Obituary "35 Years Of Cause Of Death"

“We’re doing what we’re having a good time doing. And if we don’t have a good time doing it, we’ll find something else to do.”

So bespoke Obituary drummer Donald Tardy in a 2023 interview with Invisible Oranges, echoing the sentiments of his brother and Obituary vocalist, John Tardy. The quote perfectly captures Obituary: At its core, being in Obituary is fun. John, Donald, alongside co-founding rhythm guitarist Trevor Peres and crucial late-career additions Terry Butler (bass) and Kenny Andrews (lead guitar), have forged a 40-year career doing what they love, which is playing death metal. It is as simple as that. The band doesn’t chase accolades or social media adulation. And Obituary truly doesn’t care about the latest trends. Instead, across 11 studio albums and countless live shows, Obituary has steadfastly stuck to its guns by playing some of the heaviest music known to man, accumulating a loyal fanbase across the world.

Obituary launched in 1984 as Executioner. Influenced by local Tampa, Florida heroes Nasty Savage and Savatage, as well as then-nascent thrashers Metallica and Slayer, Executioner honed their craft via a dedicated practice routine in the Tardys garage, which was soon brought to live stages. While some of the members of Executioner were well below the drinking age, their live shows — complete with drum risers, smoke bombs and urns — displayed an already mature unit that understood the value of presentation.

The band (also featuring lead guitarist Jerry Tidwell and bassist Jerome Grable) trekked later in 1984 to Tampa’s famed Morrisound Recording to track its thrash-inspired two-song Metal Up Your Ass debut demo. Shortly after that, two moments occurred that would forever change the band’s career: Peres discovered Celtic Frost and Hellhammer, helping him shape his guitar tone, and John Tardy discovered his iconic death metal voice. Combined with Donald Tardy’s innate rhythmic ability and new lead guitarist Allen West’s solos, Obituary had forged its sound.

After catching wind of another outfit named “Executioner,” a name change to “Xecutioner” was in order. It was followed by the band’s inclusion in the pivotal 1987 Raging Death compilation. Word quickly circulated through the metal underground of Xecutioner’s unrestrained heaviness, particularly John Tardy’s vocals. For many, it was unlike anything they’d ever heard. Now armed with eight songs, new bassist Daniel Tucker and eying an eventual record deal, Xecutioner re-entered Morrisound Recording with producer/engineer Rick Miller to track their Slowly We Rot debut in 1988. However, an accident forced Miller to leave the sessions, putting Xecutioner in the hands of the fledgling producer/engineer Scott Burns, who quickly bonded with the members of the band.

A deal with Dutch label Roadrunner Records was signed in late 1988 that coincided with a name change to Obituary. Slowly We Rot was unleashed upon unsuspecting ears in May 1989. The sheer brutality of it all — from Peres and West’s subterranean riffs to John Tardy’s rabid, indecipherable bellows — was an immediate revelation in death metal circles. Never before had a band sounded this extreme while having the songs to back it all up. Flanked by promotional shots that obscured the band’s faces (courtesy of a back-alley photo shoot in Ybor City by Tampa scene photographer Tim Hubbard), Obituary quickly became one of the most talked-about names in the death metal underground, with fans and journalists alike taking their turns trying to decipher John Tardy’s lyrics (he never used a lyric sheet) while trying to put a face to the band. (Obituary’s live appearances were limited at this time.) The impact of Slowly We Rot is immeasurable; it remains a standard-bearer for extremity and one of death metal’s most impactful debuts.

Cause of Death arrived a year later, this time with James Murphy stepping in for Allen West in the lead guitar spot and Frank Watkins assuming the bass position for Daniel Tucker. While Murphy’s classically inspired solos added a new dimension to Obituary’s sound, Peres and Donald Tardy carried nearly the full songwriting load, assembling a batch of cuts that would remain live set mainstays, “Chopped in Half,” “Dying” and “Turned Inside Out.” Obituary’s first U.S. tour followed the release of Cause of Death, including an appearance on the legendary “S.O.S.” bill alongside headliners Sepultura and opening act Sadus.

