Back for their first time in six years, Obituary are finally acknowledging their descent towards the grave with Dying Of Everything, their 10th album overall. This five piece remains unchanged. It’s the third album with the lineup of the Tardy brothers, Trevor Peres, ex-Death bassist Terry Butler and guitarist Kenny Andrews.
With this many albums of death, destruction and a more violent version of Celtic Frost’s guitar tone and lyrics that might not even be lyrics, what does Obituary have in store for us?
Things start off with the 1-2 punch of “Barely Alive” and “The Wrong Time” digging deep into distortion, but not always the fastest tracks either, aiming instead for a solid groove and letting Andrews rip several solos while Donald Tardy pounds the drums and his brother John uses his iconic growls to send us all home happy.
“War” includes a slight section of acoustically picked riffs, adding an air of quiet not often attributed to these Florida legends. However it’s something fresh for a band that has spent the majority of its career rotting away in front of our eyes, much to our pleasure. The title track has all the speed that you would want from a death metal band such as this, feeling like it came from their most prominent and formative eras, showing that these old dogs have an excess of tread left on their tires.
It should also be pointed out that this album has one of the last commissioned art pieces from Mariusz Lewandowski who sadly passed away in 2022 and was responsible for so many great album covers over his career. Entering their fifth decade of releasing albums, Obituary have nary missed a beat here, having crafted a great death metal record while remaining true to their lethal lineage. Dying Of Everything is death metal done right.
(released January 13, 2023 on Relapse Records)
