OBITUARY — Slowly We Rot (review)

Album · 1989 · Death Metal

3.5/5 · 2021-03-21
UMUR

"Slowly We Rot" is the debut full-length studio album by US, Florida based death metal act Obituary. The album was released through Roadrunner Records in June 1989 (originally through the subsidiary labels R/C Records and Roadracer Records). Obituary formed in Tampa, Florida in 1984 under the Executioner monicker, which was changed to Xecutioner in 1986, and again to their current monicker in 1988. They released three demos in 1985, 1986, and 1987, and appeared on the 1987 "Raging Death" various artists compilation album with the tracks "Find the Arise" and "Like the Dead". From the 1997 reissue of "Slowly We Rot", the two latter mentioned tracks are featured as bonus material.

"Slowly We Rot" was recorded at Morrisound Recording and produced by Scott Burns. The first 8 tracks on the album were recorded during one late 1988 session, while the last 4 tracks on the album were recorded during a session in March 1989. It´s one of the earliest Burns productions and features a lot of the production trademarks that he would become famous for in the next couple of years. An ultra brutal guitar sound (which surprisingly isn´t created by downtuning the guitars/bass), heavy bass, and dark and powerful drums, but with higher end clicky sounding bass drums, which was a deliberate production choice, made to make the bass drum hits stand out in the soundscape. The brutal growling vocals by John Tardy are placed high in the mix.

The music style on "Slowly We Rot" is brutal and and crushingly heavy death metal. John Tardy´s voice is very distinct sounding and his caustic delivery is ultra brutal. The vocals are not particularly intelligible but now and again some understandable words do pop up serving as hooks. The lyrics on the album are your typical blood and gore type of lyrics, and they are often not more than a couple of words/phrases with very little meaning, being repeated. In that way Tardy´s voice and his delivery work more like an additional instrument than regular vocals do.

The instrumental part of the music is mostly rather simple. Crushingly heavy riffs, screaming chromatic guitar solos, groove laden heavy drumming and the occasional faster paced part (never blasting). Obituary were never about technical wankery, but about the heavy grooves and brutality, and they deliver plenty of that on this album. Tracks like "Suffocation", "´Til Death", and the title track are great and memorable material, but one point of criticism when listening to "Slowly We Rot" is how one-dimensional it sounds. Sometimes to the point where you can´t tell the songs apart. A little more variation between tracks could have made this a much stronger album.

It´s often said that Obituary are just a heavier version of early Celtic Frost, and although the influence from the legendary Swiss act is undeniable (the riffs and the guitar tone are quite similar in style and sound), the heavy grooves and John Tardy´s unique growling vocal style give Obituary enough of an original touch to stand on their own two feet. So songwriting variation issues aside, "Slowly We Rot" is still a strong debut album by Obituary and it´s arguably one of the genre defining albums of the death metal genre and a huge influence on many artists to come. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.