Obituary: Dying Of Everything, Living For More

For nearly forty years, OBITUARY have been to death metal what Old Faithful is to geysers. Even when you take their six-year hiatus from 1997 to 2003 into account, their output hasn’t wavered in that time and neither has their fanbase; indeed, some of those with a love for heavy music prefer their old school vibes over the newer crop of bands. The secret, according to vocalist John Tardy at least, is surprisingly simple.

“Honestly, I think it’s the groove in our music,” he tells Distorted Sound via Zoom. “We do some slow stuff and some fast stuff, but in between our ‘meat and potatoes’ is the groove in between, and that makes the difference. I don’t know why it is, but with myself, Donald [Tardy, John’s brother and OBITUARY drummer] and Trevor [Peres, guitars] having been together for so long, it’s what we love to do.”

Indeed, those three are the backbone of OBITUARY, all original members and completed by bassist Terry Butler and guitarist Ken Andrews. Together as a whole since 2012, this lineup is about to release their third record (and OBITUARY’s eleventh overall) in Dying Of Everything. After so long in the game, with a legacy firmly cemented, do they have anything to prove any more, or are they creating music solely for themselves?

“Definitely the latter – we didn’t really expect to do our first album, let alone our eleventh!” Laughs John. “We were teenagers just happy being in our parents’ garage, writing and playing songs that were recorded onto a tape player, not even considering live shows, so it was a surprise to us when Roadrunner came out of the blue for the first record (1989’s seminal debut Slowly We Rot) and it’s been a surprise to us ever since.”

“I couldn’t imagine trying to put pressure on ourselves, though,” he adds. “I could never say ‘okay, a lot of kids are getting into this kind of music, maybe we need to try it ourselves’; it’s just not the way we do things. You hear stories of record companies pressuring people into doing certain albums and maybe it works for some, but it would completely cripple us.”

The sentiment of this last statement would be met with universal agreement if spoken on a public forum, because OBITUARY really don’t need to be pressured into doing something different – especially not when Dying Of Everything continues the astonishing form they’ve been on since they reformed and released 2005’s Frozen In Time. Opening with the visceral onslaught of Barely Alive, through the riff-tacular The Wrong Time and the thrash influenced title track and Torn Apart, this is a band who are showing absolutely no signs of slowing down despite approaching their ruby anniversary. For John though, the release of his band’s first album in six years is a strange one because, well, a certain global event stopped it from being released much earlier.

“The album’s been done for about two years,” he reveals, “and sitting on it has been extremely painful because we’re very proud of it from all aspects – the writing, the recording, the production and the current marketing layout from Relapse Records. Everything has come together for us and, even though it’s odd that it’s happening two years down the line, it’s still very exciting.”

Most of the recording was done, like all their releases since reforming, at the Tardy’s home studio of Redneck during the global pandemic and, given John’s affirmation that lyrics are often the last thing to come about on a record, you don’t have to look too far to see what subject matters were being penned. “It’s hard not to be influenced by what’s going on around you,” he admits. “It [the pandemic] affected everybody so much and when you’re waking up every day learning something more about the virus, vaccinations, social distancing and everything else, it got to the point where you thought ‘my God, we’re pretty much dying of everything here, you know?’ All of a sudden, we had an album title.”

Although it’s been a blessing for OBITUARY to have their own studio, they still have time for their old digs at Morrisound Studios in Tampa, Florida – in fact, for those true audiophiles out there, there could be a special mix of Dying Of Everything appearing in the future. “We’re doing a full Atmos mix of the album!” Reveals John. “Morrisound revamped the studio to do an Atmos mix and there’s 13 speakers surrounding you. The beginning of the song War had a literal battle scene and when you hear it through all of those, you damn near get motion sickness! But it’s been a real treat to sit down with both Jim and Tom [Morris, studio owners] and work with them on that”

Talking of treats, OBITUARY are giving everyone in Europe one over the first quarter of 2023 with their first live shows on the continent since they opened for SLAYER’s farewell run back in 2018. This time, they’re supporting the co-headline force of HEAVEN SHALL BURNA and TRIVIUM with Sheffield bruisers MALEVOLENCE also along for the ride, and to say John is looking forward to the shows is a bit of an understatement. “We’ve always toured Europe on a regular basis; after the SLAYER run the plan had been to miss the summer festivals and plan a big headlining tour, but then the pandemic hit. Even so, when things started opening up again and we had invitations, we decided to sit them out, so we weren’t playing just two dates and then staying in a hotel all week; we wanted to keep moving and fit in some club shows. But they weren’t all open, bus and rental companies had shut down and crew members found other jobs, so we decided to stay patient. But what a tour to come back for, just as the new album is out as well; it’s gonna be awesome.”

Just for good measure, the band’s only headline show on that tour is in London, at the Electric Ballroom right at the very end of the run. “We weren’t doing the TRIVIUM tour in the UK and our emails were blowing up with people saying ‘why aren’t you coming over here?’” reveals John, “so it was fairly easy to set up a killer show over there; we’re going to play a lot of the new record and some other bits and pieces; we’ll be ready for it.”

Those other bits and pieces may include a track or two from the aforementioned Slowly We Rot which, along with OBITUARY’s 40th anniversary, turns 35 in 2024. Have there been any preliminary thoughts on a celebration of sorts to mark both runs? “I mean, after your 40th birthday, you stop celebrating them, don’t you?” Queries John with a smile. “I don’t know, nothing’s been discussed for that but right now we’re having too much fun with what we’re doing to think about that. Everything’s refreshed with the world opening up; we’ve got a new album to promote, we’re getting on some great tours and things are just going well; as long as we’re having fun, it’s a good time, and that’s all that matters.”

Dying Of Everything is out now via Relapse Records.

Like OBITUARY on Facebook.