and then goes back to the
cryptic like riff and fades. How wacky is that!?!
Interesting stuff I tell ya. Definitely a piece of work
from the anals (pun intended) of rock n roll every
agressive music listening fanatic should add to his collection!!
Even though most death-metal-heads consider this Obituary's sell-out album, it's still my favorite. Sure, it's only marginally death metal, but the
songs are great. If you want to annoy the posers in your neighborhood, play 'Splattered' through a good set of speakers and crank it up. Of
course, you'll have to replace all the windows in your house, but it's worth it.
This album was the biggest disappointment of my life. After a masterpiece like World Demise, they put out this piece of crap. Sorry to disagree
with you, but I would have given it a '1' rating, if that's your lowest.
First impression of this album... it's solid. It's typical also, these guys are the AC/DC of doom-death so if you like one album you like them all. They still put on a hell of a live performance too. 7 out of 10 is right.
this is a slight step up from Frozen In Time. For one it's longer, and they have Ralph Santolla on guitar now (ex-Death, Deicide, etc.). Cant say i listen to it much all the way through, but there's plenty of good songs. Nice simple titles too... Drop Dead, Evil Ways, Bloodshot, Seal Your Fate, Feel the Pain... and the opening "Face Your Gods" is good too. Dont know what it's about, as always there's no lyrics printed. Maybe it's about facing your gods or something. Santolla's shredding is a little better than Allen West's although it sounds more similar to him than Santolla's playing on Deicide's Stench of Redemption. I'll be nice and say 8/10, which put it's right up there with Slowly We Rot, Cause of Death and World Demise as their best.
Oh yeah, I know your school dreams. I only graduated from college like
20 years ago and I keep having different dreams involving my last
semester in college. Sometimes I f'ing forget when my classes are,
don't study, or some other misadventures. And I get these stupid dreams
at least a couple times a year. Argh!!!
Purchase your Obituary here!