ALBUM REVIEW: Dying Of Everything – Obituary
Rarely do bands get a second bite at the cherry of success; even more scarce is said band taking their chance with aplomb. Floridian death metal veterans OBITUARY were given such an opportunity and, like the rest of their near four decades on this planet, did so on their own terms; the result is that, since their 2005 reformation, they’ve been churning out blindingly good records that rival their astonishing initial run during the 90s. Dying Of Everything is the next chapter in this exceptional career; their sixth album since coming back and eleventh overall, it appears Friday 13th January via Relapse Records.
The classic saying ‘don’t fix what ain’t broken’ applies to OBITUARY more than basically every rock and metal band not called AC/DC and it is certainly in effect here; don’t panic, Dying Of Everything isn’t an acoustic record with vocalist John Tardy doing his best Sinatra over the top. Nope, this is as classic as you can get with death metal, stuffed with more chugging riffs than giblets in your Christmas turkeys from last month and delivered with a groove so disgusting that, to use an internet expression, the collective ‘stank faces’ from all that listen will intensify like no tomorrow. Opening track Barely Alive wastes no time in getting to the point, a barrage of guitars and cymbal crashes as Tardy releases one of his customary growled screams; it’s a strong start, and only grows with The Wrong Time, the lead single; the main riff won’t be bettered by a lot of songs this calendar year and whilst the track isn’t as busy, it’s no less dynamic.
Guitarist Ken Andrews, whose soloing is second to none on the record, gets a chance to flex his thrash muscles on the title track and Torn Apart, both of which take that known groove and put it into triplets, resulting in tracks that thunder through before you’re aware they’ve ever done so; a special mention must also go to Joe Cincotta who mixed the album – it’s crisp and really brings out the violence in each track. Curiously, for all the crashing and shouting and despite the razor-sharp production, this is an album incredibly easy on the ear as well – it’s not hard to fall into a comfortable position and drift away as the music surges around you. Furthermore, it’s not the shortest album in existence at 45 minutes, but you’ll keep thinking it’s a good quarter of an hour shorter despite closing track Be Warned coming close to the six-minute mark. When all is said and done, you’ll be so surprised that you’ll want to listen to it again, and again, and so on; make no mistake, this will be on repeat across the next 12 months.
If Dying Of Everything is an indication of the quality of metal that will be around in 2023, then this will be an exceptional year for all things loud and lairy. OBITUARY don’t sound like they’re approaching their 40th birthday in the slightest; on the contrary, this is a marker for the entire death metal genre, one that says ‘Come on then, top this‘. Spoiler alert: there won’t be many, if any, bands that do.
Rating: 8/10
Dying Of Everything is set for release on January 13th via Relapse Records.
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