OBITUARY — World Demise (review)

OBITUARY — World Demise album cover Album · 1994 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"World Demise" is the 4th full-length studio album by US, Florida based death metal act Obituary. The album was released through Roadrunner Records in September 1994. It´s the successor to "The End Complete" from 1992, which was the most commercially successful release in Obituary´s career, selling around 250.000 copies worldwide. While "World Demise" didn´t quite reach those sales numbers, it was still a successful release for the band, and they continued to tour and conquer the world during this period. Like the three preceding albums by the band, "World Demise" was also recorded at Morrisound Studios and produced by Scott Burns and Obituary.

"World Demise" is the odd one out though when taking a look at the five albums Obituary released in their original run until they disbanded (went on a longer hiatus) in 1998. The odd one out status is mainly a consequence of the change from horror/gore themed lyrics to lyrics about environmental issues (also obvious from the cover artwork), politics and social issues, although there are still some lyrics featured on the album about death, horror, and gore. Stylistically this is brick heavy and groove oriented death metal featuring heavy riffs and rhythms, screaming guitar solos (although they are fewer here than they were on the albums preceding this one), and John Tardy´s distinct sounding brutal growling vocals in front.

Although this is in no way a groove metal album, Obituary definitely flirt with that genre during the album, but on the other hand, they´ve always been groove oriented, so nothing groundbreaking is happening here in that respect. The addition of a few samples and industrial effects/influences on a couple of tracks (and the tribal percussion on a couple of tracks), don´t make this album sound much differnt from what came before. To my ears the material are slightly more formulaic in nature/structure compared to the more adventurous and unpredictable structures of the tracks on "The End Complete (1992)", and it´s not a positive feature if you ask me. Highlights include tracks like "Don't Care", "Redefine", "Burned In", "Final Thoughts" and "Kill for Me" (at least until it ends with a couple of minutes of unnecessary silence and samples), but "World Demise" is overall a very consistent quality release.

The sound production is clear, detailed, and heavy, and it brings out the brutality of the music well. I could have done with a slightly less polished production approach though, and I think the material would have prospered from a more raw and stripped down sound. All things considered "World Demise" is still a high quality death metal release by Obituary, but it´s a step down in the songwriting department from it´s direct predecessor. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.
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