Artist: Obituary
Country: USA
Label: Candlelight Records
Formats: CD EP
Year: 2008

Obituary’s new one is a four-track EP (not counting the video-track for ‘Evil Ways’, taken from their last album) which will most likely closes the gap between the aforementioned last albums “Xecutioner’s Return” and their forthcoming album. The veterans of Floridian death metal entered their third decade and still their tried and tested formula of Frostian death metal is standing strong.

Though “Xecutioner’s Return” might have disappointed a bit and many thought that Ralph Santolla’s rather genious leads and solos were not supposed to be a part of Obituary’s primitive sound it is still safe to say that all of the bands releases are highly anticipated. So is this one. Only announced briefly before its release, this EP was supposed to be an appetizer and a treat for the fans.

The title of the first track of this mini CD, ‘Forces Realign’, might reveal a bit. Not much has changed with Santolla’s leads, they are still there but not as long and not as prominent as before. They are placed a little better in the music. This makes you wonder whether the band were too fast with releasing their previous album instead of taking a bit more time to compose good songs with Santolla’s solos. Furthermore we get a Celtic Frost cover in the form of ‘Dethroned Emperor’ and a re-recorded version of ‘Slowly We Rot’, just a bit different, actually the way they’ve been playing this classic song live for over two decades. Last but not least we get another new track, ‘Left To Die’, which is a mid-paced catchy roar-along-song that could easily have been from one of the older Obituary albums.

It is rather hard to imagine that anyone really got disappointed with Obituary, even when that last album was not the killer it was meant to be. Anyone who has seen the band live after its release should know that there was nothing lost of the bands true glance. And with ‘Left To Die’ they surely left us a bit of a present to fill the silence. Let’s hope it’s the calm before storm…