...SIŁA I PIĘKNO MUZYKI TKWIĄ W JEJ RÓŻNORODNOŚCI...


..::OPIS::..

Zabija tak jak ponad trzy dekady temu!!!
'Cause of Death' to nie tylko punkt zwrotny w karierze Obituary, ale także jedna z płyt, które wyznaczyły standardy jakości w death metalu. Scott Burns, który odpowiadał za produkcję, uchwycił esencję twórczości zespołu, tworząc materiał pełen głębi i brutalności, jednocześnie kładąc szczególny nacisk na przejrzystość i jakość brzmienia.
Atmosfera i techniczne mistrzostwo tego albumu sprawiają, że pozostaje on jednym z najważniejszych krążków w historii gatunku.



The first Obituary album I got was Xecutioner's Return, which I am pretty sure was my first death metal album as well. I liked that so much I decided to by the Two From The Vault: Slowly We Rot/Cause of Death. Slowly We Rot is a good albums and I probably prefer it to Xecutioner's Return but Cause of Death is just amazing. It's easily my favourite release by Obituary.

The thing I like about Obituary when you compare them to some other death metal bands is that they understand that being brutal is not always about speed. There are some cool fast parts on this album but there are also slow parts which are just as brutal. As well as that each member of the band is great on their instruments.

The guitars are great. There are some great, aggressive riffs which will stick in your head for a long time afterwards and the solos are also great. James Murphy is a great guitarist and I think it’s probably his influence that makes this album my favourite. The songs are longer than on Slowly We Rot and most of them are definitely more technical, although they still retain the brutality of the debut. The drums are excellent whether they are playing speedy machine gun rhythms or cool slower ones. After listening to this album I found myself with the drum beats in my head for days afterwards. Finally, the vocals. John Tardy is one amazing growler/screamer. He barely sounds human on this album. If you listen carefully you can just understand the sickening lyrics which fit excellently, I mean, come on "Chopped in Half, Feel the blood spill from your mouth", you don't get much better than that in death metal.

It's hard for me to say the best songs from the album because they are all so good. I like all of them but some more than others. Infected, Body Bag, Chopped in Half, Memories Remain and Turned Inside Out are probably my favourite songs. Circle of the Tyrants is good; I haven't heard the original so I don't no how it compares though. The other songs, Dying, Find the Arise and the title track are all good death metal songs but the ones I mentioned before really stick out.

Obituary is one of my favourite bands and this is my favourite releases by them. This album is essential death metal listening and any fan of Obituary or death metal in general who doesn’t have this album should go out and buy it today, or be shot.

DarkSurgeon


Looking to hear some exploding, mind-boggling, ear-piercing, highly original and unable-to-top kind of death metal? Well, "Cause of Death" was created and reflects that kind of vibe within itself. It is so traumatizing, especially the vocals by John Tardy - talk about the sound of death!!! Well, it's a great line up, especially with who's hitting the lead guitar work, but nonetheless the immortal James Murphy. Clocking in some brutal, distorted rhythm work with chords galore and speeds slow, but daunting, Trevor Peres is in charge. Donald Tardy hits behind the set with precision and mortification.

An album ahead of its time, a time when the Floridian death metal scene was reaching its highest. Obituary makes a mark in the scene so high and with utmost originality as well as a sort of "best 'of" compilation of songs that can only be replicated by the band. While to me it does sound like a compilation album, but really is a full-length brutal release that features guitar chords chunky and thick with an atmospheric death rattle to it. James Murphy raids the lead department and yet again sparks with utter intensity, featuring leads that are fully compliant on the fretboard the same way he hit "Spiritual Healing" by Death.

Musicianship is at its highest with John Tardy spewing forth death, gore, etc. type of lyrics, rhythms that are marked well with that intensity, leads fitting the atmosphere perfectly, and a production perfected by Scott Burns. He seemed to top death metal recorders in the production department at the time where these original sounding death metal bands were producing sounds that are so captivating and skull-wrenching. The overall aura on here was not only the vocals, rhythms, leads and drums, but the whole atmosphere featuring the most deathly sounding music ever put forth onto the scene.

Yes, they did have many competitors playing death metal, such as bands like Death, Pestilence, Cannibal Corpse, et al, and yet at that time they seemed to be among the great musicians playing this kind of metal. However, lyrical concepts are what they are on here and it suits the music. That thick, grinding, choppy, and tremolo-picked rhythms were well thought out and James Murphy rips out that talent that he bestowed on lead guitar. Such a great musician that has succumbed to the possibly life threatening brain cancer the same way that Chuck Schuldiner did. Murphy seems to be in pretty bad shape nowadays and hopefully the Sweet Relief Foundation will find funds to save him.

Get the remastered edition of "Cause of Death" for it features bonus demo tracks and an augmented, atmospheric, and damn bloody good cast of musicians with one of the top producer at the time. The music, the band, the era, and the augmented scene of deathly dying of metal is depicted. This album to me remains among the top albums in the genre of death metal ever recorded. It is my view at least, having been into death metal for over 23 years. Trust me, I know as picky as I am with albums that this one is top notch. If you choose to own it, get it ASAP because of its utter brain-wrenching death metal that's ever been heard. Obituary's finest here on this recording.

