Obituary - Obituary

As I am getting to so many albums quite a bit after their release dates (at least in writing about them) because of finals and finally spending time with people I haven’t been able to for a long time, I figured I’d just back into it with Obituary’s new self-titled record because I think I’ll be able to be concise and efficient with this one.

It’s their 10^th album and it has, to such a great extent, done just what the previous 9 records have done from a sonic standpoint. Like other genre-formative and pioneering bands like Slayer and Iron Maiden (somewhat, regarding what I’m about to mention, not how legendary they are), Obituary have held tightly to the style with which they achieved their influential status pretty much all throughout their career even while Death and death metal continued to push the envelope with the style. While Obituary are not artistically obligated to do anything other than what they believe suits them best and maintains their identity, their choice to remain stylistically anchored in the primordial days of death metal puts them in a position that makes it progressively harder to keep from sounding stale as death metal continues to evolve at its current rate. Fortunately for them, the subgenre has not moved away from or declared obsolete the style they perpetuate. And with their self-titled album at this point in their extensive career, they seem to be confirming the firmness with which they are rooting themselves in the soil they’ve tended. Again, this is not an objectively bad thing; they sound tight on this record all the way through, as good as new, and what they’ve been doing their whole career, they certainly continue to do well. They are, however, whether they realize it or not, making a choice that could steepen the road ahead for them by continuing to play death metal the same way they did when they had less competition. They have aged almost not at all and the experience they have and their legacy of course give them an advantage over younger bands, but many of those younger bands are pioneers in their own right and, if I may be potentially contentious here, more and more of them are surpassing Obituary in terms of relevance and influence (Gojira, Behemoth, Opeth, Decapitated, etc.) and for many people like me who discover these bands (and other very talented young bands like Abysmal Dawn) before Obituary, their historic significance becomes a more and more significant factor in comparison to their music when it comes to being suggested as a band for newer death metal fans to check out. I’m not saying it’s all about sales or being trendy, but for a genre that is now 3 decades old, bands like Obituary survive by way of their legacy and reliability, which usually do not push a band to any incredibly new heights of cultural significance. That’s fine for them and their ability to maintain themselves like a non-decelerating marathon runner has definitely kept their fan-base rather satisfied, and while I personally respect their dedication and their contributions to this music I love, I don’t consider them to be one of my favorites because they don’t do for me anything as unique as what they may have in their earlier days or anything that can really go head to head with albums like Still Life or From Mars to Sirius. At the same time, I totally get how plenty of people do vibe with their music on such a deep level and I understand that love much more than, say, the love for Black Veil Brides or something. I’m not saying it’s bad to like them, I just don’t understand the appeal. That’s music, this has now become very generalized; I really thought this would be shorter.