So the Obies are now officially down to four members with no lead guitar? Is Ralph Santolla back with Deicide full-time and does that mean there will be no more solos in Obituary? Or is it only temporary?
Also, I take it Frank Watkins has left indefinitely to join Gorgoroth?
I saw them at last year's Hellfest and still enjoyed the fuck out of their show, but it's not at all the same and I wonder what an album without solos would be like...

Well for one Santolla isn't with Deicide anymore since he got fired for being a drunken fuck, they have Kevin Quirion full-time now.

As for Obituary I really don't know anything that isn't on their page here or their own websites...apparently they have or once had someone called Lee Harrison playing lead guitar on tours, no idea if he's gonna be a full-time member or not. Also it appears they're working on a new album right now.

Eh. I saw them back in September and they had almost no energy in their show. What's more is I think most of their music is pretty stale. I still enjoyed some songs and whatnot, but since they're getting old, I wouldn't be sad if they packed up sometime soon.

Relevant to the topic, when I saw them live, they didn't even play solos... Has this guitarist been gone for a while? I don't really follow their lineup.

I dont Know, I saw them last April and, although it was a short set, it was full of energy and they did play the solos.

Old? The Tardy brothers are barely in their mid 40s. Arguably they're getting old (eventually, anyway) but being 40-45 years old doesn't mean you can't write and perform exciting music with passion.

Great, thanks for the info man.
Shame about Santolla, such an excellent guitarrist

I remember in the early/mid 90's, Id see their albums and thought theyd be something like Cannibal Corpse, especially with the lyrics. I got Cause of death and End Complete and was surprised that there werent even lyrics in the booklet. Years later I saw them online and was shocked by how they were hardly anything. I thought Ralph was easily the best thing of the newer albums.

I quite enjoy Obituary as a rhythm section thank you! I saw them about a year ago or more without Santolla, and I thought they were awesome! Trevor Perez should reunite Meathook Seed since solos are for squares.

autopsy!

For me, Obituary has always been about the heavy, groovy riffs and rhythms with Tardy puking on top. Solos aren't bad, but they aren't make or break for me concerning a band like this.

Well considering that mid 40s is more than double my own age, it's pretty old for me (especially considering I listen to a lot of the new wave of tech/prog stuff that have young members). They can still keep doing what they're doing but other than some of their earlier thrashier-type stuff, I haven't really been much into them. It's all just opinion though.

That was kind of the point. In those early days part of their hype was the fact that the vocals were supposedly unintelligible, leading some to speculate that there weren't any lyrics. You have to remember that JT's vocals were a bit of a novelty for the time. Though I'd still take his vocals over any of today's burpers or pig-squealers.

Obituary has never printed lyrics on any of their albums, new or old.

This was back in 97 when I didnt have the internet. I saw their albums at a used cd store and had been wanting to hear them, so I took some old cd's and traded them. Just really surprising were the 'lyrics' in Cause of Death.

Slowly We Rot and Cause of Death were daily listens for me back when they first came out. Still love those albums.

Same here! In fact, they're the only 2 albums of theirs I REALLY enjoy. They totally blew me away some 25 years ago. I've heard 4 out of the following 6 they released, but they don't do much for me, sadly.

i saw them late november. They were pretty fun but they dont quite have the raw energy of the first albums live.
However ive heard they are now more fun to see live than during the early 90s...

I saw them in MD death fest in 2010( I believe) and Ralph was still there but he seemed like he didn't want to be there at all, his demeanor was almost like a bored hippie on rap convention. I think the Tardy boys could use someone like Peter Joseph(ex-The Absence) in their line up.

That was most common rumour, that the guy just made sounds to actually sound like a corpse or something, just adding a couple of words like dying, death and stuff at the end of some phrases.

On an unrelated note, I know Donald runs the Metal Meowlisha and that alone is enough to respect the guy.

