Rating: 8.6
Country: USA
Release Date: 2005
Record Label: Roadrunner
Track list:
1. Redneck Stomp
2. On The Floor
3. Insane [MP3]
4. Blindsided
5. Back Inside
6. Mindset
7. Stand Alone
8. Slow Death
9. Denied
10. Lockjaw
Total playing time 34:20
Band Website: Obituary
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Obituary - Frozen In Time
John Tardy- Vocals
Allen West- Lead Guitar
Trevor Peres- Rhythm Guitar
Frank Watkins- Bass
Donald Tardy- Drums
Of all the wounds I've sustained as a faithful bearer of the death metal torch, few have been quite as excruciating or, indeed, enduring, as the one I suffered at the hands of Obituary and the "Bullituary" Remix. As an impressionable teenager mesmerized by the ghastliest, filthiest exhumations that death metal had to offer, Obituary had, for myself and so many others, really encapsulated and epitomized everything that death metal was, is, and will always be: fetid, repulsive sonic sewage that suffocates/asphyxiates you in blankets of hateful bile. To this day, John Tardy's performance on 'Slowly We Rot' is PEERLESS, a vigorous, thoroughly unnerving groan of anguish that conveyed GENUINE agony and torment, all atop colossal mountains of primordial guitar sludge and merciless, martial rhythms. The first three Obituary records vividly captured the sound of a disenfranchised youth lying prone on the floor, mouth frothing, veins bleeding, eagerly anticipating the onset of morbidity.
Of course, we are all familiar with the Obituary story now- with each passing album the unabashed ugliness and flesh-flaying ferocity of yore would be replaced by something much more sanitized and morally inclined, the sociopathic bitterness/obscenely moribund garishness scrubbed off to reveal hippy environmentalists concerned with pollution, country-loving bumpkins not averse to cross-pollinating rap and death metal. While I am more tolerant than the average bear, such betrayal is not easily forgiven, and I can admit that the return of my second favorite death metal band ever (next to CELTIC FROST!) did little more than resurrect painful memories of treachery and bad Chuck D impersonations. Obituary is like the bully who pulled my pants down in the cafeteria- such memories are indelible, inescapable.
Allow me to say, then, that while I understand your reservations concerning this particular release, 'Frozen In Time' will quite likely hold such doubts ransom, torture them to death and vomit on their emaciated corpses. Perhaps I'm not the most objective person to be penning such a review, and it's more than likely that I WANT the new Obituary album to kick large amounts of posterior, so that I may banish images of pimply discontent. Yet, even in my utmost attempts to remove myself from personal attachments, 'Frozen In Time' remains a ruthlessly efficient, beautifully brutal DEATH metal record.
Granted, the guitar tone isn't as incisively cleaver-like as 'Slowly We Rot', and Tardy, the mild looking geezer that he is, isn't quite the diseased, maggot-devouring zombie of days past. To be absolutely earnest, the guitar sound here is much friendlier than what we've come to know as THE OBITUARY SOUND ™ © ®, and Tardy, while much more virulent than any contemporary growler this side of Wannes Gubbels, somewhat lacks the grisly timbre/violent urgency to his voice that earned him BEST DEATH METAL VOCALIST EVAARRRR plaudits earlier on. Yet, the songs contained on this disc are so oppressive and so representative of Obituary's unique strain of cruelty that I can't help but surrender.
Not since Celtic Frost/Hellhammer and Death Strike has there been a death metal band so acutely sensitive to the importance of THE RIFF, a quality that has endeared Obituary to legions of similarly minded miscreants outside of death metal's bloodstained boundaries. Opening instrumental “Redneck Stomp” (while boasting a title disturbingly reflective of Donald Tardy's professed yen for bluegrass music) flaunts this with unapologetic abandon- bestial Celtic Frost chords pummel the listener into submission as Donald Tardy's thunderous kick drum provides the proceedings with sonorous, resounding might. As per Obituary policy, there is no ‘'check this scale out, yo!'' pretension here, this music DEMANDS headbanging, REQUIRES headbanging.
The hits are not in short supply here- “On The Floor” is a torrential flow of magma-like malevolence adorned briefly by a squealing, frightfully effective Allen West solo, “Insane” is a throbbing, pulsing, insistent motherfucker of a track that features a monstrous, echoing hook, absolutely AWESOME midsection (start at 01:19 for gutchurning, vomit spewing riffing) and devastating breakdown. It's rather astounding JUST how consistently excellent the riffs are on this beast…you would have thought that between themselves, Usurper, Cianide and Scepter, the Celtic Frost wellspring would have been exhausted by now, but somehow West and Peres have managed to write some of the finest, meatiest riffs since…hell…'Cause Of Death'. This is not to say that this record approaches that classic, or indeed, the landmark 'Slowly We Rot', being that this is in many senses an older, wiser, somewhat less incendiary Obituary, but if the guitar tone was murkier and Tardy was a tad more unhinged, I would go so far as to say that it would absolutely be on par.
I have listened to this record about 40 times since I bought it on release date, and the fact that it still holds appeal speaks volumes on many levels- I'm a disgruntled, jaded fart when it comes to new music, and I typically start off TRYING to hate a record. I also came into this record holding a substantial grudge against Florida's finest incumbents, and would have quite relished flinging shit in their direction. Yet, listen after listen, I am convinced that this is very much the most inspirational comeback record in recent years. MILES better than 'Scars Of The Crucifix', 'Heretic' and 'Ethereal Tomb' put together. Pity about the production (a bit less echo, John, a bit more mud, West/Peres, and turn the drums a bit lower in the mix!), but otherwise, this is at least as good as 'The End Complete'.
August 29th, 2005
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