Obituary remains as one of the most influential and groundbreaking bands in the death metal genre, one which they helped to create. Combining hyper-speed guitar riffing, complex arrangements and guttural screams, the band created a bleak and violent soundscape for metal fans worldwide,
In 1990 Obituary released the album ‘Cause Of Death’. One considered a classic in the history of the death metal genre, a masterpiece that has stood the test of time and, to this day, remains as a must have album for any death metal fan. Celebrating 30 years since its release, Obituary return to Australia to play the album in full, plus a choice selection of death metal cuts from their early years. We talk to frontman John Tardy ahead of the tour to discuss the Cause Of Death album, memories of Australia and more.
Andrew: I hope you’ve been having a good year so far but we are very much looking forward to seeing you guys in Australia next year.
John: It has been too long man! We’ve been getting pretty excited about it. Looks like it should be some pretty cool shows.
Andrew: Yeah definitely. I was just trying to think, when was the last time you were down our way?
John: Oh man it had to have been 10 years almost or more. It had to be, I don’t even remember. It’s been a long time, I’m thinking it’s probably been 10 years and I know there’s been a couple of times where we tried to get something together and whether there was too many bands already on the road over there at that time and this and that and I guess it just never worked out. So definitely glad that things are setup and we’re finally going to get back over there.
Andrew: So let’s go back to some of the previous runs to Australia if you can remember at all…
John: [laughs] That’s a tough one!
Andrew: What are your best memories and stuff that sticks out in your mind?
John: There’s big ass bats you guys got flying around [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs]
John: We got little tiny ones that fly around every night around my house but no damn fucking vultures you guys got flying the skies, those are some big ass bats [laughs]. That and the expensive beer man, beer is very expensive over there [laughs].
Andrew: Yeah that is true for sure, I mean we love to drink but it’s very costly at the same time.
John: Yeah but those are just a couple of funny things but the people are cool man, we really get along good with the Aussies and have a good time coming down there. You guys like to party and that’s right up our alley so a lot of good fans there so it’s going to be fun to get back.
Andrew: You guys are also doing a bunch of the shows with a Singapore band called Wormrot. Are you guys familiar with them at all?
John: I am not, Terry (Butler, bass) has been telling me a little bit about them. Terry is kind of our music encyclopedia because he loves following everybody so I’m not super familiar with them but looking forward to hearing it and hanging out with those guys for sure.
Andrew: Yeah these guys fall a little bit into the grindcore/extreme kind of stuff and I was just thinking about Obituary the other day and I believe someone made a comment on how obviously you guys are one of the pioneers of death metal, I guess over the years the music has taken a bit of an extreme sort of level. Do you guys still consider yourselves to be death metal or do you just consider it to be just some kind groove kind of metal or, I don’t know. What do you guys consider yourselves to be?
John: [laughs] I don’t know. I mean if anybody asks me, I always just say it’s metal as general as that is because that’s what it is. I guess death metal kind of fits if you really want to start breaking it down and getting all scientific about it but it’s more caveman metal than anything [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs] I mean it is pretty insane how many sub-genres there are in metal and it just keeps growing and growing every year.
John: Yeah people get way into it and start breaking things down into a thousand different categories and I can’t keep track of it so to be honest with you, anybody that kinda asks me what we do, we should say heavy metal. I know that’s pretty broad for a lot of people to kind of get but we just like to do what we do and we try to be as heavy as possible but we don’t blast a lot and we like to keep things grooving here and there, keep your foot tapping.
Andrew: Yeah and I think that’s one of the key things I love about Obituary is the fact that you have that really nice groove level. So obviously for Australian fans who haven’t seen you in a long time or even for those that have never seen you before, what are we expecting? Are we going to be seeing a bit of a mixed setlist?
John: I think it’s actually the “Cause Of Death” setlist, I think we’re playing the whole “Cause Of Death” record when we come over there.
Andrew: Oh wow ok cool, nice!
John: We’re playing the whole record and I think it’s only 30 something minutes long so we’ll tack on some newer material and maybe throw in some older songs and kind of mix it up a little bit from there. But the plan is to rattle off the entire “Cause Of Death” record which will kind of be a first for us.
Andrew: Obviously that is a very iconic and pivotal album, looking back on that now so many years later how do you view those songs now? Have they held up pretty well?
John: [laughs] It’s been strange, there’s a handful of them that I don’t even know if we’ve played some of them live so once this 30 year anniversary came up and the decision to play the whole album, we had to go back and start listening to it again and relearning all the songs. But once we did it a few times those guys started picking the chords and this and that and we started jamming a little bit, we kind of fell into place a little bit so it was kind of fun to go back and listen to them and review them and go back over them.
