Dying Of Everything
(Relapse Records)
45:30min
2023 is likely a great year for Death Metal to ascend the podium and take the crown of heavy music, even though it begins with “Dying Of Everything”. That diction probably makes a Metalhead or admirer of heavy music confused, should they start the post-pandemic year by dying again? Fear not, the dying that has been incorporated into this early 2023 is the album theme from the stalwarts of the Florida Death Metal scene, OBITUARY. Following the release of their surprisingly exceptional self-titled album in 2017, these underground legends return to unleash the wrath of top-quality Death Metal with their eleventh full-length album, entitled “Dying Of Everything”. And as it always has been, their album is a twist on the same formula, an incomparable Death Metal composition that highlights a Thrash element over their signature heavily groove-based hooks. It is what distinguishes and elevates OBITUARY above many other works in the genre. Clocking under 45 minutes, their new opus comes banging through the gates of everything with the first track entitled ‘Barely Alive’. This opening song is immense. What unfolds in the first minute of the track is the Thrash – infused fury and the roar of the unstoppable John Tardy. This monumental entry is embodied by the SLAYER – esque virtuoso, colored with soaring solos that will take the listener back to the glory days of “Cause Of Death”, which makes the presence of the album inescapable. The next four songs are exactly what OBITUARY has excelled at since the beginning, and they always have, which is the death groove. However, the certifiable banger comes in ‘Without A Conscience’. Its pounding rhythm is as memorable as it is commanding, followed by magnificent solos, perfectly cloaked by the wildly expressive drumming. These fragments serve as a sermon to never-ending moshing. The sixth track and third single on the record, ‘My Will To Live’, continues the same trend of groove – oriented work, placing yet another anthemic crushing beat into the world of OBITUARY, with more substance and an unexpected epic encapsulation. Another track that is definitely to everyone’s liking who worships Floridian madness is ‘Weaponize The Hate’. A faster pace of old-fashioned brutality mixed with catchy guitar work – an ideal fatal dose of Metal that will swallow the listeners alive. The enjoyment of dying continues with the last two songs, ‘Torn Apart’ and ‘Be Warned’, that are insanely heavy. Every single riff on those tracks has a purpose and a non-negotiable motive behind its deployment and execution. It’s truly fascinating, there is ample room for the listeners to ponder the different qualities amidst the horror of a punishingly heavy OBITUARY. The closing track in particular, one of those brilliant takes on Death / Doom realms. There aren’t many extreme bands that can perfectly execute the balance between catchiness and complexity to make an album sound more interesting across repeated listens. Unlike its predecessor, the production-wise of the new album is quite polished compared to their 2017 album, but none will survive their wall of sound. They are probably not using their classic sound template from the 1990s, but for a Death Metal pioneer like OBITUARY, after more than 30 years in the Metal warzone, their sound remains freshly appealing. In conclusion, like this review stated earlier, hearing the name “Dying Of Everything” probably won’t inspire much faith for common music maniacs to start off this year, but the band that is very much indebted to that title once again set the bar for what is to come for them and the new wave of Death Metal. And it is now a matter of choice in the end, being trapped in their glorious past or moving into the present to taste the new shape of a groovy and deathly sounding OBITUARY. www.facebook.com/obituaryband, www.facebook.com/relapserecords
Yoga Ghotama
Dying Of Everything
(Relapse Records)
45:30min
