Since making a glorious comeback to the metal scene after
a long six-year absence with 'Frozen In Time' in 2005, Floridian death
metal legends Obituary certainly made up for lost time with some fairly
extensive touring throughout the world.
In the twelve months since the release of their first
ever live DVD 'Frozen Alive' (which was also their first independent
release following their split with Roadrunner Records), Obituary have
maintained their presence in front of live audiences, all the while
keeping themselves busy behind the scenes recording their highly anticipated
seventh full-length effort.
Boasting a new and strengthened line-up (ex-Deicide/Death/Iced
Earth guitarist Ralph Santolla replaced Allen West earlier in the year,
and joins vocalist John Tardy, guitarist Trevor Peres, bassist Frank
Watkins and drummer Donald Tardy), Obituary has returned with their
second post-reformation album 'Xecutioner's Return', which has been
hailed as one of the group's best efforts since 1990's 'Cause Of Death'.
Taking a well-earned break from the studio, I caught up
with vocalist John Tardy at home in Florida to discuss the change of
guitarists within the band, the band's hands on approach to recording
of the new album, the potential for more Obituary music to surface before
the end of the year and the overwhelming reactions to 'Xecutioner's
Return'.
"The reaction to 'Xecutioner's Return' has been awesome.
From the moment the promos went out to all the press, everything has
been positive about the album. And now that the album has been officially
released, the fan emails have been crazy. They seem to just absolutely
love the album. There's more and more people hoping that we'll come
and place somewhere close to them too. So it feels really awesome. There's
been a bigger show of support from across the board, and probably the
most positive support we've ever had in our careers so far. We're really
excited by this."
A lot of the praise for 'Xecutioner's Return' comes down
to the fact that the album is far more varied and adventurous than 'Frozen
In Time'. But as Tardy explains, the album is simply what was coming
out of the band at the time.
"You know, it is just what it is. It's strange for us because we
hardly ever sit down and think about what we're going to do in advance.
We just sit down and have fun with our music. We essentially write what
we write. It's really hard for me to say anything about the direction
of the album other than that. What I can tell you though is that we're
really happy with it. I guess you could say that there are a lot of
new elements within 'Xecutioner's Return'. I mean you have Santolla's
leads throughout the album, and I guess there are some faster songs
this time around that have some fast vocal parts on them. That's something
we've never done within Obituary before. So yeah, the new album has
got some interesting stuff on there for sure. But in terms of the overall
direction, there wasn't much thought at all. It's really just one of
those things. We're just into writing music the same way that we have
always done. We really haven't changed much over the years. It's just
a matter of getting together and having a good time here in our studio.
It was just about getting together and writing some songs. I think these
are some of the best songs that we have ever written."
Obituary have never been a group to spend a long time
to write and record a new album, and much like 'Frozen In Time', 'Xecutioner's
Return' came together rather quickly. But with the construction of the
band's own RedNeck Studios, Obituary were able to take matters into
their own hands and ensure 'Xecutioner's Return' was everything it promised
to be.
"As far as the writing goes, putting together 'Xecutioner's
Return' probably took around the same length of time as it did 'Frozen
In Time'. I really think the long gap between releases (from 1997's
'Back From The Dead' to 2005's 'Frozen In Time') really helped us out,
because when we all came back together, so many ideas were brought to
the table. We had enough ideas to carry us through both 'Frozen In Time'
and 'Xecutioner's Return'. Both of those albums came together faster
than anything we had ever written before. We did spend a lot of time
before both albums really learning the songs and playing them a lot.
We wanted to be really familiar with them. That way, when you get into
the studio, you can record the stuff really fast. What made a real difference
this time around was recording in our own RedNeck Studios. We probably
spent a little more time in the studio this time around, but only because
it's here right here in my house. You just have to walk out back and
you can walk straight into the studio. But what was really strange and
different recording 'Xecutioner's Return' compared to our other albums
is that we would start recording songs and then head off to Mexico to
do a string of dates. When we came back home, we would record some more,
and then we would head off on tour once again, like the time we last
saw you guys down there in Australia. Then we would come back and record
some more. I remember looking at the recording schedule and the touring
schedule side by side and mentioning to the guys that I didn't think
this was such a good idea. I mean here we are trying to get into the
studio to record an album, just like we're supposed to, but we were
continually taking off on tour. In hindsight, it worked out cool because
we would start laying down some tracks and putting stuff together, and
it was only when we would get back after being on the road for a week
to ten days and hear what we laid done with fresh ears. With fresh ears,
you can make some small adjustments, and it will instantly bring out
a bunch of brand new ideas into your head. So it was kind of neat how
it all turned out. Taking breaks away from the studio, especially during
the mixing, worked really well. If you step back away from it, and then
come back fresh to it, it always gives you a new perspective on things.
