As we speak—okay, as we type—Floridian death metal legends Obituary are in Brazil, touring in support of their ninth full-length album, Inked in Blood, released last October. The tour also took them throughout the U.S. last December and into Europe earlier this year.
During the European leg of the tour, the band played in Alkmaar, Holland, for the first time in their career. It was a perfect night for death metal, and a perfect occasion to sit down with Obituary drummer and founding member Donald Tardy before the gig to find out more about how the band’s holding up after a quarter-century of relentless touring.
(Our conversation was originally published by the Ukrainian magazine Atmosfear, who was kind enough to let us re-post an English translation here at Horns Up.)
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Your new album, Inked in Blood, has been out since October. From your end, how have you experienced the reception of the fans and press thus far?
In a word: unbelievable. When I look at the positive reviews and the enthusiasm with which the fans reacted to this record, it hasn’t felt like this in a decade. I’m particularly happy with this because we poured all our skills and creativity into this album. We wrote it in such a way that every song is relevant; there is no filler.
The internet is also a reason for the positive reception. We had already been playing the songs off our new album for quite some time before the album came out. Our performance at RockHard festival was filmed very well and by the time Inked in Blood was released, people had already grown to love our new material. For example, a day after the release date, we were playing a gig and people were already singing along to our new songs!
With that, you have circumvented a peculiarity of the music business: normally, you put out the CD, or “product” first and then you promote it by touring for one or two years, whereas in most other businesses, promotion starts well before the product is out there.
Absolutely. We may not have been aware of this at the time, but we were basically “advertising” our upcoming album by doing those early live shows. To stay in marketing terms: our shows, in retrospect, proved a nice “billboard” for our new record.
You confirmed earlier that the crowd reception has been very positive, and of course this is the most important because ultimately it’s your audience which allows you to keep making music. But what about the reviews? Did the press reception turn out the way you had hoped? And do you care about this at all?
In my experience, about 99% of the press coverage of Inked in Blood has been positive. Of course you’re always going to get people who will complain about a certain aspect of the music. But frankly, this album turned out exactly as planned. We wrote it, we recorded it, we produced it, and we took a very organic approach to the entire process. That means no triggers, no polishing, no fixing shit afterwards; it’s death metal, and death metal needs a raw sound. There will always be people out there who don’t like this type of production, but unfortunately for them we won’t change our work method because this is just who we are.
Obituary has been around for a long time. Does the longevity of your career ever come with burdens? Like people at shows only wanting to hear the old songs?
Sure, it happens. It’s not strange; I can understand it from the point of view of a fan. For example, Slayer is my favorite band in the world, and I loved their latest album [World Painted Blood]. But if I’d go to one of their shows and they would only play songs from that album, I would be absolutely bummed. Great as their new material may be, of course I’m waiting for songs like “Angel of Death” and “Raining Blood”, and they know that.
So of course, when we play a show, we have good reason to play plenty of old songs as well. People have been listening to the first two albums for ages, so naturally we will play that material for our fans. All the more because we still love those songs, too. Granted, as a band you are always the most excited about our new material, but we know that some of our old songs are classics and it would be foolish to deny that part of our legacy.
Speaking of your legacy, you’ve been part of the death metal scene pretty much since the beginning. Does this provide you with a different perspective on the genre and scene as a whole? Like, every year you will hear someone talk about how the genre is dead or how this or that band “ain’t what it used to be.” Does your experience help you see through such comments?
I don’t know. In the end, I don’t think those thoughts are relevant because we play music first and foremost because we love it. Even if nobody out there cared for us anymore, we would still record a kick-ass album because that’s just what we enjoy doing.
This is also how we approach our own music. We write songs that we like, and during that process we are not thinking about what the world might think, or whether the fans of this or that band are going to like it. We don’t give a fuck; we just write heavy shit and everyone who’s into that will appreciate what we do.
We’ve talked about the advantages of the internet era, but what about the drawbacks? For example, when I talked to Morean of Dark Fortress, he mentioned how his band can put a song out on the internet, and already after three seconds people will have their conclusion ready and give their uncensored opinion on the track. How do you experience these digital drawbacks?
There’s the obvious disadvantage of album sales plummeting and people hating new material a second after it’s been put out. But for me the worst part is that bands spend so much time and money on making a record sound great, and then people will listen to it on YouTube with white headphones. And then of course they’ll complain about how the new album doesn’t have a good sound. (laughs)
But at the end of the day, these things will often happen and there’s no use in getting angry over it every time. It’s important to realize the internet has also brought a lot of good things to the table. We are now able to communicate directly with our fans. We can now tell them “hey, we’re going to tour tomorrow” and everyone will know. Before the internet, it used to take months to put the word out. For Obituary, the positives of the internet definitely outweigh the negatives.
I’ve always been meaning to ask this to a reputable live band: whenever a band gets interviewed before or after a show, the stereotypical question will be what you think of that particular venue and that particular audience. I can imagine that, while you’re on a long tour, you don’t always have this pinpoint awareness of where you are. So has it ever happened that, for example, someone asked you what you think of Munich, and you think to yourself “oh shit, that’s right, we’re playing in Munich!”
(laughs) That’s a good question, as tours can often become hectic. There are times when you wake up in a different parking lot every morning, so it can certainly happen that for a split second you wonder “wait, what country am I in now?” or “is it Wednesday today, or Thursday?”
To be honest, after a while I always forget the show itself. Trevor will be like “we played here last time, don’t you remember?” And only when he describes the little details around it, for example what we ate that night or what we did afterwards, only then will I remember.
I imagine it would be the same as distinguishing different work days. When you do more or less the same thing every day, then of course after a while you won’t remember exactly what you did on that specific day a year ago.
Yeah, it is really the same idea. When the interviewer asks the interviewee what’s so great about their city or audience, it’s really difficult to give a deep and sincere answer because a show in Holland is not that different from a show in Germany.
I would say, though, there is a big difference between European shows and American shows. In Europe, the venues are nice and well-organized, and everything has been taken care of. People here have a real passion for what they do. In America, once in a while you will go to a venue that is run-down and mismanaged. In such places nobody cares about the band, there’s no hospitality, and worst of all the equipment is far below standard so you end up sounding like half the band you are. Because in the end that’s the most important thing. Give me shitty food, as long as we can give our fans a good show. They generally take this aspect a lot more seriously in Europe.
Your bandmates Terry and Ken haven’t been a part of Obituary for too long, so how are they holding up on this tour?
Terry is of course very experienced with other bands. He played with Death and toured Europe before any of us did. So obviously, the whole tour business is not new to him and it is an activity he feels quite comfortable with.
For Ken, this tour is a more novel experience. You can notice this by small things, as he still gets nervous before shows. (laughs) But at the end of the day, he is a great musician who is a fundamental part of our band.
The most important thing for us as a band is that we play together real well. We are 100% compatible as musicians, and we all enjoy being on the stage. That’s what matters at the end: our only purpose is to get out there and kick ass.
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Many thanks to Slawikus at Atmosfear for his assistance.
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