There was a time when Metal fans were buying albums just for their cover art. Yes, more than once that Metalhead was disappointed with an album of killer art and crap music, but then again there was some charm in doing it that way. There were some few magazines covering the extreme forms of Metal back in the mid ’80s, so the best source would be the always more honest fanzines. That was the way I found out about this band, in some publication called “Violent Noize”. Then the band was called XECUTIONER from Florida with their vocalist and drummer being brothers and it states that their music will rip the flesh from your face. And it also celebrated their vocalist as truly a jewel, comparing him to a mix between Jeff Becerra and Paul Baloff… enshrouded in a heavy CELTIC FROST sound. On those days more than enough to keep my attention. Probably a few years later I saw that cover of “Slowly We Rot”… Holy hell, a horrible cover (in a good way), great logo… they told me that it was a band from Florida playing Death Metal with some brothers in it… saw the names… it was them… and yes, the music was brutal! And those vocals!!! So a few months later the band came to play in Mexico, and obviously I had to go. In fact the original show was supposed to be for HOLY TERROR (which was also a big fave of mine), but I was more than happy for the substitution. Some fans were not happy about that or they just didn’t knew the band. So, with a few hundred guys we enjoyed one of the heaviest shows on earth and experienced them in their prime brutality. And they have kept going on for what it seems like an eternity (what is dead stays dead!), their discography is quite one that shows many faces of the band, while keeping their core intact. Line-up changes here and there, yet they mostly always deliver. Ok, I won’t deny that some of their albums were sounding a bit tired, and not inspired at all. But their last few albums have been consistent and a bit more straightforward, which is good for their sound. And this new one, is no exception. The guitar tone is there, John Tardy’s unique vocals are there (although you can hear that it’s no longer from a younger corpse) and yes, death is still the main concept. Some aura of this album at time recaptures the essence of their debut. I just feel that it is lacking faster parts to give it more variety, as the tempo on many songs is the same. Still, me being the old fart that was in hell with their debut, and the fact that the guitar tone is there and the voice of Death Metal is there too, one just enjoys this for what it is without waiting for anything else. And if that is not enough they still have that debut and second album which are their best. The corpse keeps rotting… All additional OBITUARY information you will find at: www.facebook.com/obituaryband, label contact: www.facebook.com/relapserecords
Julián "Be Warned" Núñez
Dying Of Everything
(Relapse Records)
45:30min
OBITUARY is one of those Death Metal legends whose early releases helped shape the fledgling genre and take it into darker, more extreme realms. The Tardy brother’s unique combination aligned with the tormented bass lines of Terry Butler was the inspiration for a generation of Death Metal and their legacy is, of course, of great importance. Though much of what OBITUARY did after those first groundbreaking releases – notably 1989’s “Slowly We Rot” and 1991’s “Cause Of Death” – was mild and through away in many instances. Back in 2017, the band sounded stronger again on their self-titled album, so it was exciting to see what their eleventh album would bring. Just like in “Obituary”, the band sounds inspired and driven. The album opens with the energetic ‘Barely Alive’, a great song that then goes straight through the roof with the thunderstorm at the start and you feel happily transported to the comic clips for ‘Violence’ and ‘Ten Thousand Ways To Die’. Perhaps this band will never be as dark as they were in the “Cause Of Death” days, but songs like ‘War’ may seem particularly daring, but it was written a long time before current global political developments. And then there are songs like ‘The Wrong Time’, ‘Without A Conscience’ and ‘By The Dawn’ on will make you want to hear them over and over again. The record as a whole is perhaps best described as a malevolent groove specter and is proof that some bands should just never cease to exist. Trevor Peres and his companion’s step on the gas pedal very rarely this time, but they take the swaying sound to another level. Lots of breaks, a nasty bass distortion, and riding guitars come out of the speakers more than official. All in all, OBITUARY seem even meaner, even more vicious on their eleventh album than before. As the band mentioned their latest endeavor – “We’re like a fine wine. It sounds stupid, but it’s true. We’re honing our skills as musicians individually and as a band. But when it comes to songwriting we’ve always said, ‘Keep it simple, stupid.’ We like to keep it grooving.” So, undoubtedly in the year in which the famous Death Metal classic “Slowly We Rot” celebrates its thirty-fourth birthday, OBITUARY is still making good progress. Comes with beautiful artwork from Mariusz Lewandowski, who passed away last year, just should be enough to get possessed by this offering, which is now released worldwide via Relapse records. To find out more please visit www.facebook.com/obituaryband or www.facebook.com/relapserecords