It all turned out quite cool for us."
While the idea of building a home studio had been a one
of Obituary's ambitions, it wasn't until the completion of 'Frozen In
Time' that the band could finally start work on RedNeck Studios.
"In the past, we had always thought about building our own studio,
but we never had the resources or the know-how to make it a reality.
The recording process these days is very different from when we first
started out. Anyone can get pro-tools, and start recording for themselves
straight away. It's an industry standard these days. It's a relatively
expensive first time investment, but given the budget we usually spend
on making an album, it really wasn't that bad. To be able to record
an album, right here at my house, made such a tremendous difference.
We have so much that we want to do now it's not funny. At any given
time, or at any practice, I can hit record and get unbelievable results.
Anyone can go out and buy pro-tools, but at the same time, there's a
lot going on during recording that has a lot with being able to use
pro-tools. Another good point is ensuring that your studio is a good
recording room. It's important not to build in a big empty warehouse,
because you'll never get a good sound. At the other extreme, you don't
want a room that's too dead or too quiet. Personally, I really don't
like that sound. We've been in studios before where it's too padded
and too quiet, and you simply can't get enough of that ambient noise,
which is something that really bothers me. So we did some practice recordings,
and systematically checked to make sure that we were happy with the
sounds we were getting with our own studio. We've been in enough recording
studios to know exactly what sort of sound we want. We also know our
equipment inside out too, such as where to place the microphones and
stuff like that. So with the recording studio located here, we were
able to tweak and pick away at the process both day in and day out until
we got to a point where we were happy about everything. As a result,
I think the production on 'Xecutioner's Return' came out really good."
While RedNeck Studios is well and truly up and running,
Tardy is still quite the novice in regards to anything beyond the basics
when it comes to pro-tools yet.
"Surprisingly enough, we did a lot of research and
a lot of reading in regards to operating the pro-tools system. But we
had a lot of help from Mark Prator. He's been our friend forever and
ever, and he's been involved in just about every album we've made in
one-way or another. He helped record, produce and mix 'Xecutioner's
Return' with us. When we recorded 'Frozen In Time', we did that at his
studio Red Room Recorders. He produced, engineered and mixed that album
along with us. So when it came time to record a new album, we approached
him about the idea of tracking the new album at our house. We sat down
with him and we came up with a wish list of things that we wanted. So
we set it all up here and he helped us get the initial set up done so
that everything was set up properly. He gave us some crash course pointers
and up to a point where it was almost like using a tape recorder. We
didn't do a lot of editing and all the other stuff that can get done
with pro-tools. We wouldn't know how to get quite that far while making
an album yet. But every day you learn more and more. We were just tracking
the record this time around. We just got everything from the instruments
down onto the hard drive with the aid of pro-tools. When we were happy
with what we had, we just unplugged our hard drive, took it over to
Prator's studio, and plugged the device into his bay. He could then
open it up, and start work on the editing, mixing and the adding of
all the effects that we wanted to do from that point on. We needed his
help on that because we certainly wouldn't be good enough yet on pro-tools
to do that stuff! (Laughs) There's a lot to the program and you learn
something new everyday about it, that's for sure."
Steering back towards the topic of 'Xecutioner's Return',
you can't talk about the new album without mentioning Santolla's huge
contribution to the band's overall sound.
"I think Santolla's playing has added a whole new
dimension to 'Xecutioner's Return'. His involvement on the album is
a bit like when we had James Murphy (who's also played for Disincarnate,
Death, Cancer, Testament and Konkhra) play on 'Cause Of Death'. Santolla
came into the group for pretty much the same reasons as Murphy did.
We were fortunate that he was leaving Deicide around the same time that
we were finding out that Allen West was not going to be available to
record this album with us for one reason or another. All these songs
on 'Xecutioner's Return' were all written long before we started jamming
with Santolla. When he first joined us, he was over here every single
day. He still comes over six days a week. I think he comes over to the
house more than some of the other band members. He always wants to do
something. Sometimes we're just hanging out, sometimes we're practicing,
and other times we're here recording some stuff that he's working on.
Santolla spent a lot of time with us and he wanted us to be happy with
what he was doing on 'Xecutioner's Return'. He didn't want to put solos
on the top of songs or have them sound very un-Obituary like. He was
just so cool. He's so talented that he could do anything he wants to
- he was just so cool about listening to us and listening to our input.
