Obituary - Darkest Day (2009)

Obituary takes us back into the good old times of Death Metal with “Darkest Day” and this is probably the weakest thing about this album. The band’s last 3 album have been pretty similar in the sense that they are trying to recapture their young years glory but coming a bit short in every album.

“Darkest Day” is an overall improvement over “Xecutioner's Return” since the vocals sound way better than in that album, and the overall feeling of the album is closer to the band’s glory days, however it gets stale after a few songs since there are many songs with boring and repetitive riffs that drown the good songs away in this release.

Similarly to the Tardy Brothers debut album, this release has too much of the old school sound that many people yearn for, but that other also dread, me included. While it’s nice to listen to Metal the way it used to sound years ago, it’s also nice to hear some changes here and there and something fresh along the way.

That being said, the album features plenty of mid paced death metal songs, some of them are very good but most get drowned in their own repetitiveness. The guitar work is very up to par with the band’s previous releases and they have some guitar solos here and there that are very good, but nothing else is new.

The vocals like I previously mentioned sound way better than in the last 2 albums, but they are still far away from the band’s earlier stuff, John Tardy is a very good vocalist and has always been, but time and age are taking their toll on him.

If you are a fan of Obituary, this album will not disappoint you since it has the old school feeling thanks to a great production behind it. If you are trying to starting listening to Death Metal and like the newer stuff (Jungle Rot, etc), stay away from this release since it will bore you to death. As for me I still enjoy a good dose of Obituary once in a while.

Release: June 30, 2009

Country: USA