Randolph Whateley
Dying Of Everything
(Relapse Records)
45:30min
OBITUARY’s Gibsonton (also known as Gibtown) in Florida is a town where the freak show from the circus settled down for retirement… Lobster Boy being one of them. Eight-foot tall Al Tomaini and his two-foot wife Jeanie also lived there. So it’s not difficult to imagine that an ass-kicking, redneck band of freaks in their own way hail from this place. Since 1984 as EXECUTIONER, then shortened to XECUTIONER then OBITUARY, the Death Metal band from the armpit of America known as Florida have trampled us with their own side show of blistering riffs and slovenly vocals. And if you think they’re slowing down on their eleventh album “Dying Of Everything”, then you don’t know them too well. It’s really quite impressive that this constantly touring band after all these years can still draw big crowds and capture the attention of long-time fans with the energy of twenty year olds. The mugginess in their part of the world hasn’t clustered or clogged up their veins. And goddamn, the opening track ‘Barely Alive’ proves it. The guitars are on point and filthy as always. John Tardy’s vocals are as putrid as they’ve ever been. ‘The Wrong Time’ is a muck-encrusted abomination as ‘Without A Conscience’ delivers the usual blood-thirsty lyrics about putting an end to someone. ‘War’ is about… well, war. “Dying Of Everything’ is a drum-bludgeoned track with mosh-induced riffs that epitomize what this fucking band is all about. I can go through every song. But c’mon. You know the deal. This is OBITUARY at their best. Don’t believe me? Check out the glorious riffs on ‘Torn Apart’. This is a band almost four decades into their career who demolish the younger bands in droves. While the screamo tech bands are whining in boy-band voices about their miserable life, OBITUARY is the fucking band who made their life miserable. So if you haven’t checked out this yet-again masterpiece called “Dying Of Everything”, then what in the living hell are you waiting for? You’ll thank me later. For more info, check out www.facebook.com/obituaryband, www.facebook.com/relapserecords
David Simonton
Dying Of Everything
(Relapse Records)
45:30min
There are two irrefutable facts about OBITUARY. First: when OBITUARY is on it, OBITUARY is in it! Second: there is no bad OBITUARY album, only brilliant, very good and good ones! “Dying Of Everything” is one of the brilliant ones, because here the band reaches a level that almost approaches their classics. Okay, “Slowly We Rot” and especially “Cause Of Death” are not topped, but “World Demise”, “The End Complete” and “Obituary” are on par with the current work. Yes, I dare to say that “Dying Of Everything” is probably the third best album of the band. OBITUARY actually don’t do anything new at all. No, OBITUARY just deliver! But really. It’s the fine nuances that make the work so great. On the one hand there is the enormous joy of playing and the as always brilliant vocals of the best Death Metal shouter of all times next to Chris Reifert. Then the songwriting seems a bit more polished, the small, fine melodies more mature, the songs more brutal, but at the same time more catchy and the production does the rest to make the album a treat. Well, there wasn’t such a double bass attack before, as on “Dying Of Everything” and also the CELTIC FROST homage is screwed to unimagined heights, but still the listener gets what he expects and actually much more. There is not a single average song on the album. All of them can convince 100%. If this work had been released in the ’90s, it would be considered a genre classic today. A masterpiece and maybe already the album of the year 2023. www.facebook.com/obituaryband, www.facebook.com/relapserecords
Olaf Brinkmann
Dying Of Everything
(Relapse Records)
45:30min