When I saw them at MDF 2010, they were pretty damn awesome and had a good set list. The crowd was totally into them and the energy was high. Plus, I thought Darkest Day was a solid album. Also, I read on their website they are planning on releasing a new album this year. So, we'll see how that goes and whether they can capture some of their magic from the early 90s.... unlikely, but one can dream.

I love all their albums, even the controversial 'Back from the dead'. One of my all-time top bands.

only Obituary album I dont like is Xecutioner's Return because the production sucks so much ass

agreed terrible production on that

Xecutioner's Return is plain bad! I really, really like Santolla on Stench, but I don't know what happened when he joined Obituary. Alcohol perhaps? I'm hoping they will release something worthwhile again.
Old?!?! Both Tardy's are younger than me! Kids these days...

It wouldn't surprise me if the next album had a who's who list of guest lead guitar players. Trevor's no slouch from what I gather, but I understand why he'd focus more on the rhythm and riffs than leads. During some of their more recent tours over the past couple of years they've had Lee Harrison of Monstrosity, whose quite a guitar player in his own right, and Kenny Andrews, Trivium's manager if I'm not mistaken, filling in on lead guitar when they went out as a five-piece. Hearing at least one of them perform on a song or two wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility. If that was the case, I'm sure James Murphy and perhaps Allen West could be called upon to lend their skills on a song as well.

The fact that they're taking their time and buckling down on the songwriting arguably moreso than ever from what I recall could only be a good thing. Yeah, it's Obituary and you know what you're going to get, but it's good to see that they want to put out something with a little more substance to it than another album that simply checks all the boxes and fades into becoming just another piece of their catalog. They fully acknowledge which side their bread's buttered on or else they wouldn't have had that recent tour that focused on material from only their first 3 albums a few months ago. If that's where their inspiration's coming from, I won't put up any hands about it until I hear something.

Somewhat unrelated but of personal interest, the Japanese version of Darkest Day apparently has a bonus track called Dragon Killer on it. Has anyone heard this and if so, is it worth seeking out? I'm a sucker for those types of things and any feedback would be appreciated.

I'd be suprised if the next album was anything but a "return to the roots" record. "Xecutioner's Return" was already going pretty strongly towards that, getting rid of basically all the groove/hardcore influences from "World Demise" and "Back from the Dead", in favor of something that recalled the band's classic era while still bringing some new ideas to the table. It's too bad so many people don't like the album, in my opinion it had some really top-quality stuff on it (the only song I hate from that album is "Second Chance"...*shudders*...). I do agree that Ralph Santolla was a bad fit for the band, though. His solos are sub-par in my opinion.

What is "Darkest Day" like? I have never heard the full album, but the little bit I have heard sounds very, very good! I own the "Left to Die" EP, but have never seen the full album in a store or for sale anywhere since it came out.

I haven't listened to the whole of Darkest Day, but what I have heard is pretty damn good. List of Dead in particular is my favorite Obituary song since The End Complete.

I'm a bit of an odd one out here, as I think the best material the band has written has been on the groovey trilogy of The End Complete, World Demise and Back from the Dead. However, I would look forward to an album that is primarily influenced from the first two, that would be quite interesting I'm sure. On Facebook, Donald has uploaded a picture of their new studio and there's a huge wall picture of the Cause of Death cover. Combine that with a lot of the earlier songs they've been playing recently and I think we're definitely getting a back-to-the-roots album here.

In regards to their comeback material. I liked Frozen in Time, though it isn't particularly interesting. I didn't like Xecutioner's Return. It just bored me and Ralph "GTFO of bands where you don't belong" Santolla's guitar leads irritated me. I'm glad he's since left/been kicked out of Deicide and Obituary. As for Darkest Day, I listened to it in its entirety not that long ago. While it wasn't bad at all, it did drag on a little. The music isn't really interesting enough to warrant that long of a playtime. 35-40 minutes, sure, but anything above 50 is too much for such simplistic material I think.

Darkest Day totally kicks ass, has an old school feel all over it and it's much more energetic than anything on Xecutioner's Return, also has better production job. List of Dead is the fastest song Obituary has ever written.