Behind the momentum of Cause of Death, Obituary’s third studio album, The End Complete, arrived two years later. Once again partnering with Scott Burns and West returning to his lead guitar spot, The End Complete’s raw and natural production values highlighted songs that were now fully enmeshed in groove, as signified by the opening cut “I’m in Pain” as well as the title track, which also received music video treatment and heavy rotation on MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball. The album eventually reached 150,000 units in sales, making it one of the highest-selling death metal albums of all time.

Obituary’s fourth studio album, 1994’s World Demise, arrived at a time when death metal became oversaturated and outfits such as Machine Head, Pantera and Sepultura ruled the day. Obituary, however, used it as an opportunity to diversify its sound. Peres, Donald Tardy and Morrisound Recording engineer “Super” Brian Benscoter incorporated a myriad of industrial effects to add a new angle to Obituary. Combined with John Tardy’s harsh lyrical take on corporations plundering the world for their greed, World Demise stands alone as Obituary’s most adventurous album.

With Burns approaching retirement from studio work, Obituary tapped Madball producer Jamie Locke for Back from the Dead, the band’s fifth studio album. Recorded at Miami’s legendary Criteria Studios, Back from the Dead housed some of the band’s most groove-oriented material, such as “By the Light,” “Download” and “Lockdown.”  

In 1998, the members of Obituary decided to take a much-deserved break to focus on their families and other projects. Peres started Catastrophic and released The Cleansing studio album in 2001. Donald Tardy joined over-the-top rocker Andrew W.K.’s band, whose major label debut, I Get Wet, spawned several hit singles, affording Donald the opportunity to perform on Saturday Night Live as well as the 2002 installment of Ozzfest, where an impromptu reunion with Donald, John and Trevor set the stage for the band’s 2003 reactivation.  

Obituary’s first album in eight years, Frozen in Time, arrived in 2005, followed by a switch in record companies to Candlelight Records and the addition of new lead guitarist Ralph Santolla in 2007. The changes signified a new era for Obituary, prompting the Xecutioner’s Return album title for the band’s sixth studio effort. The album also marked another drastic change for Obituary: The band built its own studio with a Pro Tools rig on John Tardy’s property, enabling them to record at all hours of the day. The process helped shape the band’s next album, Darkest Day, which arrived two years later and highlighted Santolla’s elaborate, Michael Schenker-inspired guitar solos.

Bassist Terry Butler (formerly of Death, Massacre and Six Feet Under) joined Obituary in 2010, a long overdue event considering he has been one of the band’s closest friends since their formation. And Santolla (who passed away in 2018) was replaced by Andrew W.K. guitar tech Kenny Andrews in 2012, stabilizing Obituary’s lineup. Behind a crowdfunding effort and a new deal with Relapse Records, Inked in Blood was released in 2014. It was immediately hailed by fans and critics as one of Obituary’s finest efforts in years, propelled by a heavy touring cycle.

Simply titled Obituary, the band’s tenth studio album was released during a death metal renaissance. A new wave of fans started to discover bands like Obituary, while old standbys were reminded of the band’s greatness through cuts like “Brave” and “Sentence Day.” A marquee spot on Slayer’s European tour ensued, where the sound of Peres’s ungodly guitar tone melted arenas across the continent.

The 2020 Covid pandemic took Obituary and their peers off the road. The band made the most of its downtime with a series of livestreams that gave fans the opportunity to hear classic albums in full and deep cuts that are rarely performed live. Along the way, Obituary kept writing new material, culminating with Dying of Everything, which, once again, was recorded at the band’s own RedNeck Studios in Gibsonton, Florida and produced and mixed by Joe Cincotta, with engineering credits yet again falling to Mark Prator, a longtime friend of the band.

Dying of Everything, as one would surmise, is everything one would expect from Obituary. From the thrashy “Barely Alive” to the all-out stomp of “The Wrong Time” and the innate groove of “My Will to Live,” Dying of Everything is Obituary at its finest, fitting for a band that has defied age, expectations and shifting musical tastes.

Obituary is built upon brotherhood, friendship and music—three unbreakable bonds. From the garages of Brandon, Florida, to the big festival stages of Europe and beyond, Obituary has never lost sight of what matters: a prime recipe for longevity.   

