Obituary
Wywiad przeprowadził Wouter Roemers
Formed in 1985 as Xecutioner (before changing name to avoid confusion with the Boston band Executioner), Obituary was one of the leading bands of the then-rampant Florida death metal scene of the late eighties (along with Death, Morbid Angel, Deicide, and others) and carved a successful career for themselves playing brutal, old-school death metal. After a string of successful albums in the nineties, they announced their breakup in 2000. With the "The Legends Are Back" tour all over Europe in the pipeline. As with Obituary's repertoire this interview is rather short and to-the-point. We spoke to founding member/vocalist John Tardy about the band's much speculated return to the death metal scene.
With Allen West being in Six Feet Under and Lowbrow, Trevor Peres has Catastrophic, etc. As far as logistics go, was it difficult putting Obituary back together? As mentioned certain members have their own projects/bands going on. In 2002 you and your brother Donald [Tardy, drums] together with Frank [Watkins, bass] got on stage with Andrew WK at the Ozzfest and did some Obituary songs. Who's decision was it to resurrect Obituary and what made you return after so many years - the lack of original death metal?
Everyone in the band has made the commitment to Obituary. All other work that band members did was just because we weren't doing anything else at the time. The Ozzfest show was just a fun thing that we did. AWK is a great guy and liked Obituary for a long time. He and Donald just had the idea to play a few songs so we did. It was awesome! As far as starting things back up again it just feels right and we have some really heavy new songs that we have written that we want to record!
After an absence of no less than 7 years Obituary returns with quite a packed touring schedule. You played the Sun & Steel Festival in Florida, the March Metal Meltdown in New Jersey, afterwards the Fuck the Commerce Fest in Germany and now there's the month long "The Legends Are Back" tour across Europe. Who's putting this "Legends" tour together and how are your experiences with them so far?
Brunstein Records are the guys that set up the FTC show and that is when we meet them. They are also the ones who put together these shows in October. So far they seem to be great!
The band ran into some organizational trouble with local concert promoter Josh Koshick while on the March Metal Meltdown - you don't seem to be the only band experiencing trouble with this promoter. Tell us something about your particular dealings at that fest.
Organizational is an understatement. The bottom line is he never paid us for our work as contracted. After many promises to pay and a bad check he still hasn't settled up with us. It is too bad because we have given him every opportunity and he just ignores us. We could have easily cancelled both shows but thought that the only ones missing out would be our fans and that just isn't right.
Obituary has always been working at its own pace. In between "World Demise" - your most commonly known record - and "Back From the Dead" there was a three-year break. After a live record ("Dead") and the Roadrunner issued "Anthology", the band is working on a new full length. How would you describe the new material as it sounds now? Can we expect a more old school Obituary, returning to the "Slowly We Rot" sound and such?
I never really thought about it but I guess we do work at our own pace. We never feel like we have to do album every year or whatever. When we do we DO! Listening to it almost everyday it is kind of hard for me to say what the new material sounds like. I do feel that some of the new songs have a very classic Obituary sound. I am looking forward to getting it recorded.
A lot bands formerly on the Roadrunner roster complain about the lack of support, promotion and backstabbing from the label. Deicide, for instance, had a "best-of" issued by them without any prior knowledge. Did you experience any trouble while working with Roadrunner all these years?
Yes we did. I feel they did a lot of thing that I wasn't very happy with. The record company and their merchandising company were very big reasons why we have been away for so long. There are a lot of reasons but I will just leave it as I was not happy with them both!!!
Some preliminary recordings were done at the Redroom Studios in Ybor City, FL. Will any of these recordings ever become generally available or were they solely done to test out new gear and to see how the new track sound?
I don't see them being available. It was just testing, playing around and kind of getting or feet wet again!
As far as dates being set, early 2005 should see the new Obituary record hitting the shelves according to your website. Which studio will you be recording in and is there already a (working) title set for the new record?
Not sure exactly which studio but more that likely we will be at both Morrissound and the RedRoom. As far as a title we still have to wait!
With the new material currently being written, have you already been approached by any labels? Will the band re-unite with former label Roadrunner Records (who now pretty much became a nu-metal label) or have interesting offers already been made?
We have gotten offers from a lot of labels and we are going over all options. We will see what happens!
In the early beginnings lyrics for albums/songs were pretty much improvised. Will you continue to use this technique on the new album? I had the impression that "World Demise" and "Back From the Dead" pretty much abandoned the whole "improvised lyrics" thing.
"Slowly We Rot" had very little lyrics and as the albums went by I started using more and more. It was never by design but just what I felt. It is the sound of the vocals that I like and if I need to make something up to get that sound I will.
A lot of classic death metal bands have been re-uniting or re-grouping over the last year. Suffocation got back together and released "Souls to Deny", Vital Remains released "Dechristianize" with Glen Benton (Deicide) on vocals, Pyrexia released a new record, Cryptopsy re-united with their first vocalist Lord Worm, Gorefest is writing new material… What are your thoughts with the current wave of rejuvenated classics returning to the scene?
It is just hard to get away from. I just have music in my head and I have to record it. I think a lot of "musicians" are like that.
You have no less than two official sites at this time. You are running the obituary.cc yourself and Trevor Peres is running slowlywerot.net - should fans always check both sites or are both on an equal level as far as confirmed information goes?
I would keep up with both sites. Trevor is very busy so sometime he doesn't always get things updated as fast as I do but I have more time to spend on obituary.cc! He is a better web designer than I am but I spend more time keeping mine updated.
Alright! That sums it up for now. Hope to talk to you again once the new album is out. Good luck with Obituary and the upcoming tour. Last words are yours….
Thank you for the interview and the support. It has been a while and we are feeling really good about some of the things we are doing. Hope to see you all out on the road and please keep in touch.
www.obituary.cc (ran by John Tardy)
www.slowlywerot.net (ran by Trevor Peres)