“Dying Of Everything” is the eleventh full length album recorded by the legendary Death Metal band OBITUARY. It follows their self-titled album released in 2017 by the Floridian quintet headed by the Tardy brothers. Here we have a pretty good and honest example of old school American Death Metal in the classic OBITUARY style. Here we have a very solid album: ten tracks for almost 45 minutes of sick and catchy music. Well, I have to admit that I’m an OBITUARY fan, since these guys have recorded three of my all time favourite albums: “Slowly We Rot”, “Cause Of Death” and “The End Complete” (the latter is, undoubtedly, the one I like the most). “Dying Of Everything” has an interesting “Cause Of Death” and “The End Complete” vibe: killer Death Metal in the purest Floridian way with a very heavy songwriting and a warm and mellow sound. The production is superb with OBITUARY’s own sound still intact, it sounds like it was recorded in the early ’90s. There are tons of top quality guitar riffs with some very aggressive and captivating moments. I have to say that my fave parts are the fast ones with the extremely tight classic D-Beats by Donald Tardy, a drummer that is able to create a unique atmosphere with his basic, but versatile style of drumming. A great example of the brutality of OBITUARY is the first song of the album entitled ‘Barely Alive’. The rest of “Dying Everything” is more focused on slowdowns, mid-tempos and catchy parts. A contagious soundtrack for a non-stop headbanging party. The guitar riffs are groovy and brutal at the same time. In conclusion, this is a killer album that continues the glorious history of a glorious Death Metal band. There are some memorable guitar solos and John Tardy’s vocals are still the same after more than 30 years: brutal, sick and vomiting-like screamings. OBITUARY still represents an excellence in Extreme Metal history and “Dying Everything” is another proof that they still reign in the Olympus of Death Metal. www.facebook.com/obituaryband, www.facebook.com/relapserecords
Rick Peart
Dying Of Everything
(Relapse Records)
45:30min
The fans do want OBITUARY, well they do get OBITUARY! This sentence actually says it all. The trademark sound of the Death Metal institution from Florida plays with the same ingredients as they always do. But there is a type of art, only the Tardy brothers and their crew are able to accomplish. Their music sounds fresh, songs like the abruptly opening ‘Barely Alive’ or the typically dooming and CELTIC FROST influenced ‘Without A Conscience’ are giving the listener this home feeling. This is OBITUARY as they’ve always been. And to be honest, as they should be! A band with the ability to take two riffs like in ‘The Wrong Time’ and writing a small hit with them. Or the attacking title-track, which is based on the harsh drum-beats and fitting perfect for John Tardy’s voice. But, and that’s obvious on “Dying Of Everything” as well as it is rarely happening: John Tardy lifts his head to make the record become a state of the world’s address, like he also did on “World Demise” back in 1994. The apocalyptic cover artwork of Mariusz Lewandowski, the album title and tracks like ‘War’, played in their typical dragging and minimalized style, and ‘Weaponize The Hate’. Those songs are pulling up the questions, how many school massacres, how much internet hate, health crisis, climate crisis and the war in the Ukraine has made their way into this record? Weird times are often produces great art, OBITUARY are putting up this record as an example for this assertion. Sure, the fans will now discuss, if this one might be stronger than the previous album “Obituary” from 2017, but that is – openly said – discussing a luxury problem. Great album! Headliner tour in Europe, please! www.facebook.com/obituaryband, www.facebook.com/relapserecords
Wedekind Gisbertson
Dying Of Everything
(Relapse Records)
45:30min
“Dying Of Everything” is already the eleventh full length from Florida based Death Metallers OBITUARY and unlike many other bands, that started out around the same time in this genre, they haven’t really changed much. Some might call it boring, but I think it’s great, because whenever you see a release with the OBITUARY logo on it, you already know pretty well what to expect. That can also be said about the ten new tracks on “Dying Of Everything”, which are all one hundred percent OBITUARY again. You’ve got John Tardy’s unique and still totally amazing voice, then there’s Trevor Peres’ typical and still rather CELTIC FROST influenced riffs, plus the groovy rhythm section of Donald Tardy on drums and Terry Butler on bass, who both supply a solid foundation for the band’s material. Even Kenny Andrews, who joined the band on second guitar back in 2014 for the “Inked In Blood” album, fits in perfectly and didn’t really change much on the band’s successful formular. To me he even delivers the greatest leads since James Murphy on 1990’s classic “Cause Of Death” album. So, what do we get this time exactly then? The album kicks off very speedy with ‘Barely Alive’, a perfect opener that surprises with a very SLAYER – esque middle section at around the two minutes mark. Next up is ‘The Wrong Time’, which was already available as a video prior to the release of the album. The