When Donald (Tardy) and I sat here recording him, we would just get
him to play solo after solo. At the end, we had a play list of close
to thirty solos, and every one of them was cool. It was just so awesome
and fun to just sit there and watch him work. When we were done, we
had so much material to sift through, pick and choose from. It was just
crazy. It was a lot of fun when we got back to Prator's studio. Mark
could grab those solo pieces and compile them all together and put his
solos together with all the good parts that he liked. I think Santolla
did a great job sticking to Obituary's style and sound, yet keeping
it heavy and not too pretty, as well as keeping it melodic in places.
We're really fortunate that he was able to help us with the European
Festivals we played not so long ago. As of right now, he is a full member
of the band. We'll see what happens in the future. All we can say is
that we have a lot planned with him, and so far it's all been good."
While Obituary is more than happy with Santolla's fit
within the band, I couldn't help but wonder what Tardy's thoughts are
on the departure of West.
"If you've followed Obituary's history, it really
shouldn't be any surprise about West's absence. If you look all the
way back to 'Cause Of Death', you could see he had certain issues at
the time. If I had to sum up the two years since we released 'Frozen
In Time', I would say that they've been a little challenging. His drinking
was getting way out of hand. It was affecting us all personally and
affecting our shows with his poor performance onstage. It wasn't fun
to be around him at times. It was bad. We would sit down and talk with
him and even beg with him to get his act together and the very next
day you would have a whole day where you simply couldn't get anything
done because he was unavailable. There was something going on. His drinking
got the best of him. In the end, he finally got himself one DUI (driving
under the influence) too many, and in front of a judge, who by all means
probably did the right thing by him, put him behind bars for a little
while. That's given him plenty of time to think about the next time
he gets behind the wheel of a car when he's been drinking. He could
kill somebody next time. As much as I certainly didn't want to see that
happen, I think it was all just coming to a head. I think this was the
best thing to happen to him. He'll sober up to a point where he can
finally think straight. I haven't really talked to him since they sent
him to prison. It's not so easy getting contact with him but I'm sure
we'll talk when he gets out early next year. He has a lot of decisions
to make but I can't even begin to speculate what going to happen in
the future with West. I don't know where his mind's going to be when
he gets out. I don't know if being on the road is the best thing for
him right now either. Whether you want to participate or not, every
night on the road is like Friday night. You can't avoid being around
that kind of atmosphere. It's one of those things. It's easy to get
caught up in it too, but at the same we just have to keep focussed on
what we do. The most important thing right now is putting good shows
on for the fans. It's an unfortunate situation West's in, and only in
time will we know what's going to happen with that."
With 'Xecutioner's Return' finally released, Obituary
plan to hit the road in support for as long as they can. But in amongst
their rapidly filling tour itinerary, Tardy hopes the band will be able
to slot in a bit more recording time, with the hope of releasing an
E.P. in time for European fans early next year.
"We have a lot of touring planned. We're currently
on a US tour and when that finishes, we'll have a small break because
we have been working non-stop between touring and the making of 'Xecutioner's
Return'. On our break, we're actually hoping to put together a small
EP or something like that. We could probably put together something
really quick right here at our studio. We might include the 'Executioner
Returns' song that was only included on the limited edition version
of the album. 'Executioner Returns' is just a bit of a play on words
with the title of the album. Our aim was to confuse everybody and I
think we've done a pretty good job of that! (Laughs) The only reason
why the digipak included 'Executioner Returns' was simply because our
US label Candlelight Records asked us for an extra song for the limited
edition version of the album. We literally jumped into the studio and
we put together that song really quickly. It's an awesome song and it
fits right alongside the rest of the album. After we had finished it,
we kind of wished that we had put that on the album too. So it'll be
released to everyone eventually. It's really just an insane song. Aside
from that song, we might write a new song. We don't actually have any
songs left over from the recording sessions because we only wrote eleven
songs for the album. I don't think there's a single song that we have
recorded that we haven't released. What we do have is a lot of ideas
left over. I think there are always plenty of ideas within this band.
We might even include a cover song on there too. We've been talking
about putting this together and having it released in time to coincide
with our European tour. We'll be playing through Europe in January to
February, so that's going to be quite extensive for us. Then when we
get back, we want to do some more shows here in the US. After that,
we would like to get back down to Japan, and hopefully return to Australia.
So we'll see what happens. All I am certain of at this stage is that
we'll be touring for a long time, which is a good thing."
I would like to personally thank John Tardy for his
generous time. I would also like to thank Darren Cherry at Stomp Records
Distribution for making the interview possible.
For more information on Obituary, check out - http://www.obituary.cc/
© Justin Donnelly - justindonnelly@ozemail.com.au
