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Obituary > Xecutioner's Return > Reviews > Chopped_in_Half
Obituary - Xecutioner's Return

The return is sweet! - 96%

Chopped_in_Half, September 23rd, 2007

Coming off their comeback album "Frozen in Time" which turned out to be pretty successful, they return with this monster.

But in my honest opinion, for what it's worth, I think they topped "Frozen in Time" with this, this one sounds like they took more time to write it, more tempo changes and so on.

Now just because Ralph Santolla replaced Allen West for this album, doesn't mean it's super technical, because it isn't, but Obituary never was technical, if it ain't broke, why fix it?

The guitar work here between Peres and Santolla is excellent, they seem to work really nice together, infact, some of it reminds me of Peres' and Murphys work on "Cause of Death", while some of it also reminds me of "The End Complete", take for example "Contrast The Dead" sounds like it could've been on The End Complete, where as "Seal Your Fate" sounds like it could be on "Cause of Death", so some good variation on this album.

As for the production, I see people complain about it, but I don't really know why, I think they did a fine job producing it, it's not overdone, but it's not muddy either, I guess you could say the production is kind of like "Cause of Death" which suits the band perfectly I think.

Now as for John Tardy, he is his usual abnormal sounding self here, and is understandable!, so an excellent job by him as usual, Donald Tardy does some nice fills and riffs, even some nice doublebass work.

I know most frown upon track-by-track reviews, so I'll just mention a few songs that stand out for me, for instance "Evil Ways" the riffs are very nice and catchy, still maintaining the slow Obituary signature sound, and has a catchy chorus, "Drop Dead" picks up the pace a bit, still remaining catchy as hell too, and cool lyrics I might add, "Feel The Pain" slows it down again, with excellent doomish brooding riffs, and a shredding solo, "Contrast The Dead" REALLY slows it down, I think this might be the slowest song they've ever done, also the longest, clocking in at 7:01, stomp riffs everywhere, makes you want to bash your head into a wall, the chorus is nicely done too along with the solos.

The rest are good too, but it's more of the same, which is a good thing, any fan of Obituary should love it.