song is very groovy, pretty catchy and more in the typical OBITUARY style that we all know and love. ‘Without A Conscience’ is another groovy one, maybe a little bit slower and with a quite melodic solo section, while ‘War’ starts with machine gun fire and explosions and then offers the typical CELTIC FROST type riffing that OBITUARY is known for, some melodic soloing and even a couple of seconds of acoustic guitar at the three minutes mark. The title track ‘Dying Of Everything’ is next and it also starts very speedy, with punching drums, but after the solo section it turns into a typical OBITUARY groove monster. ‘My Will To Live’ opens up with a guitar riff that recalls the “Die by my hand” melody from METALLICA’s ‘Creeping Death’. It’s a typical OBITUARY track, with a groovy rhythm section and old CELTIC FROST type riffing, which towards the end all of a sudden surprises with another SLAYER – esque solo section. The song should be pretty much known already since it is out as a lyric video for quite a while by now. ‘By The Dawn’ is a double bass driven uptempo track, with crazy soloing and in ‘Weaponize The Hate’ John Tardy comes up with the very catchy lyric lines “Tell me what you need, I see, believe… Tell me what you need, I see… Tell me what you feel, unseal the deal… Tell me what you feel, reveal…” which gets repeated a few times throughout the track and could easily be sung along at live shows. The song combines all typical OBITUARY trademarks again, from the faster opening, to the CELTIC FROST riffing and the wellknown heavy groove. ‘Torn Apart’ features a great thrashy riff at the two minutes mark and the very dark and doomy album closer ‘Be Warned’, with its almost six minutes playing time, is the longest track on the album. The heavy sounding production fits the material like a glove and the very apocalyptic looking cover artwork perfectly visualizes the album title. The only little letdown is the booklet of the CD edition, which is just a two page folder, with no pics, no lyrics, no nothing… But, to sum it up: if you enjoyed OBITUARY in the past, “Dying Of Everything” most certainly won’t change anything about that. The six long years that have passed since the release of their last, self-titled album “Obituary”, luckily didn’t do any damage to their wellknown formular. And that’s already a lot more than what most other bands come up with these days. You can follow OBITUARY at www.facebook.com/obituaryband, label contact: www.facebook.com/relapserecords
Frank Stöver
Dying Of Everything
(Relapse Records)
45:30min
When I heard that OBITUARY are going to release a new album, I first listened to all the previous ten full-lengths. Surprising realization: “World Demise”, which I always considered to be one of the weaker albums, knows how to convince with an unbelievably brutal guitar sound. If you listen to the complete discography of the band from Florida you will inevitably come to the conclusion that the band’s style has actually never changed. And also on “Dying Of Everything” OBITUARY continue where they started 34 years ago with their debut “Slowly We Rot”. It is definitely something extraordinary that there is no break in style in a band history of almost forty years. When you hear the new album, you immediately feel at home, a pleasant feeling of comfort. As usually everyone has to decide for themselves whether “Dying Of Everything” is the band’s best album. For me yes, because there are some aspects that make the album special. First of all it is the quality of riffs, they sound crisp and fresh. I guess it is not that easy to write the same style of music without becoming boring. Secondly there is the balance in songwriting. Fast, mid-paced and slow, everything in a harmonious mix, without tilting too much in one direction or the other. All ten songs seem unbelievably tight, you never get the feeling that there is an unnecessary riff or drum fill somewhere. And the sound should also be mentioned, because it is well-balanced, punchy and let all the ingredients come into their own in equal parts. That is very important, because especially at this point the weaker albums have suffered. This timeless masterpiece of Death Metal is rounded off by a great cover, done by Mariusz Lewandowski, who sadly died last year. The usual way to get in touch can be found at www.facebook.com/obituaryband and www.facebook.com/relapserecords
Mirco Szymyslik
• OBITUARY - Live Xecution (Matthias Auch)
• OBITUARY - Inked In Blood (Bart Gabriel)
• OBITUARY - Frozen In Time (Edouard Vergriete)
• OBITUARY - Anthology (Frank Stöver)
• OBITUARY - Interview (László Dávid)