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OBITUARY
1989 - Slowly We Rot.
1990 - Cause Of Death.
1992 - The End Complete.
1994 - World Demise.
more OBITUARY.
way more Helter Skelter.

May 16, 1989 - 2024: 35 years of: Slowly We Rot.

"All the way, from Tampa Florida, it's OBITUARY !!!"
...that live intro-call heard on stages across the globe, the intro to your imminent death.

Deeply rooted in the HELLHAMMER / CELTIC FROST riff-pattern, XECUTIONER became known to the world as OBITUARY in May of 1989. Real deathmetal in it's purest form: no Satan, no keyboards, no clean-guitars, no ifs-and-buts ...just plain: "Death" and "Metal" united as one. The heaviest guitar-tone, the laidback double-bassdrum foundation and the voice, that sick repulsive guttural voice that sat them apart.

Here's an actual sample taken from the none existent lyric-sheet:
"WWWHHHUUUUAAAARRRRGGGGHHH !!!!!!!"

No kidding, for most parts of some songs, there are no actual words being used, just John Tardy's vomited style of deathmetal spew. His voice is plain aural-violence. For reference, here are some fan-made lyrics interpretations: http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/obituary/slowlywerot.html

The slow rotting process begins with "Internal Bleeding", the riff, the lead, the dark vibe and the voice: 3:02sec of pure metal-messiah Armageddon. "Godly Beings" sneaks up on you and when the vocal kicks in, you are doomed to die. The commanding opening riff of "Deadly Intentions" dictates the pace and forces everyone to headbang into submission.

"Gates To Hell" is the band's fastest song in their entire catalog as it fits right up there along the speedmetal greats: "Endless Pain", "Hardening Of The Arteries" and the majesty of "Visual Aggression". The haunting title-track sets the mood slowly and then all hell breaks loose in a speedmetal moshpit, while the massive doom-intro of "Stinkupuss" closes the LP and builds-up into another meat-grinder.

Look around, we are slowly rotting.

Part of the initial Tampa scene, along fellow buddies DEATH, MASSACRE and MORBID ANGEL, OBITUARY stuck to their guns by releasing similar records, over and over. Recorded on 8-tracks at renown Morrisound Studios by now renown engineer Scott Burns, Slowly We Rot came across 1000 time more brutally crystal-clear then some major-label counterparts from the thrashmetal realm of the era.

The stable core lineup of brothers Jon & Don Tardy, along main axemen Trevor Peres, has been the backbone of this sepulture since Day One. This pile of putrefaction shall up it's game with additional lead-guitar virtuoso James Murphy and head into more morbid tales: 1990's Cause Of Death CD.

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Slowly We Rot = full LP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0uwGfg9w6o&list=OLAK5uy_lOpGBQx8kIxwCWJu1P8slLAaB0HwIasVQ
Live in Milwaukee in 1989
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P7tS2fGB-0

September 19, 1990 - 2020: 30 years of: Cause Of Death.

8 x 3 = 24

Florida in the very late 80s, land of sun, fun and deathmetal. A farm for deathmetal, just like California was with thrashmetal, this time Tampa is Ground Zero for visionaries like: MASSACRE, DEATH, MORBID ANGEL and XECUTIONER ...that will eventually turn inside out into OBITUARY.

After the demo-cycle, the Slowly We Rot LP is released to an unexpected world in May 1989, changing the game and creating extreme-metal. Taking, once again, the brutal essence of VENOM and HELLHAMMER / CELTIC FROST riff-patterns, Cause Of Death pushed this new agenda of "heavy-doom-deathmetal".

The end of your world begins while being "Infected". The massive guitar death-tone suffocates as the drums builds-up to an eventual stampede. "Chopped In Half" ..."feel the blood spill from your mouth, with rotting ways comes destiny" leave not much to the imagination: this is a cause of death. The fastest of speedmetal, downtuned to D for that special grit and the vocals from hell, literally, are present on "Find The Arise" and the gut-wrenching "Turned Inside Out" is a quick-sand in the macabre.

The added bonus, CELTIC FROST's classick "Circle Of The Tyrants" is a perfect fit, as the OBITUARY-signature is directly linked to the aforementioned Swiss Gods.

