Obituary - Xecutioner's Return (Candlelight Records) - Back
Obituary returned to the scene after several years of dormancy with 2005's "Frozen in Time," and recently released the follow up "Xecutioner's Return". "Xecutioner's Return" really not much different than anything Obituary have done before. They just did it right this time, something that they have not fully accomplished since 1994's "World Demise" album. Obituary’s simplistic, bludgeoning approach, once their greatest asset, had become a liability on both "Back From The Dead" and "Frozen in Time". The song writing was simply not as memorable as it had been on earlier works, because of this both of those albums came off as somewhat flat and boring.

This problem has been remedied, the songs on "Xecutioner's Return" are much more memorable and varied. The most obvious difference is Ralph Santolla replacing Allen West on lead guitar. Santolla is a more accomplished player and his leads really stand out, adding a whole different dimension to Obituary’s sound. Although the change in guitarists is the most obvious improvement, the songs themselves are far more memorable. Tempo changes play a big role here and "Xecutioner's Return" contains some of Obituary’s fastest moments. The album is still dominated by Obituary’s trademark thick, doom like riffs, but the tempo changes and expanded role of the lead guitar set the stage for the slower parts to be delivered with crushing efficiency. Hearing John’s Tardy’s unmistakable growl always brings a smile to my face. On "Xecutioner's Return," Tardy has somehow improved his enunciation with out changing the way he sounds. I really can’t figure this one out, Tardy sounds the same, but for some reason you can actually understand him now. Regardless, he is one of the most menacing sounding vocalists in death metal and his voice remains truly unique.

If you are looking for something innovative or technically challenging, you should look elsewhere. This is old school death metal, simple, to the point and crushing. "Xecutioner's Return" has a natural honest feel that is becoming more and more rare in modern death metal. This album sounds like death metal sounded in the early 90's and there are times when something old can be a breath of fresh air, this is one of those times. OBITUARY WILL SMASH YOUR STUPID FACE!

Rating: 84

Reviewed By: Garett F.
Second Review:
This is a "love it" or "hate it" type of release because the songs aren't very fast, the lyrics lack any source of depth to them and so forth. But to me, there isn't much here that isn't out of place in terms of capturing that old Obituary sound to it again. Like I mentioned, the rhythms are slow and there were no really fast drum beats into your ear though the songs still kick ass. Yes the mixing could've been a bit better in terms of it balancing out the guitars. Though overall, I really did like this. Again however the lyrics weren't especially interesting. John Tardy's vocals are as effective on this release as on pretty much all of their past releases. But whoever did the songwriting lyrically was simply lacking entirely. The reason is because most of the tracks were just too repetitive lyrically. The same things spewing forth on some tracks made the album less effective than if they chose to put some intelligence into them.

Guitar wise their speeds as I mentioned are slow but really dark and catchy. Definitely a plus! Most of the songwriting was effective. Yes they're getting older age wise however I think that their choice to keep their rhythms slower was because they wanted to focus more on having them sound really depressing. That's just what I think on this end. What stands out the most on this release to me are the lead guitars by Ralph Santolla and Trevor Peres. They were simply awesome! The leads were fast, innovative, filled with arpeggios, sweep picking, etc. To me, I was extremely impressed! It's amazing that they were able to accomplish this. Their talent definitely shows from that standpoint.

The music itself was no "Cause Of Death" but it did have a lot of strong points to it. The songs are not that fast really though they exhibited sort of a groove based death metal sound. Not stunning, but very noteworthy. I don't think that it's their strongest release but in conclusion a definitely killer post-reunion album. If you're a true Obituary fan, then my guess is that you'll like this. Some songs to check out are "Evil Ways", "Drop Dead" and "Bloodshot." "Evil Ways" is featured on their MySpace site that can be found here: http://www.myspace.com/obituary. The official Obituary web site can be found here: http://www.obituary.cc/.

In terms of the lineup, it doesn't feature all of the original members. However, I think that this release captured most of what they used to sound like. The guitar, vocals, and drums were all the components of the old Obituary. Featured here was John Tardy on vocals, Trevor Peres on guitars, Ralph Santolla on guitars, Frank Watkins on bass and Donald Tardy on drums. I thought that overall the production was done well. Everything seemed to catch my attention from this aspect. More details can be found here: http://metal-archives.com/release.php?id=158717.

Rating: 80

Reviewed By: Death8699