Upon switching their name from Xecutioner to Obituary, the career of one of the most successful and influential Death Metal bands began. Hailing from Florida and featuring John Tardy (vocals), brother Donald Tardy (drums), Trevor Peres (guitar), Allen West (guitar), and Daniel Tucker (bass), the band signed to Roadracer Records, a now defunct division of Roadrunner, for the recording of their debut album, the immense and immeasurably heavy “Slowly We Rot” (1989). The album was engineered by the legendary Scott Burns at Morrisound Studio, which would come to be the most sought after facility for production of albums during 1990’s rise of the Death Metal genre. Unlike much death metal preceding it, the album had a sludgy feel and integrated devastatingly slow passages along with obliterating overtures that reached far beyond any point of mayhem that metal had yet to reach; the result was a carnal pleasure for doom, death and thrash fans alike coupling the adrenaline of a speedball with the slow, degrading measures of a sewer at dusk. Like them or not, Obituary was unlike anything anyone had heard before.
“Slowly We Rot” was chaotic, bass heavy mix of manic guitar solos and crashing drums, but it was undeniably characterized by vocalist John Tardy’s disarmingly horrific, gargling style, that created guttural chasms of dread which though often strived for, to date have been paralleled by none. The ability to augment tempo so drastically became the band’s trademark along with Tardy’s unique vocal style, which distinguished them clearly from the rest of the emerging Florida Death Metal bands; nowhere is this more apparent than on the prophetic title track of their debut. The fact that Obituary refrained from printing lyric sheets with their albums led people to believe that they didn't actually write any lyrics. Some may question the verbosity or absence of documented lyrics, however, any true fan has each grunt, growl and howling grimace committed to memory like an utterance from God in painstaking form, what does not exist can not be remembered, and an Obituary show is testimony to the re-creation of what your ears couldn't believe in the first place. Once again bringing augmentation to irony, Live and Dead worked quite well for the quintet, dividing your conscience yet leaving much to the imagination; not since birth have your senses been so graphically assaulted yet pleased at the same time. While such differing sensations once seemed incongruous, Obituary have proven the ability to merge unlikely dichotomies, from their slow-as-hell-yet-fast-as-fuck style to the non-evil, homegrown approach to what would largely become the satanized, bastardized, make-up wearing movement known as Death Metal.
Back in the ‘90s, Suffocation maniacs waited, at most, two years between old and new fixes of New York-styled brutality. Landmark full-length Effigy of the Forgotten was only two years removed from debut EP, Human Waste. Likewise, Breeding the Spawn slayed posers and pretenders a year and a half after Effigy of the Forgotten blueprinted Suffocation into the history books. And Pierced from Within, the wickedest death metal put to tape in the mid ‘90s, slammed fist first into mediocrity and mundanity two years after Breeding the Spawn. Clearly, there were times when Suffocation’s march towards total annihilation was fast and furious.
Malevolent Creation started their career in 1987 in Buffalo, NY, where
they recorded and distributed their first demo. Moving to a more fertile
music scene in Florida they produced
their second demo with a pressing of 1,000 copies. Finally, a third demo
the following year recorded by Scott Burns at Morris Sound which landed Malevolent Creation a record deal with Roadrunner and the first
full-length album titled The Ten Commandments, considered by many to be
one of the strongest Death Metal debut albums.
The recording
process for the following albums, such as Retribution, and Stillborn,
were riddled with line-up changes, the beginning of a common occurrence
that has since become a Malevolent Creation trademark. As mastermind
Phil Fasciana sums it up, "If you're too slow, you've got to go". Never
allowing the revolving musicians to affect the power and skill of the
band in a negative way, the rotation only added mystery and fan interest
in the next step of the band’s career. Continuing to fight their
martial battles stronger and stronger with each release, Malevolent Creation labeled 'The Mike Tyson of Death Metal' never let anyone down
with new additions or replacements.
02. Pestilence - The Process Of Suffocation 2:40
03. Obituary - Platonic Disease 4:06
04. Suffocation - Infecting The Crypts 4:45
05. Brujeria - La Ley De Plomo 2:45
06. Gorguts - Hideous Infirmity 4:06
07. Believer - Wisdom's Call 3:43
08. Malevolent Creation - Sacrificial Annihilation 3:25
09. Disincarnate - Beyond The Flesh 4:48
10. Cynic - Veil Of Maya 5:18
11. Immolation - Into Everlasting Fire 5:10
12. Sorrow - Illusions Of Freedom 4:50
13. Skin Chamber - Carved In Skin 3:19
This cd has 13 tracks only as shown below.
