Obituary-Dying of Everything

First review of 2023! Like I said in my year end review posts, I’m really going to try and stay up with things this year.

2023 starts in a very appropriate manner with Obituary’s latest. The combination of the album title and the album art couldn’t be more perfect to start out the new year. I honestly can’t think of a better slogan to sum up the last few years that we’ve all dealt with than Dying of Everything. And the album cover by the late Mariusz Lewandowski, who has created some of the most arresting album art for metal bands in the past few years, is simply stunning. Check out his stuff if you’re not familiar with him.

So, the packaging and presentation of this album is superb. How does the music inside match up? Pretty good, I’d say. It feels like they have muddied up their guitar sound a bit and it kind of reminds me of Vulgar Display-era Pantera sound-wise. John Tardy’s vocals sound as dry and harsh as ever. It always feels as though he has gone on a walkabout through the desert right before they hit the studio. He just sounds like a man who is seriously parched. This release is not as gore obsessed as their earlier output. It feels more like an angry record with topics pulled from a lot of the problem areas our world is facing these days. All in all, a good start to the year of metal releases.

I also want to give a shoutout to drummer Donald Tardy’s Metal Meowlisha, which is an organization he and his girlfriend started to help care for and regulate colonies of feral cats in the Tampa area. They conduct a trap/spay/release program and help feed many of the feral cat colonies. Dispatches From the Void is a very cat friendly forum and I’d like to invite you to check out this organization and donate if you can. These are good people doing good things for cats.

https://obituary.cc/helpcats.html

3.5 flip flops out of 5