Customer Reviews

Cause of Death

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In a world of trendy corporate sellouts and faceless nobody copycat death bands, one band that refuses to change is Obituary. This album, their second, is packed full of the usual heavy guitars and utterly inhuman vocals that define the Obituary sound. Joining them on lead guitar this album is master shredder James Murphy. His soloing is phenomenal! The songs are crafted with such an eerie feel, you get goose bumps from beginning to end (the front cover is just as eerie), and John Tardy's lacerating vocals leave you breathless by the album's end.

Who ever thinks that death metal is written by morons with no talent is mostly correct. This album by Obituary is actually intelligently composed and artfully executed (no pun intended). It shows a level of artistry that is way beyond the strereotypical death metal album. Even though it of a qaulity that would please any music critic, it does not mean it is a light or commercial recording. The rythems are absoloutely bone crushing, and the drum work is mind blowing. The album is flavored with sound effects that give me nightmares, and the vocalist is pure evil. This album is not for the faint of heart! Totally awesome even after listening to it for 8 years now, this classic will survive for a long time.

One of Obituary's best albums, ah heck they're all great. The intense music, and the lyrics just kill for me. John Tardy's vocals just like on Slowly We Rot, and other Obituary albums, are just like a slimey beast that growls throughout the night, and Donald's drum work is just incredibly tight. On his first and only album with the band, Death Metal great James Murphy is the real standout, as you can tell by his awesome guitarwork. That guy is one of the true shredders in all Death Metal. Chopped In Half, Cause Of Death, Infected, and Body Bag are my favorite songs on here. Long Live Obituary.

Ok, I'm going to be honest, for years I avoided Obituary even if they were one of the many home-state Floridian Death Metal bands. I just avoided them completely, like the 12th plague from Egypt. I spent my time more closely to the likes of Morbid Angel, Death (RIP Chuck Schuldiner), Possessed and Malevolent Creation. I always thought this band was just another generic Death Metal band such as Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, and the very horrible Cancer. I would always look down at kids who whould glorify the later bands that I despised for giving Death Metal such a bad reputation. But whenever I heard that guitar tech-wizard James Murphy was on this album and ONLY on this album, I was skeptical. I went to my local record store and gave it a shot. Oh, how was I so foolish? Oh why did I pass this band up? The opening-groove downtuned guitars and slowed-down double bass beats to the song "Dying" had my brain hypnotized. I purchased it and was enthralled! I had it on total rotation in my CD player for the next several hours and it now finds a nice snug place in my CD collection. May be I had heard the less-interesting stuff like "World Demise" and "End Complete", but "Cause Of Death" did in fact make-up for those years of neglect. James Murphy's guitar riffs are nothing but pure passion on this album, not to forget Frank Watkin's and Donald Tardy's excelent musicianship. If you doubted this band as I have for so many years, you will doubt no more! Pick up "Cause Of Death" and enjoy! Best songs on here are "Dying", "Memories Remain" and the Celtic Frost cover "Circle Of The Tyrants".

This is definitely Obituary's best album.Thematerial that James Murphydid for this album wasabsolutely his best yet.And of course, who couldforget the awesome vocalpower of John Tardy and theexcellent drumming ofDonald Tardy. I wouldrecommend this album to anydeath metaller.

Obituary's sophmore effort isn't as good as their debut a year earlier, but it definitely doesn't suck. All the classic things to love about Obituary are still available here -bone crushing riffs, heavy mid-tempo drumming, and John Tardy's indeciferable voice.

Obituary also got a boost in the arm by acquiring session guitarist James Murphy recently of Death fame (ala Spiritual Healing). Murphy doesn't fit as well with the band as Alan West did, but some of the solos are slower and more harmonic. The general pace of the album is faster than 'Slowly We Rot' but there are still a lot of Sabbath-like dirges here and there.

There is also a cover of Celtic Frost's "Circle of the Tyrants" from the 'To Mega Therion' album. The "Cause of Death" tour in '90 was also very sucessful for Obituary and seeing how Sadus and Sepultura opened up for them it only got better. Still though, Obituary had yet to deliver the best album of their career...which would only wait another two years.

A good place to start any (old-school) Death Metal collection and definitely worth owning.

I wrote a review a long time ago for this album, but I didn't explain much, so heres a better review, this is a classic album, Slowly We Rot was nice and raw, also a classic, this is more cleaned up, evovled, more breakdowns and all that good stuff, fast *breakdown* fast...the normal Metal formula, lots of Thrash riffs being thrown around here, Tardys vocals are even better here, louder, and can make them out even more, (one of my favorite vocalists), the riffs are catchy as hell, some fast, some slow, nice variety, the soloing, I shouldn't need to explain much on this, after all, it's James Murphy, I also like Allen West too though, but you can't deny that James Murphy is a killer guitarist, great drumming out of Donald also, and can be heard alot better than on Slowly We Rot, the production is more cleaned up than Slowly We Rot, so it's got a better sound, not too raw, but not too clean either, which means not overly done, like some albums.

Infected 5/5, A nice fast paced opener, wicked riffs being thrown around, and hearing Tardy screaming "INNFECTEEEEED!" rules

Body Bag 5/5, More nice riffs around here, slows down in spots, other spots, nice and fast

Chopped In Half 5/6, CLASSIC, mostly an instrumental, BUT, I still consider it a song, seeing how it has vocals, killer riffs, and soloing...FEEL THE BLOOD SPILL FROM YOUR MOUUUUUTH!

Circle of the Tyrants 5/5, Everyone has covered this it seems, but, this is a very nice cover of it, the original is great too

Dying 5/5, Not much to say, nice riffing/soloing

Find The Arise 5/6, ANOTHER classic, love the way it starts out with that explosion sound, STOP! FIND THE ARISE, KILL AT FIRST SITE!...love the way it ends too, and goes into the title track...

Cause of Death 5/6. Yet another classic, as I said, The end of Find The Arise works into this, wicked riffs in here, soloing, and as always, killer vocals by Tardy


Memories Remain 5/5, Not much to say here, once again, nice riffing and soloing, love the outro, and hearing Tardy scream at the top of his lungs

Turned Inside Out 5/5, WICKED CLOSER!, AWESOME HEAVY RIFFING, nice variety also, just a killer song all around...

Well, there it is, I didn't mention much about the drumming, because I shouldn't need to, it's Donald Tardy, if you liked Slowly We Rot...or if you've never heard that, and like Celtic Frost, Check out Obituary, and for ones that HAVE heard Slowly We Rot, get this, I'm sure you won't be dissapointed, also check out The End Complete, World Demise, and their new one Frozen in Time!, very nice comeback, Avoid Back from the Dead at all costs though, later!

Obituary has released some pretty good albums, but "Cause Of Death" is far and away the best. In fact, it's one of the best death metal releases ever, no question. I think it's a work of absolute genius myself. This is the album that really re-kindled my interest in the genre and I keep coming back to it over and over again, because it's that damn good.

This is the album that turned me into a deathmetal fan. Since then I have heard many other albums from various bands, but nobody else even comes close. This album is outstanding all the way to the end!

I worship Obituary. They are metal gods. This album includes classic bone crushing riffs with the massacaring lyrics that only Obituary can produce. Praise Beezlebub.