On January 13th, 2023, Friday the 13th, Obituary will release their new album called Dying Of Everything on Relapse Records. This is the band’s eleventh album. Featuring deadly and aggressive riffs, pummelling rhythms, menacing vocals, and fantastic guitar solos, this album is huge. If anything, Dying Of Everything may be the heaviest Obituary album to date. While out on tour with Amon Amarth and Carcass, Donald Tardy was kind enough to share some time with me to talk about this outstanding new album.
We started with me sharing my excitement for the new album. Donald responded “Oh, damn, dude. Do you need a job as our spokesman? That was, that was very well said and very well put. I think we somehow magically, you know, all the stars lined up for us, man, you know, we wrote, we took a long time writing this record. We don’t ever force ourselves into songs. We let them songs find us. But once we really got down to it, and started writing and putting the songs together, we were excited right from the beginning. We’re like, holy shit man. We got something going on here.”
The second track off the album is called “Wrong Time”. It features a driving heavy groove. I asked Donald what about that song led to it being picked as the first single.
Donald replied “It was a calculated decision because we knew it was a killer song. I mean, there’s no question it’s one of the more impressive songs on the album. When it comes to somebody that’s been waiting for years till the next album, or a person that has never even heard of Obituary or heard us in real life. And, so the calculated decision was knowing that we were about to go on tour, this American tour with Amon Amarth. We knew a lot of those people are those typical Metalhead fans that would go. So we knew this was an important part to really drop a song that is going to appeal to the non-Florida death metal people.”
One of my favorite tracks on Dying of Everything is the last tune called “Be Warned”. It is a bashing doom song that resonates with impending menace. Sort of like when Godzilla is tearing up about Tokyo. Another awesome tune with some very cool special effects is “War”. You’ll want to check out the full interview with Donald as he provides some great insights into these songs as well as some fun stories.
Obituary are currently on tour with Amon Amarth, Carcass, and Cattle Decapitation through mid-December and then back over to Europe this winter with Heaven Shall Burn and Trivium. I asked if Obituary plans to do a headlining tour in support of Dying Of Everything. Donald answered “There’s an absolute full game plan all the way through 2024. It’s already in the makes, like penciling calendars. It’s ridiculous. The amount of time that we’re gonna be able to, ourselves at home sleeping on our own pillows is not looking very promising for the families. It’s been six years since the last album. We’ve been sitting on this album for two years. And with that pandemic that kept us in handcuffs for almost two years, you know, it’s time to get really busy.”
Many thanks to Donald Tardy for talking with me. I’m looking forward to seeing them on their headlining world tour next year.
