Ten Thousand Ways to Die Obituary 2016 Relapse Records For a Death Metal band, Obituary have had a relatively successful career. Hailing from Florida in the USA, Obituary have helped shape the definitive sound of American Death Metal with the seminal releases of 1989’s Slowly We Rot and 1990’s Cause of Death. Obituary officially called it a day in the late 90’s before reforming again in for 2005’s comeback album, Frozen in Time. Since 2005, Obituary have maintained a steady list of releases despite the sad loss of bassist Frank Watkins to cancer in 2015. Ten Thousand Ways to Die is the latest live album from Obituary and features recordings from Obituary’s North American tour in early 2016 as well as two new studio tracks. Just like the previous studio album, 2014’s Inked in Blood, Ten Thousand Ways to Die features the exact same lineup of longtime members, brothers John and Donald Tardy on the vocals and drums as well as Trevor Peres on guitar. Ken Andrews also plays guitar with Terry Butler replacing the late Frank Watkins. Ten Thousand Ways to Die has been produced by Donald Tardy and Peres who have made Ten Thousand Ways to Die exactly as you would expect from an Obituary album. The songs are grinding and heavy with emphasis on the double bass, John Tardy’s vocals prowl in and out with a set list that had obviously been chosen for what is essentially a live greatest hits. For an album that was essentially marketed by Relapse Records as a new Obituary album, Ten Thousand Ways to Die is quite underwhelming. The two new tracks, the title track and Loathe are in all honesty, rather lacklustre and by all accounts, boring. Listening to Loathe at times can be a slog indeed with it being difficult to tell when Loathe ends and Ten Thousand Ways to Die begins with the songs failing to hold your attention throughout. Anyone who caught Obituary live earlier in the year, will understand that they paled in comparison to Exodus, who literally blew them off stage. The set list that was chosen for the live section of Ten Thousand Ways to Die is more or less, give or take a few tracks and different listings, pretty much what was played during each show with Obituary sounding bored and detached compared to the other bands on the bill. The good thing is, this lack of energy doesn’t transpose to the live album and with Ten Thousand Ways to Die, you actually get a decent sounding live album, Tardy and Peres doing a great job with the production. All this aside, Ten Thousand Ways to Die is what it is, it is a live album with two studio tracks as an incentive to purchase the album and unfortunately, Ten Thousand Ways to Die falls into the category of ‘for die-hard fans of Obituary and collectors only’ and if you are neither of these, the answer is simple. Don’t bother. 4/10 Adam Loathe (Obituary)
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