Date: January 13th, 2023
Label: Relapse Records
And now some of you just think something like “Finally he’s writing about a band I already know!” Well, to be honest I somehow always preferred to do such things as rarely as I could and in the most present in my reviews ensembles that needs even more support then these so called huge bands. I wrote “so called” not by accident, by the way. I mean, a lot of ensembles who are icons of the metal scene don’t think about them like some stars or so. I tell you more, I know (and in some cases unfortunately knew – R.I.P. brothers!) quite a huge number of musicians of living legends of our beloved music and they’re just normal metalheads, very friendly guys who really care about the scene itself, have this, let’s call it, underground approach to the matter, where all metalheads are brothers and sisters who support each other.
Anyways, I still remember, and will do it to my last breath, the last drop of my blood how big an impact for me was listening to their debut. Of course it wasn’t the first death metal album I heard in my life; actually it wasn’t even the fifteenth one. But there was something unique, even if in those times you could tell such stuff about a lot of full-lengths who arrived every year, in this music, something which told me from the very first accords this is a new chapter in history of the genre. Since this memorable day passed many, many years (well I’ll not say how many coz it’ll make me old fogey in the eyes of some of you) and Obituary gave us not too long ago, January 13th, their newest masterpiece. Yes, I use the word masterpiece not by any accident, to make the label like “wow, he’s not too rude with us, so we need to prize him” or stuff like that. I used this word just and only because this is the accurate one as well. Actually Obituary in my opinion never ever released a bad album! Well, some of them are a little better and other ones are a little worse, which still absolutely doesn’t mean they’re not good ones. And let’s say it loudly: “Dying of Everything” definitely is in this first category – I mean, these are a little better ones. Probably I’m not too objective here, even if I’m always trying my best, because I’m one of these people who value this band pretty much! Here I could add something more, but since it’d perhaps sound almost as heresy for some of you… By the way, the just reviewed full-length contains ten tracks in style the band created.
Of course some of you can ask what I mean if this is just old school death metal and it wasn’t Obituary who has begun to play like that, even if we’ll talk only about Florida. That’s right, but at the same time Gibsonton residents was, and still are, a little bit different then another death metal Gods coming from Sunshine State where’s located the oldest city of the United State, by the way). Maybe it has something to do with the fact them, contrary to Morbid Angel, Malevolent Creation, even if their roots aren’t there, or Deicide, comes from a not too huge city? Well, to be honest I don’t know if this is a key or at least the main reason for the characteristic style of playing mentioned in the above sub-genre of our beloved music. The only thing I surely know is they’re unique. Actually I know also “Dying of Everything” is, and I know I’ll write it once again in this review, very well full-length and I somehow even feel I like it more and more with the entire single listening. In my opinion that’s the best album they have released in quite a long time. If someone forces me to classify all their albums from the best to the worst one then I’d say this is the third best item they recorded and it’s not too far away from “Cause of Death” and “Slowly We Rot”.
OK, I think it’s everything that I wanted to tell you this time. So if some of you who love death metal by some accident haven’t yet “Dying…”, then you just have to rectify that inexcusable mistake as quickly as possible – the best order this or buy in the nearest store just after reading the last word of this review!
