Obituary - World Demise (1994)^{Release ID: 2359}

It is virtually impossible to underline importance of Obituary in terms of them being my gateway into death metal some thirty plus years ago. If your first taste of a death metal vocalist is John Tardy on Slowly We Rot, a man who rarely used actual words to express his vocals then you were pretty much guaranteed to be either repulsed and run straight back to your Iron Maiden LP’s or be so drawn in that there was soon no way back from the path you had been dragged down. As the years have rolled by, watching other stalwarts of the early nineties’ scene fade away, I would argue that although they do not have a flawless discography, Obituary are still consistent performers of death metal who have a lot more in their arsenal other than those glorious first two records.

Hence my nomination of World Demise for the October feature release. I feel like the internet has talked endlessly about the first two Obituary albums and much of the discography is an almost presumed failure by comparison. Although I accept that World Demise does not match those classic outputs from 1989 and 1990, it still possesses enough identity to standout in the grander scheme of things. This was a slower paced Obituary, shed of its more scathing skin of old with a more socio-political bluntness being deployed instead. When Tardy sneers that he really does not care on the opening track, you believe him, 100%. Backed by his brother’s solid drumming and the superb bass of the late Frank Watkins, John could not ask for a better set of backup weapons to his unique and newly legible vocal attack.

Despite, the slower pace, the more focused lyrics and general stripped back nature of the record, it is still quintessentially Obituary. Those riffs from Peres and West are as familiar as ever and if you allow yourself to get lost in them, you could just as easily be listening to the debut album all over again. World Demise ultimately lacks any truly standout moments though. Despite its solid musicianship and altered direction that they carry off well enough, it does tend to plod in places. The loss of that dense atmosphere left a few cracks uncovered and those snippets don’t land well when they try including them. The best example here being that shifting effect on Splattered which I think is one of the worst errors of judgement in the history of the band.

These quibbles are just that though, nothing earth shattering when taken in the context of the whole record which is a solid slab of death metal. Give me World Demise over Tales From The Thousand Lakes or Blasphemy Made Flesh from the same year.

Florida death metallers Obituary played an extremely important role in my teenage years. The late 1980's had seen me very quickly being transformed from a pimple-faced hard rock & heavy metal kid into a fully-fledged thrash nut off the back of the Big Four but it wouldn't be long before the lure of the darker & more intense death metal world would start to progressively increase the tension on the chord it had attached to the back of my pants when I first heard Death's "Leprosy" album. Some devastating experiences with underground metal radio programming would lead to me purchasing both of Obituary's first two albums (1989's "Slowly We Rot" & 1990's "Cause of Death") & I very quickly became a convert for life. The vocal talents of front man John Tardy left me gasping for superlatives & he's remained my favourite death metal vocalist to this day while the incredible doomy atmosphere & dazzling guitar virtuosity of James Murphy on "Cause of Death" have left it in the top echilon of the global death metal movement for all the decades since. By the time 1992's super-successful "The End Complete" album hit my CD drawer, I regarded myself as an Obituary tragic who had even secured dubbed copies of the early Xecutioner demos so my anticipation for 1994's "World Demise" fourth album was pretty much at the maximum recordable level & I'm not sure whether that actually had an impact on my feelings about the album but I've generally always found that I rated it a fair bit higher than other metalheads seem to. I've returned to it regularly over the years but have never gotten around to rating it until now so it'll be interesting to see where it sits against Obituary's highly celebrated earlier works.

"World Demise" saw Obituary displaying signs of an internal battle of sorts. On the one hand, we see a band that already had a very well-defined sound & who is very comfortable to stay within those parameters with the album once again being recorded at Florida's notorious Morrisound Studios with legendary death metal producer Scott Burns. All of Obituary's albums to the time had been recorded in this fashion so this was hardly a leap of faith. The band's lineup had remained the same as the one that saw original lead guitarist Allen West returning to the fold for "The End Complete" after Murphy had finished his duties with "Cause of Death" so there was definitely a lot of consistency around the Obituary machine at the time & when you first hear "World Demise" you won't be terribly surprised with what you hear initially. There are subtle differences on display that are worth discussing though. Obituary's first album "Slowly We Rot" saw them blending a doomy Celtic Frost sound with a thrashier & more up-tempo Slayer one. We'd seen the thrash influence easing a little over time but "World Demise" sees them predominantly steering away from their faster material, instead focusing on more restrained tempos with the groovier elements they'd worked into their riff structures being further amplified to become the main focal point & the Celtic Frost inspiration being further embraced & celebrated. The album still sounds very much like Obituary but they'd certainly limited their focus a little towards a groovier form of death metal that West would later take with him to his Six Feet Under project. The cover artwork indicated that Obituary might be starting to take a more socially conscious approach with their lyrics too & I tend to think that's got some merit to it although John Tardy had never been big on structured lyric sheets, instead tending to improvise with random words & phrases. The most noticeable addition to the Obituary sound though was the inclusion of a number of samples, some taking the form of industrial sounds that are layered over the death metal. While this is an interesting idea, I feel that the band have failed in that endeavour as these samples are poorly integrated & seem to be fairly random in the way they've been tossed into the mix. They really don't add anything to the music, instead only acting as more of a distraction than anything.

Despite these changes, if you were already a fan of Obituary then you'll feel very much at home with "World Demise". The rhythm section of bassist Frank Watkins & drummer Donald Tardy tie in so tightly with rhythm guitarist Trevor Peres that you'd be forgiven for thinking that they were conjoined twins. In fact, it's hard to argue with the idea that Obituary might have been the tightest death metal band on the planet at the time & when you toss in a wonderfully thick & heavy Scott Burns production then it can only lead to a positive outcome as far as I'm concerned. Frank & Donald provide the perfect platform for the endless string of heavy-weight Peres riffs that Obituary have built their career on while John Tardy was at the pinnacle of his powers at this point with his delivery sounding as monstrous & pissed-off as we'd ever heard from him before. Allen West's lead guitar performance is the clear weak point for me personally as I've never thought he was much of a talent on his chosen instrument. James Murphy's insane melodic solos on "Cause of Death" had only provided further weight to my pre-existing opinion that a top-level shredder could take the band to all new levels & it seems a shame that West's return had seen that potential being limited.

The tracklisting is very solid indeed & I've found myself enjoying all twelve tracks included. There are a couple of less impressive numbers in the super-groovy "Redefine" & the more basic "Lost" but the tight performances & excellent production job still give those numbers a level of enjoyment that makes them more than acceptable. The remaining ten songs are all excellent, if not terribly different from Obituary's previous work with the riffs & vocals feeling fairly familiar for the most part. There are a couple of absolute gems here though with "Paralyzing" comparing very well to past glories & the incredible closer "Kill For Me" sitting amongst Obituary's finest work. My copy of the album contained a bonus track called "Killing Victims Found" which sounds a little closer to Obituary's previous albums but is also very good & I can't help but think that the album would have been stronger if they'd replaced "Redefine" or "Lost" with it.

Overall, I can't deny that "World Demise" is the least impressive Obituary album to the time but I think it still sits fairly comfortably alongside "Slowly We Rot" & "The End Complete" to be honest so I would still suggest that it's heavily underrated & should be essential listening for fans of the band, particularly given that I don't think they've matched it in terms of consistency or quality in all the years since. This is one tight & chunky slab of Florida death metal that doesn't try to be anyone else but Obituary while still trying a few new ideas with varying levels of success. I can deal pretty easily with the groovier feel & still really enjoy "World Demise" a good thirty years later so I'd encourage fans of their earlier work to check it out if you haven't already.

For fans of Morgoth, Six Feet Under & Celtic Frost.