UMUR
"Dead" is a live album release by US, Florida based death metal act Obituary. It was released through Roadrunner Records in April 1998. By then the band were split-up. Tired of touring and planning on doing more normal things like raising families, the band called it quits. They would reform after 6 years in 2003 but when "Dead" was released it was a final testament from one of the greats in death metal. The album was recorded Live at Axis, Boston MA on the 10th of September 1997 and released by Roadrunner Records in April 1998.
The setlist includes songs from all 5 studio releases that preceeded this live album and thereby successfully covering the band´s career up until then. There are of course several classic death metal tracks on the album like "Chopped in Half", "Turned Inside Out", "'Til Death", "Don't Care", "Slowly We Rot" and "I'm in Pain". Personally I miss a few of my favorites like "Infected" and "Find the Arise" but live setlists can´t satisfy everyone and overall the selection of songs work fine. There are 16 tracks on the album which lasts 62:52 minutes so I´m sure no one will have complaints about the number of songs included or the album´s length. The production by Obituary and Steven Remote is of a good quality. No raw bootleg sound quality here. Unfortunately this also means that the songs are mostly sound very close to the studio versions and it does drag my rating down a bit. There simply isn´t that rawness and authenticity you get from the best extreme metal live releases.
All in all "Dead" isn´t one of those live albums that gets me all excited and leaves me with a burning desire to have been there when it was recorded but it´s a quality release that should please most fans of the band and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is warranted.