Produced by Scott Burns at the world-famous Morrisound Studios on fat cutting-edge 24-tracks, 1990's Cause Of Death CD is considered the Welcome To Hell, the Seven Churches, the Reign In Blood of the deathmetal movement. A sick show-stopper, a required-listening and an undeniable influence in the extremes. A shape-shift in the scenes, as by then, thrashmetal was in the passenger-seat in the brutal department.

The lead-guitar duties are taken by force by upcoming stalwart hero James Murphy, from CANCER and DEATH fame. Yet the vocals remains the focal point of this release and overall band-catalog. John Tardy's deadly divine deathmetal delivery is still, 30 years later, unmatched.

WWWHHHUUUUAAAARRRRGGGGHHH !!!!!!!

*
Cause Of Death = full CD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzTC3J0xRUs&list=OLAK5uy_lqPnxUNdL-UoBaqeDyL7YqcOwnMHMkKfI
Interview and live in 1990
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQKS-koJeOQ
Live in Los Angeles in 1990
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XaCcLb1B_k
Some guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WZ9rE2KlIw

April 21, 1992 - 2022: 30 years of: The End Complete.

The return of Allen West.

The death-tone is here, the deadly trio is near. The dinosaurs of deathmetal strikes a home-run with The End Complete. OBITUARY: an 1989 formula that still gets the floor movin' and the scene shaking.

WWWHHHUUUUAAAARRRRGGGGHHH !!!!!!!

...is the scream John Tardy yells as "I'm In Pain" sets-in. The ravaging "Back To One" crushes any non-believer into a pulp. On lead-guitar, Mr. West displays chromatic-magic on "In The End Of Life" and on the album's closer, the decaying flesh-stew of "Rotting Ways". The über sludgy "Corrosive" and "Killing Time" shows a band still putting heavy-tone and fat-vibe at the forefront of their mix.

One of deathmetal's crowning achievement: actual MTV video-exposure. The title-cut for "The End Complete" did get some air-play, tempting the SLAYER / PANTERA crowd into this "new" form of extreme-music. The 1992-93 era, the only timeframe-window where the deathmetal genre had commercial appeal and public-acknowledgement. OBITUARY, along other Florida monsters DEICIDE, DEATH and MORBID ANGEL all had strong records to support this unknown genre to the metal-masses. A short but very real place in time, where extremities were part of the rock-equation.

The end is near.
The end is here.
The End Complete !

The signature remains unchanged: Burns, Morrisound, Roadrunner ...and tuned to D. Yet in 1993-94, a grinding swift shift in the deathmetal-agenda took a strangle on the genre. OBITUARY's answer would be the socially conscious 1994 World Demise CD.

*
The End Complete = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE34z7uVjSM
The End Complete = full CD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX_EfkuY0yw&list=OLAK5uy_kdUhX_iMY0BwmVN6Txc7O9TVkRHnjAQ_4
Interview in Tampa in 1992
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbsh3BLEtyI
Live in Miami in 1992
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBWcK0I6S5o

September 6, 1994 - 2024: 30 years of: World Demise.

A different filth.

After 1992's The End Complete CD, the scene morphed. Some deathmetal acts included the prog-element, the punk-element and the elusive rock-element. OBITUARY never changes, yet they were now pumping a new kind of filth.

Fat and fuming, the thick production hammers-on "Burned In" and the precise killings of "Splattered". Pushing new extremes to the breaking-point of "Final Thoughts" and the equivalently violent "Redefine", incorporating metal-grooves and street-stamina.

The leading single for "Don't Care" cracks skulls on cue. The accompanying video proposes ecological, biohazard and sociological images, a view on a different kind of horror. Conscious themes and depolluting our minds ...a different twist for deathmetal.

1994: caught between the new kids of GREEN DAY, an imminent KORN and the Church burners of Norway ...Tampa's traditional deathmetal was grinding its last corpse.

Yet before slowly rotting away, OBITUARY would silently release 1997's Back From The Dead CD ...before 2005's turned inside out return, during the metal millennium redneck stomp revival.

RIP Frank Watkins (1968-2015)

*
Don't Care = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9yb88fa4MA
World Demise = full CD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmfaTqzfKO0&list=PLQmN-06AIa9IoAgdS3p6I9xf19atg4nl5
MuchMusic interview in Montreal in 1994
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PweBIpazgk4
Live in Montreal in 1994
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8PfDGZxE0M

more OBITUARY:

Frères métalliques
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Death-Metal 1988-92
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At Death's Door
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SIX FEET UNDER