Cause of Death

---

---

Customer reviews

review by: shoe-post-IDM fan date: 2008-10-18 rating:
Top 5 still
I was a roadrunner/tampa/scott burns/earache/sweeden/entombed fan when the death metal/grind-core scene was at a peak in 1991. I became a shoegaze/electronica type fan around 1992, and have not been a metal fan since, but if I had to make a top 10 albums of all time chart, this album would be right up there, possibly in 3rd place. I honestly believe that this is one of the best pieces of music ever recorded. Nu-Skool Slip-Knot and Ukranian-suite-pea-Gay fans will never get this, but "cause of death", in my mind is better than "reign in blood". This album still gets me hyped like no other. If you are old enough to remember this album and don't aready have it, buy it. If you are into limp bizkit and slip-knot, Buy this album and reign in blood and learn what music is.

---

review by: date: 2007-10-13 rating:
A future classic
I love thrash because of the sound and the rhythm. This album glows with a warm, buzzing thrash guitar, and keeps a perfect groovy mid-paced step. The best-ever guitar solos joyously burst in, and the album explodes into double-base-drum heaven when you need it too, not to overwelm you, but to balance the whole machine.

The vocals are sublime - huge, skylike roars - but funny and articulate too.

It's a perfect, never-to-be-repeated, blend of the best thrash metal on one album.

---

review by: gorblimeyguvnor date: 2006-06-29 rating:
Turn you inside out with joy...
When you think death metal, you think growling. You think down tuned, yet precisily played guitars, just about audiable bass, and the ever present click and hum of kick/bass drums. Obituary's second album had all of this, and a good 10 years before the rebirth of death metal shoved all of the above into your face and said try this on for size.
Cause of Death made every magazine frenzied with anticipation. Phil Alexander himself says in the liner notes that he couldn't wait to hear the Obies second offering, as their first, Slowly we Rot, was an eye opener in the realms of extreme metal.
Between 1990 and 93 I don't really remember listening to much other than Entombed's Clandestine, Carcass' Necroticism, Morbid Angel's Covenant and Obies Cause of Death. I know I did, but the other stuff just kind of fades intothe back ground when I think back to my early teens.
It was right up there, for me, in the creme de la creme of death metal releases. And it still is.
Obituary never played "fast" metal, unlike Carcass or Sepultura, they spent their time scraping your ears with chugging mid paced riffs, that occasionally picked up the tempo, but still retained that essential heaviness. Opener 'Infected' starts with some weird sound effects, then lets you have it both barrels with John Tardy's legendary vocal assault. The man has the most barbaric voice the death metal world has ever heard. Its not the deepest, Like the Lord Worms, or Karl Sanders of this world, but it is the most angry, throaty, nasty thing to come out of a mans mouth without contracting Ebola first.
Every track on this album contain the classic Obituary sound of Tardy vocals, lazy galloping riffs, and Donald Tardy's mid-paced drumming with the awesome irregular pedal bashing he so well uses on all their albums.
James Murphy's solos are excellent, although a little repetitive, and show a man who was on top of his game, and so hugely popular that he had, or would be the lead man for other acts such as Death and Cancer.
Cause of Death can't be over looked. If its not in your collection, and you really want to be able to say you have all the "great" albums this genre has ever seen, this needs to be in there. Without this album, and some other shining examples from the same period, there would be no Nile, no Cryptopsy, none of the super technical, blasters, none of them. We would all still be sporting fringes and listening to Exodus and Anthrax. Or listening to all out grindcore circa 1988.
A great album in the true sense of the word. Buy it !!!

---

review by: date: 2006-02-13 rating:
The perfect 2nd album
Obituary’s debut album ‘Slowly We Rot’ was a fantastic record, but amazingly the band managed to top it with second album ‘Cause Of Death’, and in doing so created one of - if not actually THE - best death metal albums ever made. While it follows closely the template of the first album everything is slightly improved on this 2nd album: there’s a better production from Scott Burns, with what to this day is one of the thickest and heaviest down-tuned guitar tones ever recorded; superior guitar solos from new lead guitarist James Murphy; even more neck-snapping riffs; even the artwork is better! While it has bursts of speed ‘Cause of Death’ really succeeds in just being the sheer HEAVIEST death metal album ever recorded, with plenty of slow and groovy riffs peppering the album, while the way each track bleeds into the next helps give the album a real unified feel – even the cover version of ‘Circle Of the Tyrants’ doesn’t seem out of place.

Obituary would make some good records after this, but they would never again reach the pinnacles of this phenomenal album. A bona fide death metal classic.


review by: date: 2003-09-11 rating:
One of the top 5 death metal albums of all time
Along with Morbid Angel's classic 'Blessed Are The Sick', this rates as the best death metal albums to come out of the infamous Morrisound studios in Florida. Scott Burns' production values are all over this sick beast, from the sludgy guitar sound to the crisp drums, impeccable mix and unearthly vocals, this album sits as an out and out metal classic, not just a death metal one.

Obituary actually have very few ultra-fast riffs, most of them plod along at a reasonably pedestrian pace. What makes them so outstanding is the discordancy. Only Morbid Angel manage to make riffs that sound so unsettling. Obituary utilise tempo changes to full effect - the slow, sludgy riffs often lull you into a false sense of security before bouncing into a faster part. Also, the double bass drum is used to full effect, often heralding the arrival of a 'groovy' part of the song.

Yes, you heard right, Obituary have managed to inject an element of groove intoa death metal album. This is no mean feat when you consider that the raison d'etre of most death metal bands in the early nineties was apparently the complete elimination of all melody, structure and tempo.

The three opening cuts (no pun intended) here 'Infected', 'Bodybag' and the equally charmingly monickered 'Chopped In Half' are probably the best on show. Both contain oodles of menace, with the solos of death metal supremo James Murphy in particular standing out. Murphy was in a whole host of bands in the early to mid-nineties, and his studied, harmonic approach to soloing made almost all the albums he played on stand out from the crowd.

Roadrunner re-released this in 2000, and the benefits of a remaster are plain to see - its much louder and beefier sounding. Amazingly, the remaster makes John Tardy's vocals sound even more insane. I'm not sure what effects were used on them, but I bet he had a permanent sore throat whilst recording!

Up there with the best death metal records ever, make sure you hear this if you haven't already.

---

Similar products

Slowly We Rot
The End Complete: Remastered
Altars of Madness: Remastered
World Demise: Remastered
Leprosy

---

Similar categories

Music . Styles . Pop . General AAS
Music . Styles . Rock . General AAS
Music . Styles . Hard Rock & Metal . Bestsellers
Music . Styles . Hard Rock & Metal . Death Metal
Music . Styles . Hard Rock & Metal . Heavy Metal
Music . Styles . Hard Rock & Metal . General AAS
Music . Refinements . Format (binding_browse-bin) . CD . CD Album

---