OBITUARY — World Demise (review)

OBITUARY — World Demise album cover Album · 1994 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Vim Fuego
Obituary were victims of their own success. With the stunning combination of a legendary debut, a follow up album which many rate better than the first, and a third album which was the highest selling Death Metal album of all time to that point, it was bound to come a little unstuck on the fourth album. There is nothing obviously wrong with 'World Demise'. It takes the raw brutality of 'Slowly We Rot', the Celtic Frost worship of 'Cause Of Death', and the clinical precision of 'The End Complete' to a new level. Everything Obituary made their name with is here - thunderous guitars, assault and battery of the drum kit and of course Donald Tardy's trademark vomitory death grunt. Obituary developed a very tight sound, which first became evident on 'The End Complete', and became fully operational here. A lot of the fuzzier, less distinct parts of Trevor Peres' rhythm guitar were sharpened up. Some of the charm of early Obituary was the fact it was recorded primitively, giving it a warm "feel". Crisper production and improvements in playing technique took a lot of that feel and character away from the band's sound. In its place is a more precise, colder, almost robotic feel, more synthetic than natural. Everything seems exact, deliberate, planned, and faultless. Many former fans were put off. What better than a mechanical sound for decrying pollution and industrialisation though? Opener ‘Don't Care’ and ‘Solid State’ particularly demand instant respect for exacting execution. Like an automated Orwellian nightmare, they stamp on your conscious mind remorselessly. Escaping the nightmare, ‘Final Thoughts’ explores the last flickers of neurons through the brain before you pull the trigger. Death Metal can be a very restrictive genre to work within. A lot of fans expect things to be exactly right, with little room for deviation. Obituary tried something a little different here. There are vocal samples mumbling away under a lot of the tracks. Who knows what they are saying, but the almost subliminal effect on the sound is engaging. Also, on final track ‘Kill for Me’, there are African tribal percussion samples. The loop adds an interesting percussive effect. It is unfortunate the band did not explore this avenue further. Time hasn't been terribly kind to this album. The first three are fondly remembered by most fans, but not this for some reason. It is really a continuation of and the obvious successor to 'The End Complete'. Perhaps death metal had finally progressed and caught up with where Obituary had been five years earlier.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Asbestos Tiles Hardcore Punk
SUNDOWNER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Lysergic Ritual Sludge Metal
SUNDOWNER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Terra Preta Sludge Metal
TITANOBOA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Endless Suffering Sludge Metal
LØV
Buy this album from MMA partners
Beyond The Shed Sludge Metal
SINICYST
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Agremorta - Adrocitas (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Agremorta - Ploratus Umbra (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Agremorta - Vertex Membrana (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 1 day ago
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR - The Temple Of Curved Space (Official Track Stream)
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR
adg211288· 1 day ago
In Sulfur - The Gate (OFFICIAL VIDEO) 2022
IN SULFUR
Bosh66· 2 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed