Obituary “Darkest Day” Review
Life can be a little hectic at times; the economy is awful, your weight fluctuates and there are always more taxes. Sometimes your only recourse is finding something safe, something that never changes. It’s no wonder that it is not hard to rejoice in a new Obituary release: nothing much is going to progress here.
Darkest Day is a pummeling collection of metallic grindstones that will leave your beard covered in icicles, compliments of those epic, crashing shores; it’s tried and true Obituary. The addition of guitarist Ralph Santolla (ex-Deicide, Death) in 2007 was a gift from Satan himself as the riffs he brings to the table have now become the focal point of the record. He leads a verifiable death march with his quick fingers and formable song writing on the stellar “Lost Inside,” a menacing track that could have easily been a head-banger hit in the mid-’90s.
It being the breeding ground for the best of the brutal (Cannibal Corpse, Hate Eternal), the question begs to be asked: what’s in the water in Florida, anyway? Then again, it may be the intense sun that could be at the cause of Obituary’s intense musical mood swings. “Outside My Head” is a major freak-out in the vein of Hatebreed or Earth Crisis rather than their death metal contemporaries. Vocalist John Tardy sounds full of anger, but about what we don’t find out. That’s an overlying problem here: behind the riffing there isn’t a whole lot to sink your brains into; but admittedly this album’s not about politics and brain surgery.
[uncredited group shot via MySpace]
“Payback” unfortunately sounds like a bad Biohazard song: chugging guitar work and laughable tough-guy vocal parts take away any of the terrific work Don Tardy gets up to on drums. The shout out refrain is just bad: “Payback!” Tardy yells. But to whom and why?
Though not as ubiquitous as in the past, there are some gems found amongst this battlefield. Opener “List of Dead” kicks straight into a barrage of soloing and hectic, if not manic, drum fills. It’s a near Obituary classic of pure mayhem. Here Tardy sounds like the seasoned vocal warrior the world knows him to be, his voice reeking of a razorblade and cyanide tonic that should never be consumed.
Don’t let the bizarre Dungeons and Dragons artwork throw you for too big of a loop though as the album is an above average metal record that deserves some attention. Obituary is a classic band playing a style that will only become outdated when its fans and players are dead and gone. Darkest Day will not end up changing the world we live in, but with chaos all around at least it’s making things a little more reliable.
[Review by guest contributor Matthew Chernus.]
