For their ninth album, Inked In Blood, Floridian death metal institution Obituary may have done some things different (such as running a successful crowdfunding campaign to record the album, then signing to Relapse Records to get the music out there), but they did a lot the same, too. For example, the songs: I'm pretty sure these 12 cuts are new, but it's hard to tell with Obituary sometimes. And that's the beauty of the band, the simplicity of the caveman (hey, their words... and mine) death metal, the slow-chugging groove, the double bass pounding at that certain Obituary bpm... yup, Inked In Blood is the work of Tardy times two and the rest of the crew, although vocalist John Tardy is hard-pressed to answer how the album compares to the band's others.

"It’s always hard for us to tell," says Tardy. "It’s like waking up every morning and looking at yourself in the mirror. You look the same every morning, but you go back and look at a photo that’s 30 years old, then you see the difference. We play our old music all the time, so to really hear the difference, it’s kind of hard for us."

Tardy points to the tune "Visions In My Head" as being one he's particularly proud of on the album, calling it "one of the most complete songs" the band has ever written and shows how much the band has progressed over the years, despite Obituary being, as I put it to him, "not the most progressive band in the world" (compliments, all).

"It just went together… and don’t get me wrong, we’re a bunch of cavemen, so how it came out, I don’t know… but it just went together and has so much feeling and flows so well for one song, it has so much packed into that one song," says Tardy about the tune. "We’ve come a long way from some of the songs we wrote when we were still in high school and putting songs together."

 

 

The band's last disc, Darkest Day, came out back in 2009 on Candlelight Records. Tardy says the guys hoped to have this new album out a couple years ago but then they started trying to figure out how to release the album independently. Faced with a "completely overwhelming" amount of logistics, the band was then introduced to some of the Relapse gang, who made it clear that if Obituary needs anything they should get in touch.

"They were so cool from the first time we talked to them," says Tardy. "We were sitting in our garage, and we had the album all together, it wasn’t mixed yet, and we said, 'Hey, if you guys would like to come down and hear what we’ve been working on…' and before we even hung up the phone, like five of the dudes from Relapse already had flights booked. Then they came back down a second time to visit us, and we had a listening party."

Tardy says that so far the band has found working with Relapse to be a great experience, adding that he's never had the feeling that he has this time around.

"It’s always been like you hand the master off to your record company then you feel like you may as well just forget about it," he says. "There’s no control whatsoever anymore. But because our Kickstarter campaign went so well, we had so many cards in our hands going in with Relapse, we felt like we still had control over what we’re doing."

 

 

And given that this isn't exactly 1992 anymore, if a band can have even a bit of control, that's saying something.

"It’s such a night-and-day difference from when we started. I look back… hell, (legendary death metal recording studio) Morrisound just closed their doors a few weeks ago," he says, disbelief in his voice. "Morrisound’s gone."

But Obituary carries on, Inked In Blood taking them into this new landscape for the music industry, and doing so with the simple swamp trudge of caveman death that the band always delivers so well. And that sound isn't likely to change any time soon.

"Just by nature, the people we are, the simpler the better, the easier the concept to your music," says Tardy. "None of us are super technical are begin with; we’re not going to overwhelm you with any of our individual talents, that’s for sure. But you can’t put the five best musicians on the face of the planet in a room together and just think you’re going to get the best music. It doesn’t always work that way. So we were lucky early on to find that Obituary sound that comes about when we get together and that’s how it flows. And it’s really nothing you can rehearse or practice or think too much about."

Album stream:

 

Obituary live:

October

29 - Tricky Falls - El Paso, TX
31 - Chameleon Room - Oklahoma City, OK

November

1 - Granada - Lawrence, KS
2 - Pops - Sauget, IL  
4 - Lincoln Theatre - Raleigh, NC
5 - Broadberry - Richmond, VA
6 - The Orange Peel - Asheville, NC
7 - Exit/In - Nashville, TN
8 - Diamond Pub & Billiards - Louisville, KY
9 - The Madison Theater - Covington, KY