“I love the idea of creating music for people that are not in my town or not even in my state or country, that is not just waiting for us but rooting us on,” Donald told me in 2023. “It's bigger than us. Obituary is part of people's lives.”

For the first time in over 8 years, the blistering assault on our nervous system that can only be described as the sound of NAILS, has reemerged. With Carlos Cruz on drums, Andrew Solis on Bass, Shelby Lermo on Guitars, and Todd Jones on guitar & vocals, the upcoming studio album, EVERY BRIDGE BURNING, will be revealed August 30th, 2024 via Nuclear Blast Records.

The album artwork, a creation by Jef Whitehead, serves as a visual prelude to the auditory chaos—a stark representation of the aural brutality that NAILS delivers.

Recording for the album commenced in Massachusetts at God City Studio with Kurt Ballou (of CONVERGE), whose contribution is integral to the NAILS sound, as elucidated by Jones: “we’ve recorded every album with Kurt. He’s such an important ingredient as to how we present our music. When our fans want to hear NAILS, they want to hear something that is through the filter of Kurt’s engineering.” 

EVERY BRIDGE BURNING was born out of unwavering dedication to NAILS fans and the underground music scene. It echoes their commitment to authenticity and raw power. NAILS remains a beacon of rebellion and resilience in a world hungry for genuine expression. With no shortage of effort or meticulous song arrangement, the time has arrived to become engulfed in the ferocity of NAILS once again as EVERY BRIDGE BURNING unveils a new, but familiar chapter in extreme music.   

“This band was modeled after some of my favorite bands; the type of bands where, when they put out an album, you know what it’s going to sound like,” describes Jones, “it’s the delivery of the expectation.” The sensory destroying musical onslaught that we’ve all been missing is back. NAILS is Todd Jones, Carlos Cruz, Andrew Solis, and Shelby Lermo.

LA based powerhouse Terror have always been a name synonymous with hardcore. From their inception in 2002, the band have displayed a level of steadfast dedication unlike any other in the scene. Now with six studio albums, a series of live albums, splits, compilations and EP’s under their belts, the scene veterans are gearing up to release their latest full length ‘Total Retaliation’. The new album which is penned for a September 28^th release date features Fit For An Autopsy’s Will Putney (Thy Art Is Murder, Body Count, Knocked Loose) in the producers chair and is the band’s first new material since last years ‘The Walls Will Fall’ EP. Clocking in at just under 30 minutes, ‘Total Retaliation’ is a succinct yet intense message of resistance within a world that can inspire little else. It’s a helping hand for the disillusioned and a firm middle finger to the authorities that are tearing apart society as we know it. As the band’s seventh full length studio album it serves as yet another example of why Terror have not only endured but remained at the top of their game for over 15 years.

Terror are:

