OBITUARY — Slowly We Rot (review)

Album · 1989 · Death Metal

4/5 · 2021-06-25
siLLy puPPy

Starting out as Executioner and then changing to Xecutioner, the Tardy brothers not only changed their band project’s moniker to OBITUARY in 1988 but in the process took that leap of faith out of the cauldrons of the early thrash metal scene to become one of the pioneers of early death metal along with other Tampa, Florida bands such as Death and Morbid Angel. With the Tardy brothers which includes vocalist John and drummer Donald being the only constant members in OBITUARY’s multi-decade history, the lineup has been quite fluid and on the band’s debut SLOWLY WE ROT featured the Tardy bros with guitarist Trevor Peres, bassist Daniel Tucker and lead guitarist Allen West.

Released in 1989, SLOWLY WE ROT was unleashed right at the forefront of old school death metal gurgling up from the underground and launched OBITUARY into the position where they would become one of the most successful bands in the genre but would have to undergo unstable lineups and a couple more albums before death metal would finally emerge as a major metal force. This debut album is a bit different than albums that came after mostly because this one was recorded in standard tuning before the band switched to drop D tuning which gave OBITUARY that evil as fuck sound but even so SLOWLY WE ROT is a major death metal powerhouse that sounds as ominous as any other.

With a slight ambient intro to “Internal Bleeding” OBITUARY adopted the then standard characteristics of death metal such as the heavily distorted guitar riffs, palm muting, tremolo picking and deep growly vocals along with double kick and blast beat drumming but the band set themselves apart by creating a no nonsense approach to death metal while bands like Death were keen on jettisoning into more progressive grounds and Morbid Angel was keen on abstract riffing techniques and guitar squeals. OBITUARY has always been fairly even keel with straight forward death metal aggression and easy to comprehend compositional methodologies. OBITUARY also avoided the gore and occult themes and simply focused on good old fashioned mortality which is perhaps the scariest human subject of all.

Steeped with twelve rampaging death metal tracks, SLOWLY WE ROT delivered the immediacy of hardcore punk with short yet to the point outbursts of aggression with only one track, “Intoxicated” venturing over the four minute mark. Musically the tracks feature full gestated death metal that employed quickened tempos with various sections that are faster than others with lead guitar and more sophisticated almost jazzy drumming styles but for the most part this debut is a guitar driven chugfest with growly vocals narrating tales of horrific suffering, eternal damnation and human fragility. While by today’s standards this is pretty straight forward death metal, these early recordings have a sense of purity that allows the true nature of the genre to shine through without the added baggage of experimentation.

Overall OBITUARY’s debut may not be considered one of the top picks of early death metal but due to its early status as true death metal that was totally out of the world of thrash metal, it has a special place in the hearts of death metal historians who love death metal’s less complex nascency. OBITUARY would dominate the 90s as one of the top death metal acts but his debut shouldn’t be missed either as it shows the band in its early ferocity in all its rawness before becoming one of the top extreme metal bands of the world. Satisfying and too the point, SLOWLY WE ROT is anything but slow however it very well may make your soul rot! But then again isn’t that why we listen to this manic maelstrom of mind numbing madness?

more than 2 years ago
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Vim Fuego wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Still my favourite Obituary album. It has always been overshadowed by Cause of Death, but those gurgling vocals were an absolute revelation at the time. The only band anywhere near vocally was Autopsy.