Review by Ben for Obituary - The End Complete (1992)

I distinctly remember reading that at one stage, The End Complete was the highest selling death metal album ever. That's no longer the case as Morbid Angel's Covenant went on to take that throne. Nonetheless, I personally can't understand why this album was all that successful. It's certainly not one of the better albums the genre has to offer. It's not even one of Obituary's best albums! I can only imagine that The End Complete was riding on the coat tails of its predecessor, the wonderful Cause of Death, and perhaps reaping the rewards of its rather decent album cover.

The major difference between Cause of Death and The End Complete is James Murphy. His leads on Cause of Death were outstanding and often took merely solid, dark death metal tracks to a totally different level of quality through sheer individual brilliance. His absence on this follow-up isn't merely obvious, it's near disastrous. The leads on this album are simply atrocious! There are certainly some decent riffs throughout the album, but it's generally lacking any sort of passion. In a word, it's boring, and not even Tardy's ever awesome vocals can save it. I'd give this album even less if it wasn't for the mildly entertaining, I'm in Pain and closer Rotting Ways, which is admittedly one of the great Obituary tracks.