Scott Vogel – Vocals

Nick Jett – Drums

Martin Stewart – Guitar

Jordan Posner – Guitar

Chris Linkovich – Bass

“With, Helldorado, the third installment of SPIRITWORLD’s deathwestern trifecta, chief hombre Stu Folsom takes the listener deeper into a world where the hot desert sun beats down on his singular vision of the American West as a gateway to hell. “It’s a different album than the past two,” says Folsom, of the thematic and sonic journey that began with the Las Vegas band’s 2020’s Pagan Rhythms LP and continued with 2022’s Deathwestern. Now, the story rides on in a cloud of dust and a spray of blood with his latest offering. Helldorado blasts the Mojave-born bloodlust and stomping, tomahawk riffs SPIRITWORLD won their brutal, horrific vision of the old west with while riding straight into macabre Americana “I could have done Deathwestern again,” says Stu of the album that won SPIRITWORLD international acclaim. “But that’s shortchanging the fans and myself.” Helldorado rings with the sort of true grit few heavy records do. From the urgent honky tonk swing of opener “Abilene Grime” straight into riffs that Slayer would be proud to call their own on “No Vacancy in Heaven” or “Waiting On the Reaper”. SPIRITWORLD hits with the fury of a cattle drive gone out of control. However, it’s with the punk-ish, rootsy swagger of “Bird Song of Death” and the spare, melancholic chords of “Prayer Lips” that Helldorado heads into yet unclaimed territory for Folsom and his rhinestone encrusted crew. “I like to make records that flow, that tell a story,” says Stu. “Helldorado does just that and sums up where we’ve been and where this is going.” Helldorado not only tightens the reins SPIRITWORLD’s riff-riding that has won the band “most played” stature at Sirius XM’s Liquid Metal, but also looks over its shoulder (with a cigarillo dangling from a sun parched lip) at their punk driven outlaw country origins. Folsom and his gang first assaulted Vegas Elks Lodges in 2017 on a mission to brand country music with a manic singalong energy cultivated over years involved in the local hardcore scene. “Dwight Yoakum probably meant as much to me growing up as Black Flag or Slayer did,” says Stu. With country in his soul and metal in his veins, Folsom had a yearning for the power of the riff. This found him teaming with producer/mixer Sam Pura (who has produced all 3 SPIRITWORLD records) to unleash Pagan Rhythms, first on the tiny independent label Safe Inside Records. The much buzzed about debut album caught the eye of Century Media who signed the band and issued the album worldwide a year later. The reaction to the album, which drew comparison to the likes of Slayer or Integrity was nothing short of overwhelming. Not surprisingly, it was the purity of Folsom’s vision that won raves from the likes of Gary Holt and Soulfly leader, Max Cavalera, who raved about the band on their social media. Helldorado is the next chapter of Folsom’s cycle of Western weirdness that draws inspiration from his own published literary work, Godlessness, a collection of short stories rooted in Lovecraftian horror and Louis LaMour’s classic tales of the American West. The track, “Oblivion”, which features additional vocals from Sgah’gahsowah, leader of Adirondack black metal band, Black Braid and a guest solo by Rise Against guitarist Zach Blair, truly spells out the darkness of Folsom’s gritty vision. From the James Bousema cover of a lonesome, skeletal rider peering into hell, This isn't "How the West Was Won", it's something far darker and demonic. “Stigmata Scars”, which features additional guitar work by Kreator’s Frederic Leclercq digs even deeper into SPIRITWORLD’s already horrific lyrical vistas. “It definitely continues the fiction side of things,” says Stu. “It continues post Godlessness onto a new cycle of stories. Helldorado is a sneak peek into what happens next in that world. It’s the same sort of epic horror Western fiction quest that has been happening on this trilogy of records.” Folsom freely admits that his foray into gritty pulp fiction is essential to SPiRITWORLD’s Western world building – and vice versa. “In the song ‘Waiting on the Reaper”, there’s a line, ‘I saw a vision of my fate in a puddle of piss and jaguar blood’. That was a lyric that just came while I was playing guitar and mumbling gibberish. That’s such a cool line that it’s become a couple chapters in the book I’m writing. Two lines in a heavy metal song that somehow grew into several thousand words of fiction. One informs the other.” SPIRITWORLD live, is where the rubber meets the road for Stu Folsom and crew. Taking the stage in embroidered, rhinestone-ed jackets and Stetson hats, the energized fivesome is literally Elvis’ Wrecking Crew from Hell. From their inaugural stint on Decibel Magazine’s branded jaunt with Obituary and Municipal Waste in early 2022 to recent North American tours including a co-headline run with metal legends Kreator and Sepultura as well as hardcore heroes Stick To Your Guns and European festivals including the UK’s legendary Bloodstock and France’s Hellfest. “The mentality on some of these tours is literally ripping a page from The Ramones or Against Me!, don’t stop, no stage banter, just rip your songs.” Helldorado will also be a turning point for SPIRITWORLD when Stu Folsom and Co. take the stage. “If you go see a rippin rockabilly band or a really good honky tonk band, maybe for the encore or maybe most of the way through the set the band will strip it down and get on a barstool,” says Stu. “I’d like to take those sorts of dynamics. Just making it more impactful Maybe the big epic production of something like Ghost where the intensity goes down. Maybe some pedal steel and some singer-songwriter storytelling from this world I’ve created.” One thing’s for sure, SPIRITWORLD is back with an album that is as much Sergio Leon as it is Slayer. When asked to sum up where it’s all going, Stu Folsom steps back, considers the question and answers plainly. “Straight to hell, my friend. Straight to hell.”