Orbitball


This is my favorite Obituary album (though I do not own their latest release, "Darkest Day", so I can't speak for it!) The reasoning here is simple: with "Cause of Death", Obituary reached something deep within the soul. The band had already released a masterpiece, with the awesome "Slowly We Rot" foreshadowing a great career playing death metal and releasing great albums in the future, but with this album, things were different. The distinctive guitar player, Allen West, who is known for his bluesy soloing, and more "laid back" approach when compared to other death metal guitar players of the day, such as Trey Azagthoth or the Hoffman brothers, was replaced by guitar virtuoso James Murphy. Okay, virtuoso is probably pushing it, but the guy is a damn good guitar player. His style was completely different from what people would have been used to with Allen West in this position, completely ditching West's bluesy, atmospheric approach, in favor of something which valued substance over style. By this, I mean that West prominently made use of whammy bar and other such "stylistic" trademarks which helped craft a greater sense of imagery upon the band's music, while Murphy took on a more melodic and technical, yet extremely emotional (in my eyes, at least) approach that has the ability to make the listener fall to his or her knees, in tears, marveling at the sheer beauty. That is hyperbole, but rest assured, the solos on this album rock.

Look no further than the album's title track, "Cause of Death" (which also happens to feature some of the best lyrics ever penned by vocalist John Tardy), for a wild ride! The song's introduction possesses one of the most memorable and soul-shattering solos on the entire album, and it alone does wonders to justify why this album is so awesome in the first place. However, that's far from all this album has to offer. Why, the album's opening track, "Infected", makes use of an extremely moody, very unsettling solo before the track even gets going with the main riff, to great effect. In fact, "great effect" is probably a really good way to describe this album. Just about everything here is in tip-top shape. Donald Tardy's drum kit sounds better than ever, with his snare tone in particular shining as one of the production's most stellar aspects, and rhythm guitarist Trevor Peres not only nails us with some of the most powerful and brutal riffs of his career (2:57 in "Chopped in Half", for instance), but the riffs are perfectly represented within his extremely crunchy, almost chainsaw-esque guitar tone (it's still not quite the same tone as one would find on a Dismember album, though!). The bass guitar of Frank Watkins (another new-comer to the band, at this time), is easily recognizable, sitting beneath the more obvious sections of the band's music, and supplying backing brutality beneath the sawing guitar riffs. He's not a bassist of flair, but he gets the job done!

Back to talking of riffs and guitars, Trevor Peres also delivers some amazing riffs here (as previously stated). "Body Bag" opens with one of the catchiest and most memorable riffs on the album, and the riff at 0:33 in "Memories Remain" still haunts my dreams (accompanied by the ever so subtle "LIEF GAOS ANNN...EVEAN AFTA... DEAFFFTHH" line from John Tardy), and in all honesty, the overall approach that he takes to his playing is enough to cement him as one of the riff-masters of the genre. Unlike many, there is very little "showing off" to be seen, and you won't hear anything in these riffs that doesn't need to be there, and does not help advance the song further. Even his rhythm riffs which churn below the unreal shredding of James Murphy, and are often comprised of only two or three chords, are capable of sticking to the mind even when a melodic solo is shredding above (Gavin Ward of Bolt Thrower is another guitarist who deserves credit for doing this, as well).

And the final member who needs to be discussed is the man himself: vocalist John Tardy. This guy is my personal favorite vocalist in all of death metal, and with "Cause of Death", he proves why. If he sounded insane on "Slowly We Rot" (and he did), then he doesn't even sound human on this album. The sheer terror in the man's voice is simply unbelievable, but what's more, is his presence within the music. By this, I mean that it took me years to realize that there are actually only one or two lines of lyrics growled in the entirety of "Chopped in Half". To have such a strong presence, that the listener doesn't even notice when you stop singing, is something truly remarkable. He simply sounds like a beast which has been unleashed from it's cage! Of course, Tardy's vocal performance is one of the few aspects of Obituary's music which has never waned in any noticeable way, even 20 years on, so this should hardly come as a surprise to anybody who was already familiar with the band.

Another unique aspect of his vocal performance with this album, is his use of backing vocal tracks. I once heard King Diamond claim that there was "alot going on" vocally on the "Don't Break the Oath" album from Mercyful Fate, and I think this description probably fits this album pretty well too (though to a much lesser extent!). It's a rather hard thing to explain, though. When you listen to some of the songs on this album, for example the album opener, "Infected" (which is where the "backing vocal" tracks are probably at their most prominent), you will hear a main vocal track of John Tardy growling along, while a side track sticks in a few words here and there. At other moments, such as the breakdown of "Body Bag" (which occurs at about 2:19), you will hear a backing track supply terrifying screams below Tardy's already maddening death grunt. This particular method of "double tracking" doesn't appear to be very common these days, where bands choose instead to copy the Deicide method (and if you don't know what that is, listen to any Deicide song from the "Scars of the Crucifix" album!), which I think is rather sad. Like I said earlier, this helps enhance the presence of Tardy's voice, giving the listener the impression that they are in a room filled with demonic, grunting entities (which is much more brutal than having two different styles repeat the same line...), or perhaps they are hearing sadistic voices in their heads, taunting them and urging them to kill? In either case, the vocals of John Tardy are clearly great on this album, and do wonders to enhance the atmosphere into something far beyond anything the band ever had done or ever would do.

There is so much more to talk about with this album, but in the end, I shouldn't need to explain further. If you don't already own this album, and are considering buying it...go ahead and do it, you won't regret it.

enigmatech



..::TRACK-LIST::..

1. Infected
2. Body Bag
3. Chopped In Half
4. Circle Of The Tyrants
5. Dying
6. Find The Arise
7. Cause of Death
8. Memories Remain
9. Turned Inside Out

Bonus Tracks:
10. Infected (demo)
11. Memories Remain (demo)
12. Chopped In Half (demo)



..::OBSADA::..

John Tardy - vocals
James Murphy - lead guitar
Trevor Peres - rhythm guitar
Frank Watkins - bass
Donald Tardy - drums




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYxd8WxQIsU


SEED 15:00-22:00.
POLECAM!!!