Review by Rexorcist for Obituary - Cause of Death (1990)

When I checked out the Obituary debut, Slowly We Rot, I noticed its many facets pretty quickly and was impressed with the band's stylistic range, even if many of the same songs took from the same influences.  I wasn't quite as impressed with that album as others, although I still liked it.  But I've been aware of their sophomore's status as a die hard classic of the death scene for a while.  Basically, if there was a Big Four of Floridian Death Metal, Obituary would've cemented themselves as one of them with this album alone, considering the reputation it gets.  So with everyone hyping it up, I was really hoping this album would live up to that hype.

It comes as no surprise that the album is much doomier and slower at times.  This not only sets this album apart from the majority of other OSDM bands, but is a perfect stylistic choice to expand upon Obituary's special brand of "evil" that they built there early careers on.  And this evil isn't one of those interesting little treats that wears out its welcome by the end.  It stays strong and even scary throughout the whole.  This also means that with the doom persona expanded, the thrash of the debut is given little to no attention.  I'd say that despite the further lack of variety this decision entails, it was for the best because the end result was stronger personality.  And without the thrash, this also means that the scariness is replacing the sleaziness of the debut, which means Obituary can also shift their personalities easily depending on the direction they take.  This is a special trait that may go over people's heads if they hear this before the debut.  Maybe this aspect came from hiring Death's guitarist, James Murphy?  Whatever it was, it certainly did this album a unique justice.  And thanks to the abundance of doominess, extremely speedy tracks like the 2:40 Find the Arise come as shocks to the system.  And whenever we get a doomy, ambient sound effect beginning a song or somewhere in the middle of one, there's just this weird blend of gothic terror and total tranquility that comes from it.  These effects might not have had such a strong effect if the band's performances didn't have so dark of a personality.

If only just once, Obituary nearly perfected their craft.  What we have hear is an album that, while still doom-focused, recreates heaviness in a number of forms working together to tell a deathly horror story through riffs and monstrous vocals.  This is miles ahead of the debut, as this isn't just some guitar-driven riff fest.  This is a death metal album that's all atmosphere all the time.  The improvement over Slowly We Rot of its artistic maturity is staggering.  I've heard quite a few slow and doomy death bands (not death doom metal), and none of them are as horrifying as this.