Review Summary: Obituary masterfully blend simplicity with jaw-dropping technicality for their seminal second release, Cause of Death.
Xecutioner formed in the American death metal capital of Tampa, Florida. Shortly before releasing their first album
Slowly We Rot, they dropped this name and became the legendary
Obituary.
Slowly We Rot was widely heralded as a landmark of the genre, and Obituary quickly became an influential band in the '80's Florida death metal scene.
The Lineup:
John Tardy - Vocals
James Murphy - Lead Guitar*
Trevor Peres - Rhythm Guitar
Frank Watkins - Bass
Donald Tardy - Drums
*Replacement for former lead guitarist Allen West. West returned for the next album,
The End Complete.
For most Obituary fans,
Cause of Death is the album on which the band perfected its sound. With the addition of guitarist James Murphy, Obituary successfully blended furious guitarwork with brutal delivery. Vocalist John Tardy is regarded as one of the first of the genre to utilize the abnormally low growls commonly heard in death metal today. His vocals are most easily comparable to the late Chuck Schuldiner of
Death. Tardy often uses a phlegmy vocal approach to achieve lower growls.
A great advantage of Tardy's inhuman voice is the lack of distortion contained within it. While many death metal frontmen are known for their indecipherable vocal technique (i.e. Chris Barnes of Cannibal Corpse), Tardy's voice is clear enough for the listener to separate most of the lyrics. What sets Tardy apart from many death metal vocalists is his ability to use his voice purely to accompany the music. A fine example of this manifests itself on
Chopped In Half. These are the only lyrics to the track, yet throughout the assault Tardy simply growls or screams to fit the music.
Chopped In Half
Feel the Blood Spill from your Mouth
With Rotting Ways comes Destiny
Feel the Soul taking over
Bleed
One of the outstanding qualities of
Cause of Death is the mix of simple riffs with furious lead guitar playing. Songs like
Chopped In Half aren't exactly technical, yet they are so aggressive and brutal that it becomes of little concern to the listener. The opening track
Infected consists of about 4 chords used over and over, and just as it seems easily categorized as another simple death metal song, James Murphy delivers soaring leads behind a wall of artificial harmonics. If that wasn't enough, Obituary even manage to pay homage to Swiss titans
Celtic Frost with a cover of the thrash standard
Circle of the Tyrants.
The only weak point of
Cause of Death is the rhythm section, limited to the bass and drums. I challenge any listener to separate bass tracks from the rest of the mix on this album, and while Donald Tardy is an effective drummer, his work is not stellar by any reach of the word. The bass simply follows the guitar, so even if it were audible it wouldn't enhance the experience very much. Continuing in that direction, a very distinguishing trait of Obituary (especially on
Cause of Death) is the downright thrashiness of many of the songs. While many tracks contain slow and sinister sections, Obituary add surprising bursts of speed to the music which usually appear toward the solos. The diversity in the tempo of tracks is a great asset to the listenability of the album.
Dying is a great example of this.
In Conclusion:
For avid death metal fans, Obituary's second offering is essential. Don't simply discard this album as ordinary based on something as simple as the song titles or vocals. My first impression of
Cause of Death was one of distaste at parody-worthy song titles like
Body Bag, yet Obituary managed to win my ears over after only the first three tracks.
Cause of Death is a quintessential death metal classic surpassed in terms of influence perhaps only by the debut efforts of
Death and
Morbid Angel.