Andrew: Yeah and I’m sure there’s a fun aspect as far as relearning songs that you hadn’t played in a very long time.
John: It is, it’s weird. You know, sometimes if you’re going over to your Mom’s house or something and you see all your old pictures up on the wall and you got friends with you that has never seen them, it’s weird that you got pictures of yourself. So it’s kind of strange to go back and listen to the production and the way you were doing things and the way you sounded back then and it’s always a little wierd at first but once you kind of do it a few times you kinda remember what was going on and you get back into it. So it’s going to be fun for Obituary to go back and play those songs.
Andrew: Looking back at that particular time when you were writing and recording those songs, what sticks out in your mind with some of the things that you remember from that era?
John: We were so young when we did “Slowly We Rot” and you talk about deer in the headlights, we went in there to record and it was very strange and almost overwhelming. By the time we did the second round it was at the new Morrisound, a much bigger studio and it’s a multi-million dollar facility so just so many fucking knobs and switches and all kinds of stuff that we never had because at the time we never really had a PA or a delay to play with back then so by the time we got into that studio, we were like, ‘Man we want to do that” and everything and have fun in all those rooms with all that stuff and making intros and just kinda go full bore and just use every part of the studio that they had. So it was cool to go back on those recordings on the reels and stuff, cutting up tape to do edit which has all changed now.
Andrew: Yeah I guess with the technical kind of stuff things are much easier now right, must be easier to record music these days.
John: Well we can do it right at my house so just flip on the pro-tools stuff and just lay down some vocal tracks and I can sing for 5 minutes and if I don’t feel like doing it I can just turn it off and walk away and if I want to stand in there from 10 in the morning until 10 at night, it’s a piece of cake. Back at the Morrisound it was like, ‘OK when do you want to schedule your time?’ ‘OK we can do Tuesday from 2 to 6′ and this and that and you show up and if you don’t feel like doing it, well you already paid for the time so you either can do it or you can sit in there and not. But then it also just wants to make you just rock harder when the tape is rolling, you feel like you had to get things done. It wasn’t as easy as it is now with pro-tools where you can do multiple tracks and it’s easy especially when you get good at pro- tools. So it is so much easier and obviously much more cost effective, I can do it at my house as well as a lot of other stuff. We can wrap it all up, do all the tracking there and then send it off to someone who really knows what they’re doing, fix stuff and put it together. It’s a lot of fun though, it’s a real fun part of the process, writing the music and trying to record it yourself. It’s fun but at the same time it used to be so cool walking in to Morrisound with those boards that were 12 foot friggin’ long with 4 channels and stuff, it was just bad ass.
Andrew: Well it’s been a couple of years since you released your self-titled album so are you looking to put out a new album at some point in the near future at all?
John: We’ve kind of started kicking around and worked on a few songs and of course we wound up doing the “A Dying World” that came out that we did that’s kind of a punk thing that we did. But we’re slowly starting to stockpile some riffs and ideas to get going here, it’s just that last record kept us busy for so long and then we got the Slayer offer and looks like we’re now going on tour with Black Label Society and this year is the 30th anniversary of “Slowly We Rot” and next year we come to you guys for the 30th anniversary of “Cause Of Death” which is why we’re doing all those songs but we’re slowly starting to stockpile some stuff here. So definitely come the end of the year and maybe into the beginning of next year we’re going to try and get ourselves home long enough to get something together.
Andrew: Cool look forward to it! But for now we’re definitely looking forward to seeing you in Australia, it’s going to be an exciting run of shows. Thanks for your time, really appreciated!
John: All good! We’re really excited, looking forward to getting down there and please come out to one of the shows, try and find us and say hello, we’ll definitely be hanging out and having some beers.
OBITUARY with guests Wormrot performing at:
Jan 14 – Adelaide, Lions Art Factory*
Jan 15 – Perth, Badlands
Jan 16 – Brisbane, Woolly Mammoth
Jan 17 – Sydney, The Metro
Jan 18 – Melbourne, Max Watt’s
Jan 19 – Hobart, Altar
*Wormrot not appearing
GA TICKETS ON SALE NOW & GOING FAST!
ADELAIDE – www.moshtix.com.au
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BRISBANE – http://soundworksdirect.eventbrite.com / www.moshtix.com.au
SYDNEY & MELBOURNE – http://soundworksdirect.eventbrite.com / www.oztix.com.au
HOBART – www.oztix.com.au
VIP Meet & Greet / ‘Morrison Sound’ Q & A Bundle deal available!
Strictly limited to 20 people per show.
ADELAIDE – www.moshtix.com.au
PERTH, BRISBANE, SYDNEY, MELBOURNE – http://soundworksdirect.eventbrite.com
HOBART – www.oztix.com.au
